Here are seven things you can do to keep this from happening:

1. Have a clear and concise sales employment agreement.

In your employment agreement with your sales reps, be sure you have covered the consequences of taking confidential customer account information. Clearly state the penalties for doing this. Include withholding final commissions until all company property, databases, reports and lists are returned. Along with this, a clearly spelled out non-compete clause can keep George from defecting to the enemy.

2. Go and see your best customers – often.

There is nothing preventing a customer from defecting to an exiting salesperson, it’s their choice. This will depend on how effectively George has serviced their account needs, and how closely he has developed relationships up and down the account. However, as a good Sales Manager you should be visiting your company’s top customers on an ongoing basis, thereby “owning” the customer relationship. Your top customers will share with you concerns, plans and goals that they won’t share with their salesperson. Your visits also serve the purpose of providing customers higher level access to your company, thus further solidifying the relationship and their loyalty to you.

3. Have a good sales and contact management solution in place.

Your company should have processes and technology in place to record all important interactions with your customers, and allow access to those individuals dealing with the customer. CRM solutions like GoldMine serve this purpose excellently. You will now have insight as to what’s going on with your customers, who’s your best customers and why, which customers are credit risks, which customers consume the most resources with little return, and which customers generate the highest profitability. Importantly, you will also be able to measure the performance and effectiveness of your salespeople, share calendar information as to their whereabouts, and allow them to see historical customer sales data and interactions with other inside company employees of just their own accounts.

4. Let salespeople see only what they need to see.

Only provide your salespeople with their own account information. This will limit their access to only the accounts and prospects assigned to them, and mitigate your exposure to losing ALL key customer data. A good CRM solution should automatically be capable of this. Along these lines, when a salesperson leaves, a good CRM system will have the capability to realign territory and will remove the frightening and daunting task of reassigning accounts, pipeline opportunities and all scheduled activities.

5. Provide good sales leadership.

Top salespeople will follow and align themselves with a Sales Manager that possesses good leadership and trust skills. A Sales Manager that has an effective sales plan, lives up to the plan, consistently meets expectations, doesn’t make unfulfilled promises, and coaches well, will command that salesperson’s respect. Tied to that respect is his or her loyalty.

6. Eliminate poor communication.

Nothing is more frustrating to a good salesperson than not being informed of a key customer interaction “on the inside”. Going into a sales call with a different story than that communicated by inside sales, production or accounting is embarrassing to the salesperson. Immediately, the customer’s confidence in the salesperson will be lowered, as well as in the company. Having good contact management processes can eliminate this from happening.

7. Eliminate poor communication #2.

A company that doesn’t clearly state upfront its policies on how and when accounts can move from one salesperson to another salesperson, or to a “house” account is looking for trouble. Depending on how often this happens, or if other circumstances directly related to a salesperson’s compensation are mis-stated, a good salesperson’s confidence in the company he or she works for will quickly erode, forcing them to start looking elsewhere.

Finding and keeping good sales people is equally as important as maintaining good customer relationships. Building loyalty and trust with customers extends to your sales people as well. Establishing and maintaining good, concise and fair sales policies and practices will go a long way toward building this trust. Further, having a good way to track, maintain and protect customer contact data will benefit both your company and your salespeople. Try some of these ideas, and eliminate the “Friday two week’s notice” scenario.

Written By: Rich Ackerman, CRM Sales Consultant