Changing the rules? Watch out...

This tough economy has forced lots of suppliers and distributors to make changes to reduce costs. On the surface this seems to make perfect sense. It is important to note that there are consequences to each and every decision that is made by a company's management team. Some of them might read like this:

1. the company saves money
2. orders take longer to process
3. employees are not as happy

Do these sound familiar? Everyone acknowledges that the objective is 1) to save money however if 2) and 3) occur then it is a distinct possibility that the impact on servicing of your existing customers in addition to the negative effect on employee morale might throw your company into a tailspin that is tough to climb out of.

This is happening all over the industry. How do I know this? I know this because of the increasing number of sales reps contacting Vernon for information day in and day out over the last several months. Of course this is a positive for Vernon in that recruiting is very high on our priority list and we are more than happy to provide information and prepare a direct compensation analysis to see how Vernon matches up.

The sad thing is that people's lives are being affected dramatically and not for the better. Rules are changing faster than ever. Profit splits, timing of commissions, reductions in benefits and other changes like this are a real cause for concern if you are a representative.

Vernon is not and has not been immune from having to make some changes in an attempt to reduce costs. We have however focused a great deal on keeping things in place for our reps. By doing this we retain stability among our sales force. Combine this with the impact of other company's cost cutting decisions, essentially sending people out looking for new homes for their business and this is an exciting time for Vernon.

The moral of the story is to be careful when making changes. The consequence of your decision can actually put you and your company in a worse position than you started in.

The second point to be made is that if you find yourself in a place where the rules have been changing and the results are that your income is reduced or your benefits are being taken away or the service levels that you had been accustomed to are no longer in effect then you need to give us a call.

Most of the time I say that the grass is not always greener out there but if you find yourself in one of these places please by all mean check us out at www.vernoncompany.com/a-new-direction