Zach Selch describes how a company nearly lost a $2 million regional sales deal by opening a consultant agreement with blunt language saying the hire would never be an employee. The candidate, from a culture that values stability and team membership, felt treated as a mercenary. Moving the restrictive terms to the end and softening the tone preserved the relationship.
Chapters
I saw a $2 million letter the other day. I don't know how often I get a chance to see those. This guy I know was hiring a regional sales manager for a territory in Asia. Found a great guy. He wanted to hire this guy. The guy wanted the job. The conditions were pretty clear, and the guy would have taken the job. Now, here's the conflict. This guy comes from a culture with a very high aversion to uncertainty, and with a very strong communal nature. So for him, being part of a team was an integral part of what he was looking for. He said so a couple of times during the interview process about how happy he was to be joining this company's team, etc. Now the company, like a lot of companies, and I don't fault this, this is actually the way I advised them to go, and I think this is the right way to do it. The company didn't want to hire him as an employee. For a variety of legal reasons, they wanted to hire him as a consultant, which is again the right way to go in a lot of circumstances when you're hiring a single sales manager in the field. The issue was with the letter. Where was the problem? In the letter, the first 4 paragraphs, the first about 250 words were, under no circumstances should you, should you represent yourself as an employee of the company. You are not an employee of this company. This agreement does not imply that one day you will be an employee. of the company, blah, blah, blah. It was extremely aggressive, clear, rough American language. And I understand that. And here's the deal. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not giving you legal advice. I wasn't giving my client legal advice. But I am giving business advice. That's what I do. And I understand the business culture of both people involved here. Hmm. And I said, this letter is going to lose you $2 million easily in sales, probably even $2 million a year. You want this position to produce $5 million. You're starting this guy off completely demotivated. He wanted to be part of your team, and now it's clear to him that you see him as some type of a foreign mercenary. This is not going to go well. And they ignored this. I said, look, put those paragraphs at the end of the letter. You'll have the same legal coverage. Soften the language a little bit, but make it clear that you value his input and you're happy to have him on board. Don't attack him all at once with the idea that he isn't a member of the team, he isn't a full-fledged alleged partner in all of this. Didn't take my advice. I said, you're going to see, this is going to cost me $2 million of lost sales every year. You got to take into consideration the cultural differences when you're hiring somebody or in all of your dealings, all of your sales, all of these dealings internationally. The cultural differences can be vital and can save you a lot of money and can make you a lot more profitability. Remember, When you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us. We can help. When you decide it's time to grow your international sales, call us.
