How to Increase RMR: A Security Dealer's Playbook for Recurring Monthly Revenue

Recurring Monthly Revenue — RMR — is the single most important number in the security business. It's the monthly monitoring and service revenue that renews on its own, and it's what a buyer pays a multiple of when you sell. Grow RMR and you grow both your monthly cash flow and your company's enterprise value at the same time. This is the practical playbook for increasing it.

Why RMR runs the whole business

A security company is valued on its RMR, not its one-time install revenue. Buyers pay an "RMR multiple" — historically anywhere from the low 20s to the high 30s (and higher for clean, low-attrition books) — times your monthly recurring revenue. So $50,000 in monthly RMR at a 30x multiple is roughly a $1.5M enterprise value. Every dollar you add to RMR is worth roughly 25–40 dollars at exit. That's why chasing installs alone is a trap: the recurring line is where the wealth is built.

The four levers that move RMR

There are only four ways to increase RMR, and every real growth plan is some combination of them.

1. Add net-new accounts. The obvious lever — more monitored customers. What matters is the cost to add them. Buying accounts through a dealer program is fast but expensive and dilutive; generating your own through local search, referrals, and reviews is slower but builds far cheaper, stickier RMR. Most dealers underinvest in the second and overpay for the first.

2. Raise ARPU (average revenue per user). You don't always need more customers — you need more revenue per customer. Interactive services (video, automation, smart-home control), cellular upgrades, and annual price escalators built into the contract all lift ARPU. A $5/month increase across 1,000 accounts is $5,000 in new RMR and $150,000+ in enterprise value at a 30x multiple, with zero acquisition cost.

3. Cut attrition. Attrition is RMR flowing out the bottom. If you're losing 12% of your book a year, you have to add 12% just to stand still. Cutting attrition from 12% to 8% on a $50,000/month book keeps roughly $2,000/month in RMR you were about to lose — the cheapest RMR you'll ever "add." Proactive save calls, contract renewals, and simply answering the phone when a customer calls to cancel are where this is won.

4. Upsell and cross-sell the base you already have. Your existing customers already trust you. Adding video verification, a second-system referral, fire/life-safety monitoring, or a service plan to accounts you already monitor is the highest-margin RMR there is.

Where dealers leave RMR on the table

The most common leak isn't strategy — it's operations. Missed calls go to voicemail and never call back. After-hours leads (a homeowner whose alarm just went off at 2am is a buyer) hit a dead line. Cancel requests aren't met with a save offer. Reviews never get asked for, so local search dries up and new-account cost climbs.

This is exactly where an AI voice agent earns its keep for a dealer: it answers every call 24/7, qualifies the lead, books the appointment, and can trigger a save workflow on a cancel — so the RMR you already paid to acquire doesn't walk out the door while you're on a truck. Getting recommended by Google and ChatGPT does the same thing on the front end, lowering the cost of every net-new account.

A simple 90-day RMR plan

• Weeks 1–2: measure your real attrition rate and ARPU. You can't improve what you don't track.
• Weeks 3–6: stop the leaks — never miss a call, add a save offer to every cancel, ask every satisfied customer for a review.
• Weeks 6–10: add one ARPU lever (an interactive-services upsell or a contractual price escalator).
• Weeks 10–13: turn on a cheaper net-new channel — local SEO and AI search visibility — so you stop overpaying for accounts.

Pull all four levers and RMR compounds: more accounts, worth more each, staying longer. That's how a dealer builds a book worth selling.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good RMR multiple when selling a security company?

Multiples vary with the quality of the book, but they have historically ranged from the low-20s to high-30s times monthly RMR. Clean books — low attrition, strong contracts, interactive services, few problem accounts — command the top of that range. A book with high attrition or weak paperwork sells at a discount, which is why cutting attrition raises both your RMR and your multiple.

How do I increase RMR without buying more accounts?

Raise ARPU and cut attrition. A small monthly price increase or an interactive-services upsell across your existing base adds RMR with no acquisition cost, and reducing attrition keeps the RMR you already have. Both improve enterprise value immediately, and neither requires a single new customer.

What's the difference between RMR and revenue?

Revenue includes one-time income like installation charges and equipment sales. RMR is only the recurring monthly monitoring and service revenue that renews automatically. Buyers value a security company primarily on RMR because it's predictable and durable, which is why growing the recurring line matters far more to your company's worth than a big install month.

How does missing calls hurt RMR?

Every missed call is a potential new account that goes to a competitor, or an existing customer whose problem goes unresolved and who then cancels. Because RMR compounds over years, a single lost account is worth many times its monthly fee. Answering every call — including after hours, which an AI voice agent can do 24/7 — protects both new-account growth and retention.