118 Alarms in a Week: Josh Sutherland’s Sales Playbook
Josh Sutherland, CEO of Titanium Smart Home, sold and installed 118 alarm systems in a single week. His playbook combines pre-week territory prep, a tight door pitch, and a same-day install handoff that keeps the funnel from clogging. Here is exactly how he did it and what you can steal.
Watch / listen to the full episode
Podcast
Your browser does not support audio playback. Listen on Amazon Music.
Who is Josh Sutherland
Josh Sutherland is the CEO of Titanium Smart Home, an alarm and smart-home dealer in the door-to-door space. Before he ran the company, he was the rep at the top of the leaderboard. The 118-system week is the one people still talk about.
The reason that week matters is not the brag. It is what it proved about systems. You cannot sell 118 alarms in seven days on charisma. You can sell 15. Maybe 20. Past that, you need a machine.
How Josh sold 118 alarm systems in 7 days
Josh’s 118-system week broke down roughly like this:
- Pre-week prep: 2 days of territory mapping, install crew confirmation, paperwork pre-staging.
- Door days: 7 days of pitching, average 17 sales per day at peak.
- Install handoff: every signed contract was on a tech’s calendar within 2 hours.
- Recovery and review: nightly debrief with the team to fix the bottleneck.
The math only works if every link in the chain holds. If the install team falls behind, cancellations spike and the week craters. If the paperwork is not pre-staged, the rep loses 15 minutes per close. If the territory is not pre-walked, the rep wastes hours on bad doors.
“I did not sell 118 alarms. The system sold 118 alarms. I was the trigger.” Josh Sutherland
The pre-week prep that made it possible
Most reps wake up Monday and start knocking. Josh starts the previous Wednesday.
His pre-week checklist:
- Territory map. Pull permit data and old install lists. Identify the streets with high alarm activation rates.
- Install crew confirmation. Lock the techs into a written schedule with capacity for 18 to 20 installs per day.
- Paperwork pre-stage. Contracts, monitoring agreements, and tablet apps loaded and tested.
- Recruiting cushion. Have 2 backup reps on call if you blow past your own capacity.
- Mental prep. Block the calendar. No meetings, no lunches, no errands. The week is sacred.
Skip any one of these and the volume ceiling drops by 30 to 40 percent.
The pitch Josh used at the door
Josh’s pitch is shorter than most reps would believe. He is not running a 20-minute warm-up. The pitch is roughly 60 to 90 seconds at the door, with the close happening inside the first 5 minutes if the homeowner engages.
The structure:
- Identify (he names the alarm activity in the neighborhood).
- Authority (he names the company, names the install partner).
- Offer (free equipment, paid monitoring, install today or tomorrow).
- Close (paperwork on the porch or at the kitchen table).
Why short? Because at 17 sales a day, every minute over what you need is a minute you do not have. The pitch is calibrated for volume, not for relationship. That tradeoff is intentional.
How Josh and his team handled installs at scale
The install side is where most volume weeks fall apart. A rep can sell 30 in a day. The install crew can install 12. The other 18 cancel.
Josh’s fix: he treated installs as a sales handoff, not a separate process. Every signed contract triggered a real-time SMS to the install dispatcher. The dispatcher slotted the install on the next available tech truck within a 2-hour window. The homeowner got a confirmation text before the rep left the porch.
Cancellation rate dropped from 22 percent to under 6 percent during the 118-week.
The mindset behind a 118-deal week
A volume week is not a normal week. Josh slept five hours a night. He ate on the move. He pitched until 9 p.m. Most weeks of his year do not look like this.
His framing: a volume week is a sprint, not a baseline. You build to it for 6 weeks, you execute for 1, you recover for 2. If you try to live at sprint pace year-round, you burn out and cancel half your installs.
“A volume week is theater. The point is to prove what is possible. Then you go back to building the steady business that pays for the rest of the year.” Josh
What you can steal from Josh’s playbook this week
You are probably not going to sell 118 alarms next week. That is not the point. Steal these pieces:
- Pre-week prep is the multiplier. Spend Wednesday and Thursday setting up the next week.
- A short pitch beats a long pitch when your funnel is full. Long pitches are for low-volume markets.
- Same-day install handoff is the single biggest cancellation killer.
- Sprint weeks need recovery weeks. Plan both.
A checklist for a high-volume alarm sales week
- I have my territory mapped 3 days before I knock.
- My install crew has written capacity for double my expected volume.
- My paperwork is pre-loaded on tablets and tested.
- I have a 60 to 90 second door pitch I can deliver in my sleep.
- I have a real-time install handoff system (SMS or app).
- I have backup reps on call if I exceed my capacity.
- I have a recovery plan for the week after.
- I have a debrief scheduled every night to fix bottlenecks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Josh Sutherland?
CEO of Titanium Smart Home and a record-setting D2D alarm sales rep who sold 118 alarm systems in a single week.
How many alarm systems can a top D2D rep sell in a week?
Top-tier reps average 8 to 15 systems a week. The 118-system week is the upper bound and required a coordinated install team behind Josh.
What is the playbook for a high-volume alarm sales week?
Pre-week prep on territory and install crew. Short, calibrated pitch at the door. Real-time install handoff. Nightly debrief.
How do you handle install crew bottlenecks during high-volume weeks?
Treat the install team as part of the sales funnel. Real-time SMS dispatch, written capacity for double your expected volume, and same-day install scheduling.
Should every alarm rep try a 118-deal week?
No. Sprint weeks are theater for proving what is possible. The baseline business is what pays the bills.
Want to learn alarm sales from the top reps?
Josh’s playbook is one of the systems we teach inside the D2D Alarms Bootcamp. If you want to drill the pitch, the install handoff, and the volume math, that is exactly what we built it for.