When a Salesperson Leaves: How to Protect Your Customers and Outstanding Dues

It happens to every distributor sooner or later. A salesperson who has covered a route for three years resigns, and you realise he holds the shop owners' phone numbers, the unwritten credit promises and the knowledge of who really buys. If he joins a competitor, some shops may follow him. This guide gives a calm, practical checklist for what to do when a salesperson leaves, so you protect your customers and your outstanding dues.

Why this hurts more than people expect

In many Nepali markets the relationship sits between the shopkeeper and one person. The company brand is secondary. If all knowledge lives in that person's head or phone, his departure creates three risks:

1. Lost customers: shops drift to whoever calls them next.
2. Lost dues: nobody chases the balances that only he knew about.
3. Lost data: shop locations, contacts and order history leave on a personal phone.

The fix is to move that knowledge into a shared company record before anyone resigns, and to run a short exit routine when someone does.

Before anyone leaves: build the habit

• Keep every shop, owner name, phone number and location in the company system, not in personal notebooks.
• Record visits, orders and payments in the app, so history belongs to the company.
• Have managers meet the top shops now and then, so shops know more than one face.
• State in the employment letter that customer records belong to the company. Ask your lawyer to check the wording.

See field sales tracking in Nepal for the records that build this history.

The exit checklist

Day 1: agree the plan

• Confirm the last working day and agree the handover period in writing.
• Choose the replacement or the interim cover person.
• Keep the conversation respectful. A bitter exit makes a competitor move more likely.

Week 1: handover

1. List routes and shops. Print or export the route stops and the list of shops he covers.
2. Review balances. For each shop, check what is owed and how old it is. Ask him to flag any promised payment dates or disputes.
3. Review last orders. Which shops buy what, and how often?
4. Joint visits. Visit the top shops together with the replacement, starting with the biggest and the ones with dues.
5. Collect what is open. Ask him to collect overdue payments before he goes, and record them properly. See collecting payments on time.
6. Return company property. Phone, receipt books, samples, price lists and any cash.

Last day: close access

• Deactivate his account so he cannot sign in to the company system.
• Check that no cash is outstanding with him. Reconcile his last day.
• Settle any expense claims. See field expense claims and reimbursements.
• Ask him to confirm in writing that company data and property have been returned.

First two weeks after: protect the relationship

• The replacement visits every shop at least once.
• Keep prices, schemes and delivery times stable. Shops leave when something else changes at the same time.
• A manager phones the top ten shops personally.
• Watch the first month's orders from that route against the previous months.

An illustrative example

These numbers are made up. A route has 45 shops and a monthly sale of NPR 900,000. The salesperson resigns with two weeks' notice. In week one the manager lists the balances: NPR 120,000 is outstanding across 9 shops, and 4 of them are more than 45 days old. The salesperson collects NPR 70,000 before leaving. The manager and the replacement visit the top 10 shops together, which account for roughly two-thirds of sales. In the first month after, the route sells NPR 830,000, a drop of about 8 percent, mostly from two small shops that were not visited in time. The company then adds a visit to each. The point of the example is the order of actions, not the exact figures.

Avoid these mistakes

• Waiting for the last day. Start the handover when you hear of the resignation.
• Handing over only a list of names. Share balances, order history and credit promises.
• Forgetting to close access. Deactivate on the last working day.
• Changing everything at once. A new salesperson, new prices and new delivery days together make shops look elsewhere.
• Treating the leaver as an enemy. A good exit leaves the door open and protects goodwill.

Use the exit as a chance to improve

Ask why the person is leaving. If it is pay, review sales targets and commission plans. If it is workload, review the routes with retail outlet visit planning. A well-run 30-day ramp-up for the new person then makes the next handover easier.

A second example: a sudden exit with no notice

Another illustrative case. A salesperson stops coming to work on a Monday and cannot be reached. His route has 30 shops and NPR 85,000 is outstanding across 7 of them. Nobody has a handover.

Because shop records, visit history and balances already sit in the company system, the manager can still do the following the same day:

1. Open the route and list the 30 stops.
2. Open each party's statement and sort the 7 shops with balances by age.
3. Check the last visit date and last order for each shop.
4. Ask a nearby salesperson to cover the most important shops for a week.
5. Deactivate the missing person's account.

Within three days the manager has visited the five biggest shops. Without records, the same situation would mean weeks of guessing which shops buy what and who owes money. The lesson is that handover is something you build every day, not something you do on the last day.

What each side should hand over

Item	From the leaver	To the company
Shop list and contacts	Anything held outside the system	Entered or confirmed in the system
Open promises	Promised delivery dates, special prices	Written down and approved or declined
Cash and receipts	Unbanked cash, receipt books	Counted and recorded
Samples and materials	Unused stock, banners	Returned and listed
Phone and accessories	Company device	Returned and wiped of company data
Pending claims	Unsettled expenses	Reviewed and paid or rejected

Common questions

Should the leaver introduce the replacement?

Yes, if the relationship is good. A joint visit with the top shops signals continuity. If the exit is bitter, the manager should do the introductions instead.

How do I handle shops that only buy from one person?

Make sure at least one other person has met the owner. Visit the top shops yourself in the first month. Over time, move relationships from a person to the company through steady service, stable prices and reliable delivery.

What about commission owed to the leaver?

Follow your commission policy and the employment letter. Settle on the agreed date and keep the calculation on file. Ask your accountant about payroll rules.

Is it fair to ask for the notice period to be worked?

If the employment letter says so, usually yes. A longer overlap gives you time to hand over. Check the wording with your lawyer.

Should I replace the salesperson or merge the route?

Look at the route's sales and visit data. A route with few shops or low sales may be merged with a neighbour. A strong route deserves a proper replacement and a 30-day ramp-up.

How GamiTrack helps

In GamiTrack, shops live as parties with owner, phone, location, credit terms and internal notes, so they belong to the company rather than to one phone. A party's statement shows invoices, payments and an aging view, which is the list of dues you need for a handover. Routes list their stops in order, and the visit history shows when each shop was last visited and what happened. When someone leaves, a manager can deactivate the person's account from the Users settings, and a deactivated person cannot use the console. See add your staff and attendance and routes. Handing a route to a new person means giving them the same stops, so nothing starts from zero. You can try it with a free trial.

Key takeaways

• Keep customer knowledge in a company record, not in one person's phone.
• Run the handover from the day of resignation: shops, balances, joint visits.
• Close access on the last day and settle cash and expenses.
• Change as little as possible in the first month after.