Salesperson employment agreement

If you hire someone and put them on payroll you have to give them a 10-day
notice if you fire them. However, this is becoming a problem. We have
interviewed so many salespeople and verified their references, etc.. we pick
the "right guy" each time.. but we are continually getting screwed over.
These sales people sit on their butts and do not make a single cold call (or
very few). Then they get 10 days of free payroll after we fire them. We can
pretty much tell that a guy is not going to work out from day 2 if they are
insincere about their work. My question is this: Can we include in the
employment agreement that there will be no 10 day notice, but rather a 1 day
notice? This is not fair. The employee has more protection than the employer
under the circumstances, with a 10 day notice.

"Rich" <nomore@spam.com> wrote in message
news:ccncba010ur@enews1.newsguy.com...
>
> If you hire someone and put them on payroll you have to give them a 10-day
> notice if you fire them. However, this is becoming a problem. We have
> interviewed so many salespeople and verified their references, etc.. we
pick
> the "right guy" each time.. but we are continually getting screwed over.
> These sales people sit on their butts and do not make a single cold call
(or
> very few). Then they get 10 days of free payroll after we fire them. We
can
> pretty much tell that a guy is not going to work out from day 2 if they
are
> insincere about their work. My question is this: Can we include in the
> employment agreement that there will be no 10 day notice, but rather a 1
day
> notice? This is not fair. The employee has more protection than the
employer
> under the circumstances, with a 10 day notice.

I've never heard of this 10 day notice thing, or maybe I'm taking this out
of context. Have you verified the validity of this law through an attorney
or a state agency? What state/country are you in? -- Mike

I don't know what state you are in. I have commission sales people as
subcontractors and have never had a 10 day notice.
Dave

> If you hire someone and put them on payroll you have to give them a 10-day
> notice if you fire them. However, this is becoming a problem. We have
> interviewed so many salespeople and verified their references, etc.. we
pick
> the "right guy" each time.. but we are continually getting screwed over.
> These sales people sit on their butts and do not make a single cold call
(or
> very few). Then they get 10 days of free payroll after we fire them. We
can
> pretty much tell that a guy is not going to work out from day 2 if they
are
> insincere about their work. My question is this: Can we include in the
> employment agreement that there will be no 10 day notice, but rather a 1
day
> notice? This is not fair. The employee has more protection than the
employer
> under the circumstances, with a 10 day notice.
>
>

In article <ccnkun01pm@enews2.newsguy.com>, <hinojo_b@bellsouth.net>
wrote:

> I don't know what state you are in. I have commission sales people as
> subcontractors and have never had a 10 day notice.
> Dave
>
> > If you hire someone and put them on payroll you have to give them a 10-day
> > notice if you fire them. However, this is becoming a problem. We have
> > interviewed so many salespeople and verified their references, etc.. we
> pick
> > the "right guy" each time.. but we are continually getting screwed over.
> > These sales people sit on their butts and do not make a single cold call
> (or
> > very few). Then they get 10 days of free payroll after we fire them. We
> can
> > pretty much tell that a guy is not going to work out from day 2 if they
> are
> > insincere about their work. My question is this: Can we include in the
> > employment agreement that there will be no 10 day notice, but rather a 1
> day
> > notice? This is not fair. The employee has more protection than the
> employer
> > under the circumstances, with a 10 day notice.
> >
> >
>
>

Some states have "at will" hiring so you can fire as you want under most
circumstances

"Rich" <nomore@spam.com> wrote in message
news:ccncba010ur@enews1.newsguy.com...
>
> If you hire someone and put them on payroll you have to give them a 10-day
> notice if you fire them. However, this is becoming a problem. We have
> interviewed so many salespeople and verified their references, etc.. we
pick
> the "right guy" each time.. but we are continually getting screwed over.
> These sales people sit on their butts and do not make a single cold call
(or
....---snip---

Having succeeded mightily for several large companies as their sales rep, I
never saw this 10 day thing you talk about. But then this was years ago and
the deal was this: Thirty day trial period was standard. Also standard was
the signing of an open dated resignation letter which gave my employer total
control over termination decisions. I don't think you can get away with the
resignation thing today though. But the thirty day trial period makes good
sense.

Wayne

The company is in Arizona. I paid a lawyer good money to write an employment
contract, and I told this lawyer that I was hiring salespeople and didn't
want to get screwed over. I read over the agreement and executed it with one
employee already. Initially I was told that there was a 2-week notice
requirement for W2. Now yesterday the lawyer told me that a 1 day notice is
allowed in Arizona. I am outraged that he didn't tell me this PRIOR to using
the agreement. Now I am out $1,000+ on this "employee" who is/was not doing
anything. It was my understanding that I had no alternatives, and that a
1099 would allow the employee to work for other sales jobs at the same time.
What I wanted was a good employee who would work for me only and not sit
around on his butt. So now it looks like I will be doing W2s and 1 day
notices from now on.


"Mike Turco" <miketurco@yahoo-nospam4me.com> wrote in message
news:ccnkue02ngg@enews4.newsguy.com...
>
>
> "Rich" <nomore@spam.com> wrote in message
> news:ccncba010ur@enews1.newsguy.com...
> >
> > If you hire someone and put them on payroll you have to give them a
10-day
> > notice if you fire them. However, this is becoming a problem. We have
> > interviewed so many salespeople and verified their references, etc.. we
> pick
> > the "right guy" each time.. but we are continually getting screwed over.
> > These sales people sit on their butts and do not make a single cold call
> (or
> > very few). Then they get 10 days of free payroll after we fire them. We
> can
> > pretty much tell that a guy is not going to work out from day 2 if they
> are
> > insincere about their work. My question is this: Can we include in the
> > employment agreement that there will be no 10 day notice, but rather a 1
> day
> > notice? This is not fair. The employee has more protection than the
> employer
> > under the circumstances, with a 10 day notice.
>
> I've never heard of this 10 day notice thing, or maybe I'm taking this out
> of context. Have you verified the validity of this law through an attorney
> or a state agency? What state/country are you in? -- Mike
>
>

In looking back at your original post, I'm wondering if the problem might be
something else. How many salespeople do you go through to find a "good one"?
You say that you can tell that a salesperson is not good by day two. How?
Based only by the number of cold calls he is making?

On this last go-round we posted the job on monster, went through 83 resumes,
interviewed 22 people, found 8 close matches, and hired only 1 person.

We can tell a salesperson is not good by day two because he is not
interested in learning anything about what he is to be selling. Not by the
number of phone calls. In fact we really don't expect anyone to be calling
the first week.. there's a lot to learn about the product. And if they are
unwilling to learn the product, it's not going to work out. Granted, the
product is difficult to understand (highly technical). I suspect this is
where our hang up is.


"Mike Turco" <miketurco@yahoo-nospam4me.com> wrote in message
news:ccud9l0fes@enews3.newsguy.com...
>
> In looking back at your original post, I'm wondering if the problem might
be
> something else. How many salespeople do you go through to find a "good
one"?
> You say that you can tell that a salesperson is not good by day two. How?
> Based only by the number of cold calls he is making?
>
>

Perhaps you are firing the wrong people. Salesmen are good at selling, not
technical stuff. If you are selling ads in a magazine, that is all well and
good. But if you are selling something highly technical, like nuclear
reactor replacement parts or MRI equipment, then I would not expect a
salesperson to have a technical understanding of the product.

Rather, all they need is "industry knowledge" which means a passing
familiarity with the jargon for that industry, and a good idea of what makes
your product better than your competitor's.

For demonstrations or technical questions it makes more sense to refer that
to a person who is technical and can speak in whole sentences. I've seen
salesmen play that up actually, "well, I could tell you the answer to that,
but why would you believe me? I'm a salesman. Instead I'll have Bob here
talk to you, he reports to the guy who has to make this work later on. He
won't lie."

Companies call this position different things: Sales Engineers, Product
Specialists, Application Specialist, whatever.

Just a suggestion you may want to consider.

--
patrick
www.covot.com
tools for small businesses


"Rich" <nomore@spam.com> wrote in message
news:ccvgmk0130b@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
>
> On this last go-round we posted the job on monster, went through 83
> resumes,
> interviewed 22 people, found 8 close matches, and hired only 1 person.
>
> We can tell a salesperson is not good by day two because he is not
> interested in learning anything about what he is to be selling. Not by the
> number of phone calls. In fact we really don't expect anyone to be calling
> the first week.. there's a lot to learn about the product. And if they are
> unwilling to learn the product, it's not going to work out. Granted, the
> product is difficult to understand (highly technical). I suspect this is
> where our hang up is.
>
>
> "Mike Turco" <miketurco@yahoo-nospam4me.com> wrote in message
> news:ccud9l0fes@enews3.newsguy.com...
>>
>> In looking back at your original post, I'm wondering if the problem might
> be
>> something else. How many salespeople do you go through to find a "good
> one"?
>> You say that you can tell that a salesperson is not good by day two. How?
>> Based only by the number of cold calls he is making?
>>
>>
>
>