I work for a national magazine (have many US accounts) as an advertising sales rep. I have worked for this company for over 8 years. I have developed many new accounts and so far have been the only sales person. A few years ago my company was sold to a larger company. Many of the staff changed and fairly recently my magazine hired a new editor. He has a friend (male) and suggested to the owner of my company that he hire him as a salesperson for my magazine. He did not talk to me about it, just gave the owner a sales pitch about his friend. Told the owner that his friend could make the magazine larger with his expertise. My magazine is aviation related. I am not a pilot but know the industry well and have many loyal advertisers. I used to be married to a pilot so am up on the lingo etc. This guy is a pilot so my editor has decided that he should work for the magazine. I'm just a woman and not a pilot at that. He has an ego issue and so does this new guy.

Problem: I have many accounts and many prospects that I call on a regular basis.

My boss asked me to send this person a list of my current advertisers and accounts that I am trying to get. I did this. This guy told me after looking over my list that I have 97% of all the accounts in the industry and there is nothing left for him. This is not true. He just doesn't want to go to all the work of getting new accounts. He thinks that because he knows some of my clients personally (he lives in their area of the country), that I should hand them over to him or at least share them and split the commission. I live in the west where the magazine started. He lives in the east an area that we are trying to grow. I used to live in the east for many years and have brought in some large advertisers from there. My company thinks because he lives there and can call on people in person he will do better. All I have to do is pick up the phone and call them. I don't need to meet them in person to sell them an ad and never do. I do all my sales over the phone.

I depend on the income from this job, he has his own company and this job would be extra income for him. My company is not very loyal. In the entire time I have worked for this company I have never even received a Christmas card from the company or the owner. When people leave they talk about how lousy they were at their jobs and basically run them down. They fire people and recently asked me for a copy of my contract. I don't have it, they should but it looks like they lost it. I don't think they are happy about not being able to find it. I wondered why they wanted my contract and now I know. They wanted to hire him. I think they have been snowed into believing that this guy is more knowledgeable and will get more sales because he is a pilot. I know this is not true but obviously they don't. He has never sold anything let alone advertising which is not easy.

My boss is meeting with him in his city next week. He wanted us to talk before this meeting. In my opinion they (my boss and him) are trying to take money of out my kids mouths. He wants some of my accounts instead of getting his own. Granted my list is huge but I have accumulated all of these contacts on my own over the years. I am worried that it will come down to them telling me that I have to give up some of my accounts and I have worked very hard to get them. Whether this is fair or not does not matter to them.

I am currently taking my real estate course because they have done similar to me before and I don't trust this company. My brother has told me over the years to quit but I have kids to take care of and financially can't quit. That is why I am trying to get into another career.

I'm just wondering what your thoughts are about this. As I am too close to the situation I may not be seeing things from their point of view, just mine. Idea's?
Kate

This sounds stressful.

Any chance you are allowed to expand your sales territory into the U.S. / new region where no one else is there now?

You sound like a great salesperson. I hope you have expressed your average growth rate for sales accounts annually in xxx% in your resume. If not, start remembering and look at the list of accounts of when each started.

You are wise to look for another job/career. But there maybe one staring in your face..who knows.

by the way, did you know that Vancouver area has a firm that produces submarines? Things we never knew locally?

Kate, the construction and mining industries in B.C. and Alberta are just so hot now and will be for next few years. I can see you...in sales even on construction materials/equipment. Did you know the earthmoving Caterpillar machines are just the hottest things right now because construction industry is in overdrive? The Vancouver based firm is Finning.

You are already aligned in a predominantly guy's world, aviation...so take that familiarity/comfort level with techie language and understanding guy culture/industry somewhere else..

You might be even good as a corporate facility coordinator/planner...for large corporate building renovations/retrofit and office relocations. I've had to work with a few people like that. Big companies hire 1-2 folks like that permanently if they have several office city locations or ..in government there are permanent positions.

Think about this Kate...

Thanks Orchid. Such great advice. I am going to focus on completing my real estate assignments for now so I can write the exam. I have to get this done. Later I will look into some other options.

I'm just wondering from a legal point of view if my company is allowed to take my accounts and give them to someone else. I am going to look into that. I have all of the US and Canada and have had for over 8 years. I'm not asking this person not to contact anyone in Canada or the US, just not the prospects on my list. It has taken me years to put this list together and built repore with these clients.

There are others he can contact but he wants to pick from my list. There are many other companies that I have not contacted that he can go after.

I have had the whole enchilada for some time now and it is hard to think of someone else competing with me for ad sales. There are only so many companies that will advertise. Not all companies in business believe in advertising on a regular basis.

The other part of my problem is the company I work for does not treat their employees very well. This goes against my grain. I have never been told that I am doing a good job, no recognition at all. I can pat myself on the back but it would be nice to hear something from my superiors. Instead they want to give my hard work to someone else that they don't even know. Take a chance on a stranger and take advantage of a loyal employee. I feel like chopped liver. Not very nice.

Kate

Kate, same situation I had many years ago, I built up a fantastic territory of advertisers, paper sold, new boss but it was his son he wanted me to 'GIVE' my contact list to. I did just that after sorting out and keeping the best ones for myself, ones I worked my butt off to sell and to keep happy. I turned in my resignation along with the partial list which I also doctored, changing a name or number here and there.

I kept my list on my own, there was no rule that said I had to, but I am so organized I just did it. I had another job before I hit the front door and took most of my clients with me.

What I did may seem petty to some but what they were trying to do was even worse. I was a mom raising two sons alone and I made sure I kept the food in their mouths and the clothes on their backs...

When someone is playing under-handed, using the fact against you that you NEED a job, its time to get tough.

Give what you get, I did and do to this day....

I agree with Chatty. If they fire you for not giving this new person the list, then you walk with the entire list and they have nothing -- which is exactly what you owe them right now.

It's tough to fire people these days so I can drag this out.
They have to give me at least three warning letters or I can sue for wrongful dismissal. And, what are they going to fire me for? Being loyal and doing my job. I don't think so.

I like the idea of taking my list with me. I'm sure people before me have done this. I have to put everything in an online company data base so I can't delete companies, but I can delete contact info and phone numbers. They are what take the time anyway.

The list I sent was only company names, not the contact info, email addresses etc. I will keep that info and not share it.

The writing is on the wall though so I am going to focus on getting my license and keep selling as that is how I get paid. I'm at the point where I really can't take the way they treat employees anymore. They are a very money oriented company which is ok in a way but they are also greedy and don't give anything which is what I can't deal with. They cut costs but want you to sell more. This is not very supportive for my clients either which bugs me too. They are not getting their moneys worth. Not a great way to run a business.

Thankfully I don't work in the same city as my head office or I would be long gone. They can't keep staff at all as they leave soon after being hired. They are very overworked and underpaid. Luckily I am on commission.

I'm sure this will be my last year and hopefully my last six months.

Thanks for the wonderful input as usual. I knew I could count on you ladies.
Kate

I totally agree that you owe them SQUAT! But, let me say that burning bridges behind you could only come back to you and make the next "crossing" very difficult. It will bite you in the butt, guaranteed. If only to make you feel bad for retaliating!

Do they deserve all the info? Not one single bit of it. But deleting the info is sending a message to your brain, (the Universe, whatever you want to call it) saying that you can't possibly get MORE customers and so you are setting yourself up to fail before you start again. In other words, I think it is bad karma. Or...of a limited mindset that says, "Oh I'll delete this because if I do, then all the customers I need are right here and I can't possibly get MORE. I have to have THESE to succeed." You are bigger than them.

There is plenty of work to go around in the world and YES, you have obviously done a beautiful job of setting yourself up with boocoo's of customers, their data, etc., but if you did it once, you can do it again, because customers aren't limited to THAT list. If they are, then the rest of the world needs to shut down.

Don't pull yourself down to their level, no matter how temporarily satisifying it may seem.

Do your own thing gal, you are so smart, and so worth it.

By the way, I just got your Christmas card and loved it. The inside was full of love...you are so sweet! I just adore you...and the rest of these babes!

Your right Jaw Jaw. I am a big believer in Karma and am just letting them get to me.

I can't delete the list of clients as they are locked into a database. Every time I sell something I have to put the company info in to the database so they can be invoiced.

I was just planning on deleting all of my work, sales letters, prospects (my sales letter got voted best in the company at a sales conference)

Also, all of my email coorespondence that sort of thing. I won't go out of my way to delete company info, just mine.

I do hear you loud and clear about taking the high road and I usually do. Also the reminder about not burning my bridges is advice I always give out. Time for me to take this advice. The former owner of the company gave me a glowing reference when he retired and he is still around so I know he would give me a great reference again if I needed it. We keep in touch. I have spoken to him about the company and how they treat employees and he does not like it and told me he wished he didn't sell the company to them. He is far away from it now and I told him not to worry about it and just enjoy his retirement. I so enjoyed working with him in a small office. Now I am part of a large company with no personality and no concern for it's employees.

I have a better attitude today though.
thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Kate

Kate, I read through this thread too, and now I realize you have had so much pressure and stress. You get a lot of support here, and the support is lovely to read. I can see that the support helps, too. I know someone who sells advertising for a specific type of magazine. She was treated badly. Her boss, who was in the office too but did not sell, just tinkered all day, and looked at the numbers. He carried a gun to work! Yikes. When she knew she had to leave, she thought about taking a disc of the contacts she had made. Whose property is it? If she made the contacts is it her property? In real estate, I am an independent contractor, so that database would be mine to take with me. Realtors who are leaving the business or going to another state SELL their contacts before they leave. Can you take a disc with you? PS I left a message on your other thread. L, PL

I'm not sure who's contact list it is. Although I did all the reasearch and made the contacts. I get paid on commission so I think the list is mine. If I was paid a salary the list would be theirs.

Any ads I have sold to clients in the past up until now there is a paper trail. I have to put their info in a database when I make the sale for invoicing purposes. So, that info is there for the company, any new sales people etc.

I have a long list of prospects and that list is mine. I did the work so will keep this with me.

The big issue I have is the new guy wants to cherry pick my current advertisers instead of going out and getting his own. He actually told me that he will be counting on my expertise as I have been with the magazine for eight years.

He has never sold anything before let alone advertising. He is in for a big surprise. Selling advertising over the phone is not easy. It's basically cold calling and I don't think he wants to do that. He wants to call on clients that I have already warmed up for him.

I have been through this once before. Same company, different magazine. They hired a new guy and took half of my clients, the good high paying ones. Then three months later they fired him. Did I get the clients back, no. Management did. But it back fired on them because the client they did the magazine for did not like their service (they were always late printing the magazine) so they got another company to produce it for them.

I am really trying not to get my knickers in too big of a knot. I'm focusing on my new career in real estate. That can be a dog eat dog world too I hear. So I guess I had better toughen up.
Kate