Sales professionals face unique challenges when filing for long term disability insurance benefits due to the nature of their work and compensation. Success in sales is a demanding job, often requiring travel, sharp cognitive skills, the ability to read a room, influence decisions, gather and analyze data and make convincing presentations to high level decision makers.
There are as many different types of sales professionals as there are disabilities, and the insurance company will often take the position that one sales job is like another. The insurance company denial is usually to classify the salesperson’s job as sedentary or light duty and say the person is able to work regardless of their disability.
Having an experienced long-term disability insurance attorney is critical to protect the long term disability insurance benefits for a sales professional. Whether they are a national sales manager supervising a team of regional sales professionals or a high income producer working in a real estate office, a salesperson has a challenging job, six and seven-figure earnings potential, and always, fierce competition.
The main challenges facing salespeople for LTD claims:
- Defining occupation of a salesperson’s tasks and duties accurately
- Recognizing the different compensation structures
- Understanding skills needed to perform the job and maintain their position.
- Identifying the impact of physical and cognitive disabilities
When selecting an attorney to represent a sales professional with a disability, ask if they have represented sales professionals in the past. You’ll want an experienced LTD attorney who is knowledgeable about the specific challenges faced in this unique occupational category. They’ll need to understand the physical and mental abilities needed to work in this highly competitive occupation.
Defining occupation of a salesperson’s tasks and duties accurately
The term sales professional is a very broad term. A retail clerk selling fragrance in the local mall is a sales professional, but likely not under the same pressure as a regional salesperson for an engineering company working on multi-million dollar projects. This is why accurately defining the salesperson’s job is so important to the success of a long term disability insurance claim.
Newfield Law Group has represented many claimants where the insurance company relied on out-of-date job descriptions better reflecting jobs from the 1950s. The launch of the Occupational Information Network (“O*NET) in 1998 was an improvement but continues to present challenges for accurately describing all tasks and duties required for occupations. There are 16 different codes for sales jobs, ranging from sales managers to door-to-door sales workers. An LTD claim for a sales professional requires the ability to challenge the insurance company’s definition of a sales job.
Often, we work with the various tools we have – and utilize commission reports to help demonstrate what our clients’ work entailed.
Recognizing the different compensation structures
Compensation for sales professionals takes many different forms. A person may receive a base salary, commission on sales, bonuses, and extra compensation to make up the sales professional’s pay package. The insurance company may try to limit the benefits to the sales person’s base salary, which is usually the smallest part of their compensation. Any denial needs to be responded to with a robust submission including the individual’s pay package, may need to include the employment contract and information about how their peers in their specific position and sector are compensated.
Understanding skills needed to perform the job and maintain their position.
If the sales professional is not performing, their employers don’t keep them around. To hold onto a job in a highly competitive field like sales, the person needs to be able to produce. To do so, they need to have high level executive functioning. They need to be able to negotiate complex transactions, often on tight deadlines. The sales person navigates between their company’s designers or engineers and the client’s needs, dealing with two sets of demanding people to bring them together to close a deal.
Newfield Law Group has extensive experience working with psychiatrists, occupational therapists, and medical doctors to conduct cognitive studies to objectively evaluate a person’s ability to perform tasks. We have succeeded with many cases where the insurance company has taken the position that a claimant was malingering, when tests proved his abilities had changed dramatically as a result of medications used for an illness.
The sales person requires the ability to withstand a great deal of stress. A company’s sales keeps the business alive, and if the salesperson is not bringing in business and performing at the top of their game, they lose income and their jobs. Someone who is physically not able to travel three or four times a week, for example, will not be able to perform their job if it requires meeting clients face to face. Certain sales jobs can be done from a desk, but not the ones with six or seven figure incomes.
Identifying the impact of physical and cognitive disabilities
Someone who sells medical devices used in spinal surgery and goes into operating rooms with surgeons to assists them with using the devices properly is different than a salesperson on the road selling non-food merchandise to supermarket chains. But both salespeople need to be able to speak clearly, understand their customers’ needs, travel to client locations, stand up and move around the room easily when making presentations or assisting in the use of the product, and give a professional and knowledgeable appearance.
Common reasons for becoming disabled for sales professionals include orthopedic issues, cardiovascular illness from high stress and frequent travel and mental health issues including anxiety and depression. For those who are field sales representatives, there are risks from travelling to factories, environmental hazards and accidents using or demonstrating manufacturing or heavy equipment.
Contact Jason Newfield for a free consultation if you are a sales professional facing a long term disability insurance claim, have had your claim denied, or need help preparing an LTD ERISA Appeal. The call is free, there’s no obligation and Jason will tell you what you can expect from your long term disability insurance company.