

Why Sales People Should Be The Highest Paid Employees - cwan
http://www.fistfuloftalent.com/2010/02/when-the-carrot-becomes-the-joke.html

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hga
As long as you don't have a system where they get compensated for selling
stuff that actually loses money in the long term (easy enough ... IF you're
honest and transparent), _absolutely_.

In the early '90s I worked for a company with a greedy nepotistic CEO who
didn't keep faith with his salesmen (or anyone else for that matter), which
regularly brought the company to near death and after I'd left killed it.
Everyone I knew (including programmers) walked away from the company before
then with 4-5 figures in bonuses or commissions in arrears.

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gaius
_As long as you don't have a system where they get compensated for selling
stuff that actually loses money in the long term_

Absolutely. Any fool can generate sales by selling for less than it costs to
make the product... Especially if he can scarper as soon as he collects his
commission but before the product is due to be delivered!

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GFischer
Good sales people should be richly rewarded, absolutely... but it all comes
down to the product.

I've seen salespeople that do only the "easy" sales (the ones where the
customer is the one that drives the sale, and not the ones where the salesman
hooks the buyer)... I'm not sure if the salesman should be rewarded for those.

OTOH, when the salesman takes the time to see where the product can fit and
help the company, and is actively involved in demoing and smoothing out the
sale.. those are worth every penny.

Also, those that find the way into companies, to look for the decision takers
with a problem... that should also be a factor.

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scorchin
At the end of the day, if a Sales person can bring in 100-120% of their
salary, then they're worth every penny.

Sadly when I joined my current company there were two sales staff who seemed
to run the place. Within about a month they were both gone. Probably because
they weren't making any leads.

Furthermore, one of them couldn't do sales over the phone unless they were at
home. At the time I was the only one to spot this as being a major flaw for a
sales person but was shot down immediately.

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bediger
I knew it! This was written by a salesman! You could smell it all along.

