Comment by koolba

2 days ago

Sales has to be commission based and you always hire at least two salesman.

The biggest driver to make a sale is the commission. The second biggest is fear of getting sacked because you’re not making as many sales as the other guy.

Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.

  • A classic. "Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross" and "Boiler Room" are a great sales themed movie night.

Pretty much this or something like it, at least in my experience the last 30+ years.

Sales seems to attract folks who are highly 'coin operated'. The large majority (yes...always with the exceptions) really, deep down, don't care about how cool the tech is, or how it's going to change the world...they care about the game of sales and you keep score in the game by how much commission you earn. You really want the salesthing that comes in with "Forget about the salary or draw, I want a 100% commission comp plan" because that's someone who is confident enough in their ability to sell that they aren't worried about paying the mortgage or buying groceries.

Tangentially, one of the worst things I've seen a sales org do is cap commissions. All that incentivizes is "I hit my cap...ima gonna go hang out on my boat until next quarter because why work for sales I'm not going to get comp'ed on".