Posts tagged - trade secrets

Who is your customer or client?

Posted on: August 03, 2016, in: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Of course the answer to this question is dependent on what you do, but if you don’t start by answering this question you will miss out on opportunities. The answer, based on your line of work, may be a type or category of businesses or  categories or people.

Some sales people think the answer is anyone and everyone, but it isn’t. On the surface, if you are in pharmaceutical sales it is doctors or medical practices or if you are a pool installer it is home builders or homeowners. It is important to start with the big picture and then narrow it down so you can come up with reasonable marketing and networking strategies. If you are the pharmaceutical salesperson, your company may assist with this by assigning you a region of a city, state or the country and providing leads. If you are the pool installer, you have to choose the geographical area you can reasonably cover with your crew(s), let alone the number of projects you can work at one time without causing delay and upsetting customers, before deciding how to market to your audience of potential customers.

Some professions, including attorneys, accountants and financial planners, have a different answer. We all have the skills to help many types of businesses and people, but a wise man I know told me something years ago about who your clients are likely to be, which still holds true today: look in the mirror. What he meant is that you are naturally going to connect to people similar to you, whether in age range, family background, interests, etc. We all know personal connection helps or causes us to make choices a lot of the time.

Where this leaves you is to remember, no matter your business or profession, you need to have a plan and strategy for your marketing and networking. If you have no plan, you have no plan, and you will have hits and misses, though likely more misses, because you are leaving your business to luck or casting too wide a net (a wide net has large holes for potential business to slip through!). It also helps to put your plans on paper, with short term and long term ideas, plans and goals.

If you start by defining who is your customer or client and drill down from there you increase your chance for success. So start today because there is no time like the present!

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Not All Customer Lists Are Trade Secrets

Posted on: August 14, 2013, in: , , ,

In a case decided this past April, the Arizona Court of Appeals found that whether a business’s customer list is a trade secret requires a factual inquiry. Calisi v. Unified Financial Services, LLC, Case No. 1 CA-CV-0812.  The court’s holding requires a two part inquiry to determine whether a customer list is, in fact, a trade secret.

First, a trial court must determine whether the customer list has been kept secret and there have been reasonable efforts to keep the customer list secret. If the facts show this to be the case, courts then must consider four factors to determine whether a customer list is a trade secret: (1) whether the customer list contains a selective accumulation of detailed, valuable information about customers; (2) whether substantial efforts were expended to identify and cultivate the customer base such that it would be difficult for a competitor to acquire or duplicate the same information; (3) whether the information in the customer list derives independent economic value from its secrecy and gives the business a demonstrable competitive advantage over others in the industry; and (4) whether the business divulged its customer list externally or internally. If a business cannot provide and present evidence to a court to support these four factors its customer list is not a trade secret.

The takeaway from this case is that  it is important to keep your customer list secret, and clearly never provide the list to people outside of your business, and to be able to clearly provide background on the list to support the four factors enunciated by the Court of Appeals.

As a side note, two of my partners represented the plaintiff and were successful on all issues in the appeal.

If you or anyone you know needs advice or assistance on either side of a customer list or trade secret case, please call me for assistance at (602) 248-1009 or email me at nhb@jaburgwilk.com.

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