TRACEY’S PRACTICAL EMPLOYMENT TIP
OF THE MONTH*

APRIL 2007: A GOLDEN RULE FOR SALESPEOPLE

It goes without saying that a salesperson’s most valuable asset is his/her list of contacts and connections. For some, it is an asset built and cultivated over years of networking and cold calling and what separates them from the pack when they interview for new jobs. Yet, my clients in sales have repeatedly put this asset at risk by not keeping a back-up of their contact list at home either in hard copy or on a computer. This scenario is not partial to experience or industry, is usually is brought to my attention at the end of the initial consultation, and goes something like this:

Tracey: Are there any other issues we have not discussed?

Client: Yes. I was fired on Friday. I had no idea it was coming. I was escorted out of the office before I could collect my personal belongings or retrieve my contact database from outlook which took me years to develop.

Tracey: Did you have a back-up of your contact list at home?

Client: Umm. No. Won’t the company give me a copy? It’s mine.

The short answer is probably not. First, your employer is unlikely to be convinced the contacts in its computer belong to you and are not its very own proprietary information that you developed for it as part of your job. (A discussion of whether any information that you develop while working for an employer can be used by you after you leave the company will be addressed in a Future Monthly Tip.) Without a back-up copy showing what your contacts were before you came to work there you would have no ability to establish any proprietary rights in the information. Second, even if your former employer knew the list was created before you joined the company, why would it return such a valuable asset that it can pass on to your replacement. Your former employer knows you are not going to sue them just to get this list back. Particularly without proof it is yours.

This scenario also gives your employer an unnecessary amount of added leverage if you have to request a copy of your contact list as part of any post- employment negotiation regarding severance and payment of commissions. In other words, you may have to buy back what rightfully belongs to you in the first place; and at a premium.

That is why you must be proactive in guarding that list as jealously as your employer would guard its own proprietary information. While I have successfully negotiated the return of such information as part of an overall separation package it would have been preferable if my clients had simply maintained an updated copy of their contact list containing information developed by them at home at all times. Indeed, it may be even wiser, although potentially impractical, to refrain from downloading your contact list into your office computer or company cell phone or even keeping a hard copy of it at the office. That is a decision only you can make understanding that if you chose to leave the information at the office you may not have time to retrieve it before you are asked to leave the premises.

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* Disclaimer: The contents of this page are for informational purposes only and nothing herein is intended to constitute legal advice nor should anything contained herein be taken or relied on as such. Each individual executive and employee has a unique set of facts and circumstances that the general discussion set forth above may be wholly inapplicable to. Only through consultation with a lawyer from our firm in which all of the facts and circumstances of an individual’s unique situation are explored and considered can a true legal assessment of your rights and remedies be ascertained. Any use of this information is taken solely at your own risk.