In the private security sector, the average net margin fell to 1.6% in 2023. In a market like this, every new contract signed at market rates drives down profitability. Élite Sécurité, a Reims-based security firm with 300 agents, has long outperformed the average for one simple reason: it delivers quality. But its brand message contradicted what it actually did. This article shows how a strategic repositioning—not just a superficial rebranding—enables growth without eroding margins. If you run an industrial SME or a BITD company caught in a bind between the quality it delivers and the prices imposed on it, the same principles apply to you.
One Tuesday morning, at a regulated industrial site in the Grand Est region. The procurement department received three bids to renew its security contract. All three promise “experienced, responsive, and reliable” security guards. They all follow the same format: an hourly rate, a number of hours, and a total amount. The buyer does what anyone in his position would do: he compares the bottom line.
No one around the table is asking the one question that matters: On the day of the incident, which of these service providers will be able to prove what was done?
This scenario plays out thousands of times a year in France. It alone explains why a sector worth several billion euros remains one of the least profitable in the economy. It also explains how an SME can break free from this cycle.
1.6%: The Economy of an Industry That Charges by the Hour
What the IGA-CGefi Report Says
A report by the IGA and the General Economic and Financial Inspectorate, published on July 23, 2026, lists eight recommendations to address “the economic fragility” of the security and guarding sector. Its assessment is unequivocal: net margins of around 2 percent, an average cash flow cycle of 30 days, and a highly fragmented market—the economic fragility is very real.
The report provides a specific figure: according to the Association of Security Companies (GES), the average net margin fell to 1.6% in 2023, whereas it had barely reached 3% in the best years. The inspectors identify the cause: a market where clients most often prioritize price over quality of service. They also note that security services are still too often viewed as a “necessary expense.”
The report draws a conclusion that should concern every executive: this low profitability prevents companies from investing. As a result, they do not improve the quality of their services and remain trapped in a model driven by low prices.
The vicious cycle is complete: low prices, zero profit margins, no investment, declining quality—and thus even fewer selling points to compete with low prices.
The Mathematical Trap of "Cut-Price" Growth
Do the math. On a €100,000 contract, a net margin of 1.6% leaves you with €1,600. Offer a 2% discount to win the contract, and—assuming costs remain constant—you’ll lose €400. In this industry, winning a contract by lowering your price often amounts to buying revenue at a loss.
Elite Sécurité has historically bucked this trend. This is no coincidence: the company trains its agents, never outsources, and provides long-term support to its teams. But this model comes at a cost. It is sustainable only if clients are willing to pay for the value it delivers. The entire issue of growth therefore boils down to a single question: how can the company secure more contracts without signing more contracts at 1.6%?
This dilemma goes far beyond private security. We documented it in our analysis of the cost of strategic ambiguity for an SME: when a company cannot clearly articulate what sets it apart, it’s the company’s profit margin that pays the price.
The Elite Paradox: Excellent on the Field, Interchangeable in Speech
The problem wasn't competence
When Autour de l’Image launched the initiative, the initial assessment could be summed up in a single sentence: the problem isn’t competence—it’s perception.
Élite's operational reality was that of a top-tier operator:
- sensitive and classified industrial sites;
- an international agri-food client with whom we have had a contract since 2011;
- an integrated training center;
- No subcontracting.
Its slogan read, “Safety & Protection of People and Property.” It listed the adjectives commonly used throughout the industry: experienced, responsive, reliable, and dynamic.
The result: a buyer who was unfamiliar with Élite classified it as a general security service, and therefore placed it on the pricing scale for general security services. The company delivered high-quality service, but its marketing positioned it as a price-competitive option.
A catch-up in perception, not a transformation
This is the most important point for a leader. Elite didn’t need to change its business model, acquire a competitor, or launch a new product. The work involved identifying, structuring, and demonstrating the excellence that was already there.
In practical terms, it began with a governance decision: choosing the words we would no longer use. “Security,” “responsive,” “reliable,” and “tailored optimal solutions” were removed from our vocabulary. They were replaced by a set of management terms: safety, control, system, traceability, and continuity.
This isn’t just a stylistic exercise. A word that’s been abandoned is no longer used on the website, in brochures, in responses to requests for proposals, or by salespeople. The glossary is a governance tool, not a communication tool.
This has led to a new positioning: “security provider for high-stakes sites, ” with a tagline that sums up the promise: Security under control, from start to finish.
Choose customers who are willing to pay for quality
Target the party bearing the risk
Profitable new business isn’t found by broadening your prospecting scope. It’s found by targeting the right audience. Elite’s primary target has become the site manager, production manager, or HSE manager at a site classified as an ICPE or Seveso facility. This is no coincidence: these are decision-makers who are personally exposed to criminal, regulatory, and reputational risks.
Élite’s industry page puts it bluntly: “On a classified site, you are responsible for security.” It specifies that in the event of an accident or intrusion, the operator must demonstrate that it has implemented appropriate preventive measures. And a system that isn’t tracked cannot be proven.
This choice of target is in line with regulatory developments. The IGA-CGefi report notes that there are currently no specific provisions regarding private security that apply to the client. It raises questions about minimum requirements, particularly for assignments involving public safety, such as sensitive sites. Recommendation No. 4 proposes establishing administrative and criminal liability for clients who hire an unauthorized company.
A client who bears the risk does not think the same way as one who buys hours.
That's the whole difference:
A customer who purchases hours The customer who buys expertise Purchase Inquiry How much does it cost per hour? What happens if the device doesn't hold? Contact Person Purchasing Department Site Manager, HSE, Industrial Management Decisive criterion Total Price Evidence, Continuity, Accountability Duration of the relationship Frequent reopening of competitive bidding Multi-year contracts (Elite has a 15-year industrial contract) Impact on Margin Constant pressure Recognized value, competitive price
Setting priorities means being willing to give things up
Positioning Élite at high-stakes sites did not mean abandoning events, trade shows, or institutional work, which remain strong areas of business. It meant establishing a hierarchy: with industry and sensitive sites at the forefront of our messaging, and the other segments providing support.
A brand that tries to speak to everyone on the same level ends up convincing no one. Clearly defining a priority segment also serves as an implicit way to filter prospects: those looking for the lowest price will go elsewhere, and that is precisely the goal.
Turning the Cost of Quality into a Selling Point
"You're not paying for hours. You're managing a system."
That is the title of the “The Elite System” page, and it is at the heart of the repositioning. Elite’s entire operating methodology has been formalized into four commitments:
- Agents trained by us. A Qualiopi-accredited and certified training center, 15 new qualified agents each year, and a management team with up to 17 years of experience at the company.
- No subcontracting, ever. This is a contractual commitment: every employee on site is an Elite employee.
- Enforceable traceability. Time-stamped digital log, clocked-in patrols, photographed incident reports, and geolocation-based protection for lone workers.
- Contract-based management. A single point of contact, a weekly visit by the supervisor, unannounced nighttime inspections, and a monthly evaluation of staff members.
Behind these commitments lies a foundation of integrated tools that make the method verifiable: a scheduling tool that detects instances where staff have not reported for duty, a digital log, a quality control tool, and a reporting platform accessible to the client . The tools are not the selling point—they are proof that the selling point is true.
Turn every expense incurred into evidence
This is the key factor affecting the margin. Every expensive choice made by Elite becomes a point that the buyer can verify:
- In-house training addresses employee turnover. Low appeal is a chronic challenge in the sector: the IGA-CGefi report estimates the recruitment shortfall at approximately 24,000 FTEs. On the Elite homepage, the message reads: “Our agents stay. That’s why they know your site.”
- The “zero subcontracting” policy addresses the issue of diluted accountability. The CNAPS itself, cited in the report, believes that the current system does not truly prevent the dilution of responsibilities or pricing below cost. The inspectors recommend limiting subcontracting to a single tier in human surveillance and security guard services (recommendation No. 7). Élite has already chosen to implement what the regulations are beginning to consider.
- Financial stability is becoming a key purchasing criterion. A G1 rating from the Banque de France—the highest in the FIBEN rating system—and third-party liability insurance of €10 million. In a multi-year contract, the service provider’s financial health is an integral part of the client’s risk management. In an industry plagued by numerous bankruptcies, this is an advantage that the lowest bidders cannot match.
The rule we follow: proof before adjectives. We don’t say “reliable”—we show a 15-year contract. We don’t say “responsive”—we show 24/7 on-call support and automatic absence detection.
Technology That Serves People
Elite incorporates autonomous perimeter detection and has mastered surveillance robotics technologies. It would have been easy to make that the central selling point. The brand chose the opposite approach: “Technology sees further. People decide.”
This is a strategic choice. A proposal built around technology is evaluated based on technical specifications, and then on price. A proposal built around risk management is evaluated based on trust. We explore this pitfall in our analysis of the “techno-push” versus strategic value: technology is a means of proof, rarely a reason to buy.
The assessment replaces the estimate: the gateway to profitable new business
"A quote puts a price on a request. An assessment verifies that it's the right one."
This is the most fundamental decision in the sales funnel. On the new site, the main call to action is no longer “Request a Quote” but a online security assessment : free, no-obligation, and takes about five minutes.
The tour adapts to the visitor's context:
- industrial or logistics site;
- event or trade show;
- a facility open to the public;
- retail;
- patrols.
The visitor receives an immediate initial assessment of their exposure. Then a supervisor—not a sales representative—visits the site. Within 48 hours, the supervisor provides a written, detailed assessment with cost-based recommendations.
Why Diagnostics Protect Profit Margins
This change may seem minor. Yet it alters the entire dynamics of the sale:
The Estimate The Diagnosis The prospect arrives with a need that has already been assessed The need is assessed before it is quantified The comparison focuses on price The conversation focuses on risk exposure The contact person is a sales representative The contact person is an operations supervisor The service provider must comply with the specifications The service provider demonstrates its expertise before signing the contract Price comes first The price comes after proof of value
The diagnostic questions are designed to reveal what the buyer fails to consider: the ability to provide evidence of what has been done on-site. A manager who discovers that he would be unable to produce a time-stamped record of his patrols from the past month no longer thinks in terms of hourly rates.
This decision also addresses a shortcoming highlighted by the IGA-CGefi report: in the absence of shared benchmarks, the buyer has no objective basis for evaluating the quality of services. The assessment provides the buyer with the evaluation framework that the market does not provide. And this framework naturally highlights what Élite does best.
This shift reflects a more profound change in B2B buyer behavior, which we analyze in our article on B2B buyer autonomy: your website is no longer just a platform for presenting your offerings; it’s now used to qualify prospects and encourage them to think things through even before the first interaction.
Removing Barriers to Changing Service Providers
The real competitor is the status quo
A site manager who is dissatisfied with their service provider rarely switches to a new one. They dread the transition: staff to replace, instructions to pass on, and a period of uncertainty. To win new business, you have to make the change seem less risky than doing nothing.
Elite has therefore systematized the transition and publicly posted the details on its “Industry and Sensitive Sites” page: a six-step process, from D-45 to D+7.
- 45 days to go: site assessment.
- 38 days to go: device design.
- 30 days to go: Reinstatement of current employees, in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement.
- 14 days to go: up to 35 hours of on-call duty per employee.
- D-Day: First Day on the Job.
- Day 7: Stabilization and transition to contract-based management.
Staff retention is a powerful selling point: the buyer keeps the agents who are familiar with their site and gains access to management support, training, and Élite’s traceability system.
Own up to the price rather than make excuses for it
A high-quality service provider will, for the same apparent scope of work, be more expensive than the lowest bidder. The worst response is to deny this or to offer a discount. The right response reframes the question to consider what it would cost to have a position unfilled or evidence missing on the day of an audit.
This message cannot be improvised. It requires that the CEO, supervisors, and salespeople all use the same language, follow the same logic, and share the same goal for each meeting. Conveying this mindset beyond the founder is a project in its own right, which we describe in our analysis on passing on the CEO’s business intuition.
What the Elite Case Teaches SMEs in the BITD
The same mechanics, different sectors
Replace “security guard” with “integrator,” “second-tier subcontractor,” or “traceability solutions provider.” The process remains the same:
- genuine quality, but described in the same terms as the competitors;
- clients in a position of strength, who compare prices first;
- growth that comes at the expense of profit margins.
The IGA-CGefi report also describes the balance of power between clients and service providers as highly skewed to the detriment of the latter. Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the defense industrial and technological base experience this on a daily basis when dealing with large prime contractors.
Élite’s approach can be applied more broadly: shift from selling volume (hours, units, licenses) to selling proven capability. We explore this concept further in our analysis of defense marketing and the sale of operational capability .
There’s one point worth highlighting for tech companies. The core of Elite’s sales pitch is enforceable traceability: knowing who was where and when, and being able to prove it. If your business happens to be providing traceability for your clients, you have a selling point that’s far more valuable than your equipment’s technical specifications. However, you need to frame it in terms of managed risk for the client, rather than in terms of technology.
Five Questions to Test Your Own Positioning
- Could your three main competitors sign your homepage? If so, you’re being compared on price.
- What words have you decided to stop using? A brand without a list of words to avoid has no positioning.
- Is every cost you incur in the name of quality transformed into evidence that the customer can verify?
- Does your website make prospects think about their own risk, or does it simply showcase your product catalog?
- What does your sales rep do when someone tells him, “You’re more expensive”? If he offers a discount, your margin depends on his mood.
Conclusion: Margin is a governance decision
Elite Sécurité did not improve its profitability by cutting costs: in an industry where wages account for the bulk of expenses, that approach is a dead end. The company safeguarded its ability to grow profitably by aligning its brand with its reality. This involved several decisions:
- select the clients who bear the risk;
- abandon the "convenience" vocabulary;
- turn every quality cost into evidence;
- replace the estimate with the assessment;
- make the transition safer than the status quo.
None of these steps began with a logo or a website. They all began with a strategic decision: what to say, to whom, in what words, and what to leave out. The website, the assessment, and the pitch are merely the implementation of that decision.
That is precisely the purpose of the Governance Framework, the first pillar of Autour de l’Image’s Strategic Compass method. We measure the gap between what your company does and how your market perceives it, then use that to develop a positioning strategy, a glossary, and supporting evidence that inform all your touchpoints, right through to the negotiation stage.
If your company delivers more than your brand suggests—and your profit margin is suffering as a result— learn about The Governance Foundation.
