Over the years I have moved around a bit working for several companies. The reasons for doing this have varied, but mostly it came down to a couple of factors. The first one being money.
For example, I went to work with a very large insurance company years ago. They offered me a base salary and a commission based on my sales. My job was to contact current clients and have them come by the office to purchase life insurance. When these people would come into the office the other staff members would write the policies seeing notes I had already put into the client's file. I didn't get my commissions and brought this up to my superior, who didn't care. After seeing this happen again and again I left with no explanation.
Another reason I have left jobs is because the recruiting manager was less than truthful about the job. As I have mentioned in my book, when I interviewed for my first sales job (I was right out of college) the recruiter said all kinds of things that weren't true.
Over the years I've learned that any sales job that is 100% commission should be considered carefully. As someone who works on "full commission", I can attest that the companies and their recruiters who offer these positions are looking for anyone who can pass a background test and has transportation. Generally speaking, they are looking for warm bodies.
One manager at a company I worked for actually told me that her hiring technique was to "hire as many people as possible" and she would "throw them at the wall to see who sticks". In other words, if she could find a couple of decent sales people out of the dozens who came through the door, she was happy. And the ones who didn't sell were not an issue for her because she didn't have to pay them anything.
And the lack of truth in the hiring process is rife in hiring salespeople. To say I became jaded is an understatement as countless recruiters will tell a prospective rep how great the company is, how awesome the pay is, and how super the product is. When this happens, ask to speak to some veteran sales reps. If there are none that should be a red flag.
I interviewed for a position and noticed that almost everyone there was under 30 years old. When I asked where the other members of the sales team were I got some vague answers about how they moved out of the office suites. Needless to say, I avoided that scenario.
But leaving a job can be tricky. Most importantly you may have clients that you want to keep and take with you. I suggest you wait a few months until you secure your new position before poaching your old clients.
I'm not a lawyer but nearly everyone I've ever spoken to on the subject has more or less acknowledged that "non compete" agreements are not worth the paper they are written on. Again, as long as you aren't walking out the door with all of the clients you should be okay.
Another piece of advice is to take your list of prospective clients with you when you leave. I worked at one place that wanted us to store our prospects in a "secure cloud based" website. As I knew I would be leaving, I filled it with fake names and took my real list with me.
A few years ago a lady I know went to work at an office and brought some of her clients along to the new job. Her boss (we'll call him Rob) loved that she was able to do so, but within a couple of years he soured on her Being a weasel, he "laid her off", telling her that he would call her back soon to return to work. She quickly found another job and took those same clients with her again.
For six months Rob had no clue that she had gone to work for his competitor but did notice a drop in sales. When he realized she had taken a job down the street he hit the roof, as if he was the victim. "She's gone to work for the enemy!" he screamed. No one cared though, especially me, as I was the one who helped her get the new position.
For me, I learned to not get emotionally invested in any company and especially not to believe the majority of the information during the onboarding process. But more importantly I made a point of learning what did work for these people and picked up ideas from each job. With all of that experience I opened my own agency, which does well.
Don't burn bridges but don't be afraid to leave a bad situation. Better days lie ahead.
Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.
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