Employment Agreement - Sales Manager

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Introduction

Employing a sales manager is essential to ensure the profitability, growth and survival of a business. The sales manager plans, organizes, directs and controls all activities related to the promotion and sale of the business’ products and services. This position in found in all sectors of industry and in all types of business.

Given its importance within a company, the best management practice requires the establishment of a solid framework for such position. The following document, in its annotated version, explains the most important legal, administrative and financial components related to this position within the business.

Description

The Employment Agreement for the Sales Manager is the legal instrument by which a CORPORATION / COMPANY, hires a person called the Sales Manager, in order to entrust to the latter the management of the sales service of the COMPANY / CORPORATION. This instrument is used to establish the respective obligations of the parties, so as to govern their relationship.

Use

In Canada, there are no legal provisions requiring an employer and an employee to sign a formal contract of employment. A simple verbal agreement is sufficient to establish the contractual relationship of employment, which will be subject to the applicable law. But the latter does not provide an adequate, custom-made legal framework to meet the specific needs of the parties.

To illustrate this statement, we refer to the issue of delegation of authority to the managers of a company. Under the applicable law of Quebec and Canada, the absence of a written contract setting out limits of such delegation may be problematic for a company whose leaders have too much freedom in the exercise of their executive powers.

Two types of instruments can be used to evidence an employment relationship. They are the employment letter and the employment agreement. The employment letter is limited to stating the general conditions of employment without giving details. The employment agreement, on the other hand, is intended to govern, precisely and in details, the relationship between employer and employee. Given the important role that the Sales Manager is expected to play in the COMPANY / CORPORATION, it is important not to leave anything to chance in the construction of the contractual relationship. Although contractors may use our sophisticated template of employment letter (document C03.555 of the Business Precedents), we prefer, without a doubt, to use the employment agreement since it allows much more detail in the establishment of such legal relationship.

However, if the Sales Manager has an immediate supervisor, for instance the Chief Marketing Officer, it may be desirable to base the employment agreement of the Sales Manager on the employment agreement of his immediate supervisor. It is also possible that the presence of a Chief Marketing Officer as supervisor reduces the importance of the Sales Manager position, in which case the employment letter (document C03.555 of the Business Precedents) may be a better choice.

Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that the contract is primarily a negotiating tool. Also, its contents can vary depending on what is agreed with the person concerned. However, the contract presented below shows the most fundamental aspects of this type of relationship. It can therefore serve both as a negotiating framework and to help with drafting the employment agreement of the Sales Manager.

It should be noted that the legal content of this instrument has been designed according to the laws of the province of Quebec, Canada. Any proposed use of this document for a court other than the province of Quebec requires validation of its content by an attorney practicing in such jurisdiction.

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