Need Help Store owner taking back account

[vinylvillain]

Long story short, I'm the only outside sales guy in a small franchise shop that does about ~700k /year, I account for about 400k of the store sales and manage several accounts. My store owner/franchisee is talking about taking away one of my accounts that bogs me down substantially so that I can grow the company, however, I really need the commission from that account... I'm willing to part with a PERCENTAGE to have HELP with the account, but I can't give it all up, it would financially crush me. If the owner respects and values me, he would find a way to help me with this account, not just pull it me from it when I've actually done a decent job at growing it. Before I took over 18 months ago, we had 4 properties, we now service 6 in a 50 mile radius plus a few outside of our state. One of their former employees at this company, now also works with me at his new company that is bigger and better. I'm doing GREAT at servicing and growing this account.

What I'm basically looking for or asking for, is some advice on how I should handle this? We have another inside rep who can HELP me with this account, so I can take some of my focus off that account, and i would be willing to part with up to 3% of the sales total every month. How should I manage that though with the inside rep?

Other owners, how would you handle this? Would you take the account and say "tough squat, sink or swim, go find new blood" or would you find a way to help manage the account so your salesmen can still breathe, and grow confidently?

Other sales guys, how would you handle this?

 

[Rick]

How much did you know about the sign business 18 months ago?
What kind if signage work is this?
Was that an existing account or did you find this client?
Do you have a contract?
In the contract, are you allowed to take the clients with you?
What seems to be the issues with the client?
Has your boss ever had a sales staff prior to you?
Is your boss self-taught?
Do you just sell? or do you also design, make the sign and install them?

Working for such a small company - 700k a year is small - 400k might be ok for quick sticky, not so great if you are doing architectural - I find that they are not all that savvy at managing sales staff. If they are self-taught, it might be even harder to train you to be successful. Hopefully you are supported with a website, printed marketing materials, a process and training in the business to know exactly what you are selling. I am currently dealing with a salesmen of one of my clients who is learning how to sell architectural signage... the learning curve seems to be a huge deal for him, on top of that, he's not all that great at following direction, I gave him all the leads so all he has to do is make contact with the right person and make the pitch... he's great at doing that... but when the work comes in, he lacks in depth knowledge of the process... it gets them in trouble, clients get pi$$ed... I no longer take this salesmen calls and my client has directed him not to call me because he's a nuisance.

What you should have had is a contract in place stating who gets to keep what... if you are new to this, it's hard t negotiate terms like that... but it needs to be spelled out that if there are any issues, how they will be handled, including taking a client away.

If you have no contract, or this is an existing client, then you can't expect anything... but I would ask... If you brought in that client, I would negotiate a contract that stipulates these types of conditions.

 

[billsines]

As a business owner, I can see your point of view. Maybe if you just have a sit down explaining your concerns? My take is: keep servicing your accounts and making your commissions. If they want to grow the company, it's on them to hire another sales person. If they have leveraged all your time and you yourself are making the commission you want to make, then just keep doing your job. I know people are going to say you should have had a contract in place, but I'm hoping your boss just does the right thing here without that and sees how this just wouldn't be right.

 

[visual800]

If this ONE account is bogging you down, I would have to ask why is it bogging you down? Is this account a PITA?

 

[Johnny Best]

Sounds like your boss wants to take that troublesome account off your hands so you can focus your time on getting better accounts and figures that will make up for the commission you are losing on the one that is bogging you down. I am sure your boss is just as interested as you are in making more money.

As Dale Carnegie stated "Develop success from failures".

 

[MikePro]

your concerns are real, but so are those of the company that handed you this client 18months ago. over the years, we've had a LOT of large clients come and go, and it is rarely fault of the salesman. However, the ability to keep your ear to the ground and generate new clients is what most employers expect of their sales staff. managing one is great experience, and I'm sure that's why they gave you this responsibility almost two years ago, but your duties as a sales rep go beyond handling existing accounts & claiming commissions on repeated orders.

 

[ddarlak]

simply tell your boss taking this account from me takes money from me, how can we resolve this.... start looking for another job...

 

[Billct2]

If you developed a client and they now want to take it "in house" I think you should still get a percentage of the ongoing sales, especially since it sounds like you may still need to be involved.
As for the inside sales person, do they get a commission? I thought inside sales was usually an hourly job.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

As a owner 3 things come to mind:
1) Are you paid a base salary comparable to a hourly wage or are you commission heavy?

2) Are gaining new clients consistently, or is most of your time spent managing clients?

3) is this clients projects worth the commissions paid out to the salesman or are they tight margin and high demand?


Beyond that a $400,000 book is great, but is it $400,000 of low margin work or is it $400,000 of significantly profitable jobs?