When a Sales Rep leaves to go work for a competitor

So, at least here In the US.  It's my understanding that the information he or she has is confidential information.  When I was going through a buy out with my former partners, I asked my attorney about "that customer" list.  If I had it in my head, that's ok, however if I had taken a list (whether paper based or electronic) that would be considered confidential.  Long story short, they could sue.

Non Competes don't hold up anymore, at least in NC they don't. We have successfully fought many of these with just a simple phone call. When we have a rep that leaves we take everything from them. We also have our lease info on lockdown. It is not in the reps hands. They find out what leases are coming up but they don't know every lease/date they have.

Usually good reps can't afford to leave so the ones who do leave I typically don't worry about too much. 

Non competes are only so so effective in my area as well.  They serve as a little bit of intimidation via a warning letter from a lawyer but are often ignored.

I like your idea of only giving a sales rep only six-12 months worth of future lease expiries in his territory.  Plus keeping the Master list under lock.

@SalesServiceGuy we used to have it wide open to where the reps could see the accounts, leases etc but one day I came in and noticed a stack of probably 1,000 pages on a guys desk. I started looking at it and it was print outs of all the customer accounts and lease docs and everything in all the territories. I knew what he was doing because when he came to us he had printouts of everything from his previous place. I took everything from him, shredded it all, and then that's when everything went on lockdown. Now no one gets anything unless it is given to them by management. 

I have been burned by sales reps leaving me to work for competitors for the last time.

I now exclusively manage both my paper and online lease portfolios for my sales reps.  Part of my Monday AM routine is to see what is expiring for the next three months, six months, one year and two years and then distribute the data.

I have flipped a few competitive copiers two years early.

We had a goofy sales newbie at Toshiba who come in late every day for a month. Turned out he was at his Ricoh morning sales meetings then come to work at Toshiba and then end the day at Ricoh. Didn't sell anything for either. 

@John Mooney We had a guy who was like that but two industries. He worked for us and would start out in the office and then go to work at a internet/phone company. Someone from our office saw him working under a tent on a corner selling home phones and internet service. Turned out he was coming to our office and then going to the street corner then coming back days end.  

Not only can departing sales reps provide your copier competitors with your customer list but so can departing service technicians.

It is hard to put a service tech on a non compete clause and they know from memory the location of almost every copier that they serviced. A service tech might not know your lease expiry dates but they have a good idea of the install dates and pain points.

Customers often believe service techs more than sales reps.