How can the owner keep clients when the ROP is dismissed?

Question

Project management

Good afternoon,
In the wholesale company of goods, the reduction of the retail department and the departure of the ROP (Head of Sales Department) are brewing. He has been in the position for over 10 years. It is planned to hire 1-2 managers and transfer them to the management of the wholesale department, while leaving only key clients.
The task is to retain the current key customers of the company. There is a high probability that the ROP will want to take clients with them.
Are there any methodologies, ideas, successful practices in a similar situation?

Answer 1

Theoretically, if you have a customer base and materials for communicating with them, as well as the data of all transactions are circulating in CRM and any competent manager can follow them, the importance of ROP is mainly not in communicating with customers, but in managing the department.
If no one can do anything without ROP, you will have to keep him, not clients;)

Answer 2

How can he steal customers? Will he be able to create similar offers for clients? What are these proposals? What have you been doing for 10 years (in terms of services and services)?
Maybe you meant - can take away contacts? Then he most likely has already taken them away (if he intended) ... It only remains to think about how to make sure that the next one does not take them away. And think about how to neutralize the damage... below I wrote ways - and they are suitable for neutralization
Here you need to think like a partisan:
UPD: get a job in another company , talk with partners, maybe someone needs a ROP ... knock out conditions even better than yours ....
And this can be done so elegantly that it’s as if the offer is so good that it’s time to leave .. .

Answer 3

Now, perhaps, in any way (except for contacts).
To avoid this in the future - to prescribe in detail ALL business processes in the company, then there will never be a situation that everything is tied to one person, with the departure of whom the company begins to lose customers or even fall apart.
Do you think that if the CEO of Facebook or Google leaves, the company will be in a lot of trouble? No, because all processes are documented.

Answer 4

If you have been doing your business correctly and you have the entire database of transactions and clients stored not only on your manager's computer / notebook, then there will be no problems. Build the system so that when a person is replaced, it will continue to work.
In theory, he can always pull some clients along with him, but unfortunately there are always such risks. Companies deal with this in different ways, I heard about the conclusion of contracts and threats to break their legs, but all of them IMHO do not work in a civilized society)

Answer 5

The main set of measures to protect against the withdrawal of the client base must be implemented in advance.
What can be done now in your situation:
1. Leave “for good” and directly stipulate not to poach customers.
2. The ROP transfers to its successor or to you all the information on clients and transactions that are currently in progress: what is the status of work on each client, what agreements, obligations, documents, etc. are there. You can make such a transfer in writing. Ideally, all this information should be maintained in CRM.
3. From the address of the ROP, a letter is sent to all clients, or he calls them in the presence of a successor. It is reported that from such and such date all cases will be handled by a new person (his contacts). The successor must contact all transferred clients as soon as possible.
4. If the risk of base removal is high, after the decision to dismiss during the 2-week period, while the ROP is still working, allow it to the corporate computer only in the presence of a successor. Usually it is during this period that data is stolen.
5. If, nevertheless, the resigned ROP tries to take away clients and other employees, you can state all the facts in writing and send them to clients and competitors, incl. to the company where the employee left. You can also publish this story on the Internet in industry blogs or forums. An example of a similar article written by my friend, the director of an IT company. As a result, customer losses will be minimal, a dishonest employee will know what goodwill means, and the remaining employees will think ten times before following his example.

Answer 6

I may be wrong, in my opinion the solution is very simple - stop annoying a person and part with him kindly.
The man worked for the company for 10 years. earned the company a lot of money, raked a lot of hemorrhoids.
The head himself decided to quit and you do not understand why? You can talk to him like a human being, thank him for his work, ask for reasons, ask if there is anything you can do for the person. And most importantly - to pay him money!!
If they decide to fire a person, then it is imperative, it is extremely important to pay the person enough money so that he does not become embittered at the greed of the former employer.
Any other methods, in my opinion, will lead to the fact that a person will become embittered at you and want to harm you. Do you need it? Is it a pity to pay him money?