A-1 Locksmith
Building a Scalable Sales Engine
“If you’re looking for somebody who’s going to really dig in and be a part of your business… I’d go with Sales Manager Now.”
Michael SchneiderCEO, A-1 Locksmith
Company Overview
A-1 Locksmith is a third-generation, family-owned locksmith and security company serving North Texas for more than 75 years. With ten retail locations across the Dallas–Fort Worth area, A-1 provides trusted locksmith, safe, and proactive security solutions for both homes and businesses.
The Challenge
For decades, A-1 thrived on a reactive business model—responding instantly when customers needed a lockout rescue or new keys. When the company entered the world of proactive B2B security in 2006, launching new CCTV and access-control services for business clients, that model started to show its limits.
There was no true sales department; the business was built on responsiveness, not outbound selling or pipeline management. Budget constraints made a full-time, in-house sales leader unrealistic.
“Our company was a family-run business and we never really had a sales department. We also didn’t have the budget for one,” recalls CEO Michael Schneider.
Michael Schneider
CEO, A-1 Locksmith
To grow the new security division, A-1 needed experienced sales leadership, a defined process, and a way to build a proactive sales engine without losing its service-driven roots.
The Approach
A-1 decided to try something different for the time: hiring Sales Manager Now as a part-time, remote sales manager.
“We found Rene well before Zoom was even a thing,” Michael says. “We wanted to build and develop our sales program. That’s where it all started.”
Sales Manager Now became A-1’s first sales manager, introducing structure and accountability into what had been a purely reactive business. Key actions included:
Developing a dedicated sales program for CCTV and access control, distinct from emergency locksmith services.
Training and mentoring team members—including future CEO Michael Schneider—in pipeline management, outbound selling, and follow-through.
Establishing a sales cadence with regular meetings, performance tracking, and management check-ins.
Aligning the CRM with a documented sales process so progress could be tracked and forecasted reliably.
Providing hands-on business management mentorship and sharing best practices gathered from companies nationwide.
The goal wasn’t to replace A-1’s service mindset, but to build a scalable sales system on top of it.
The Impact
Over time, A-1 Locksmith transformed from a reactive, transaction-driven operation into a company with a functioning B2B sales engine for commercial security:
A proactive sales program for CCTV and access control was built and scaled alongside the traditional locksmith business.
The company developed a new generation of leaders: Michael Schneider moved from salesperson to sales manager and ultimately to CEO.
A-1 successfully integrated outsourced, fractional leadership into a hands-on family company—well before remote part-time leadership became common practice.
The team benefited from a steady flow of best practices (and lessons learned) from other businesses, accelerating A-1’s own growth curve.
A-1 gained the structure, leadership, and confidence to grow a new division—and proved that even a third-generation, family-run trades business can build a scalable, proactive sales engine without bringing on a full-time sales executive.