Jennifer Solsten is no stranger to the PERS industry.
The Seattle-based sales leader has been in the field for the last 27 years – from security, mPERS, and monitoring – she’s done it all.
Brighton Solutions, the wholesale mPERS provider that's a part of Affiliated Monitoring, was on the hunt for a salesperson with the right expertise and background, and confidence to bring Brighton’s best-in-class devices, like the Brighton Sky LTE, to new partners across the market. An opportunity that Jennifer Solsten was ready to take on.
Solsten began her career in the Pacific Northwest at Nordstrom, where even in her early 20s she was managing multiple accounts to seven-figure sales. Recognizing her talent, pharmaceutical sales came calling looking to capitalize on Solsten’s confident and approachable sales techniques that set her apart.
In 2015 she joined the Numera team at Nortek Security & Control and focused on selling their line of PERS devices.
While growing through the ranks at Nortek, Solsten weathered four acquisitions and was ready to move on.
“I love to grow. I like to not be stale,” said Solsten. “But things happen, and full circle, here I am right back in this space that I’m very passionate about.”
Prioritizing relationships has always been Solsten’s superpower, and it was one of those relationships that brought her back into the PERS fold. John Carpenter, Solsten’s mentor, and former manager at Nortek, was the one to tip her off to the opportunity at Brighton.
“It’s a large space with a small group,” Solsten said of the PERS industry. “So I’ve always said, make sure you keep everyone as a respected colleague because it’s a small world. I’ve really prided myself on those really strong relationships.”
While initially unsure if the Brighton role was right for her, Solsten’s apprehension was quickly assuaged when she was introduced to the Brighton and Affiliated team.
“As I got to meet the leadership and see the culture of Affiliated, I was wowed,” said Solsten. “I have been on the monitoring side, the distribution side, the mPERS side, and I’ve seen it all and experienced it all. So it’s exciting for me to be with such a strong, high integrity company that I can back and they back me.”
Solsten also appreciates the multi-generational legacy of Affiliated and knows it’s a selling point when she mentions it to potential partners.
“I knew of Affiliated coming from my time at Nortek, but I was really just surprised by the growth they’ve experienced in 10 years. It just shows overall excellence and vision between a father and son, a second-generation team. That’s something huge to be able to offer partners, that vision.”
Along with Affiliated’s leadership and the strength of the team, Solsten was impressed with the company’s commitment to technology and the tools available at her fingertips to help give partners a superior customer service experience – something she hadn’t come across before in her career.
“I knew coming from this space the challenges that I had experienced as a national sales executive before,” said Solsten. “I knew the challenges dealers faced in the mPERS space, and Affiliated had all the solutions for me. They’d already captured and brought it to a level that I have not yet seen, from onboarding, to the dashboard, to the Brighton device itself. I love that I can bring partners the device and a solution immediately along with our top-level monitoring and strength of the brand name. It makes my job so much easier.”
Comfortably settling into her role in executive sales for Brighton, Solsten is looking forward to connecting with new partners and reconnecting to colleagues across the industry, “I already know the questions to ask because I know the challenges of the mPERS space. Now my task is to go get some really great partners.”
Looking at the challenges facing the PERS industry in the next year, specifically the 3G sunset, Solsten was relieved to find Brighton and Affiliated already had a strong and steady foothold into the transition.
“It’s been something we’ve all been concerned about for years,” said Solsten. “I’m thrilled that with Brighton and having LTE, we’ve safeguarded ourselves for years to come. We’ve guarded ourselves against having that crisis that I was facing four years ago in my old role where I would ask questions about how we were going to handle outdated devices and the transition. That’s where I appreciate that Affiliated’s got such a strong team to support that business as we do transfer over.”
Solsten shares the overall positive outlook PERS industry insiders have on the strength and opportunities in front of the PERS market and is eager to help expand PERS usage above and beyond what it’s traditionally been used for.
“I see mPERS not being as pigeonholed as it was before. I think we can get really creative in what we use it for – the Brighton Sky has advanced Bluetooth capability which has allows for pairing wearable help buttons and using the device as a telehealth hub. This opens a world of opportunities for PERS dealers including lone workers, senior facilities, and campus security,” said Solsten.
“Affiliated/Brighton has really set ourselves apart from the competition with our state-of-the-art technology and an entire team that’s very focused on your needs as a dealer,” said Solsten. “I’m confident that in five years we’re going to look back and marvel at how far we’ve come in mPERS. mPERS is going to be the wave of the future.”
But with all the bells and whistles of technology and a devoted team of industry experts supporting each and every PERS dealer, Solsten always reminds herself of her mission.
“The reality is there’s a life at the end of a Brighton device.” And it’s Brighton's commitment to that life that grounds Solsten and allows her to appreciate where her career has taken her.
“That’s how I knew I made the right decision. Now that I’ve been with the company and gone through their training and onboarding, I have no doubts. This is where I’m going to stay and grow,” said Solsten.
