How do I decline giving potential employer my book of business?

Question

I recently received a job offer as outside sales for a company that is in the same market as the one I am currently employed with. Due to the book of business I currently have (my list of my clients, contacts, leads etc.), they have requested I go through my client list with them to see crossover potential.

How do I protect myself but at the same time not appear to be difficult? I am a team player, but without a contract being signed with them am unsure that handing them a client list is in my best interest.

Answer 1

they have requested I go through my client list with them to see crossover potential. How do I protect myself but at the same time not appear to be difficult? I am a team player, but without a contract being signed with them am unsure that handing them a client list is in my best interest.

There is no way I would give a client list from my current employer to a company with whom I am not employed.

First, your current contract may prohibit such a move.

And second, even if it isn't prohibited by your contract you simply cannot give away a valuable asset to someone who may or may not become your employer.

Ignoring the ethicality (or lack of ethicality) in this situation, you shouldn't give any clients' information to a non-employer.

You could offer to go through your list on your own, match it up with their list, and give them a number of clients that might potentially become their client. No names, just the count of clients. And on your own, not "with them". Perhaps they would like to give away their client list to someone who isn't yet an employee, perhaps not. (I suspect not.)

If your current contract allows, you could suggest that the client names would of course follow, once you are hired.

Depending on your current contract, and the norms within your industry and your locale, you need to decide if this is ethical, and if not, if this is the kind of company you would want to work for. It smells foul to me, but I understand in some domains this is rather common practice.

Answer 2

Without a signed contract I would absolutely not be handing anything over to your new employer. You also need to look at your termination clauses in your existing contract to see if there are any restrictions on taking your client list with you.

I would strongly urge you to check the restrictions first, then you can say something to your prospective employer along the lines of:

I'm not trying to be difficult, but unless I have a signed contract then I can't really discuss my current client base. According to my contract with my existing employer, I also have [x] restrictions placed on what information I can release to a competitor.

We can discuss any potential leads when I get started and look at following them up.

Really, if you have a future employer who is putting you in this position then I would question if it's you they're after or merely your client list.

Answer 3

The other answers already explain that divulging your client list may break your employment contract. However, there may be complications even if your contract does not explicitly forbid it.

In most jurisdictions, there is an implied general duty not to act against the interest of your employer. E.g. in German law, there is the crime of "Untreue" (literally "unfaithfulness"), in UK/USA I think the terms are "duty of fidelity" and "breach of trust".

So even if there is nothing in your contract, you may expose yourself to lawsuits if you divulge information your employer wants to keep private.

Note that this duty generally extends even after the end of your contract, possibly indefinitely (details vary). So even after you have signed on with the new employer, your old employer could possibly sue you if you divulge information.

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So unless you can be reasonably certain that giving out the information is legal, you should probably err on the side of caution and explain that you are both morally and legally required to keep the information private.