21–30 of 327 posts
It takes more of a psychological toll than engineering, and some people don't want to deal with it, or do not have the personality to brush off repeated rejections in order to get a sale.
Sales people earn commission because their work is "non-deterministic," meaning they could execute a perfect sales strategy to win an account but the opportunity could still fall through for circumstances beyond the rep's control (budget is yanked, project is delayed, etc.) By comparison, an engineer's work is "deterministic" in that is fully under his or her control to complete the goal. Sales is a risky job and it'…
Sales people earn commission because their work is "non-deterministic," meaning they could execute a perfect sales strategy to win an account but the opportunity could still fall through for circumstances beyond the rep's control (budget is yanked, project is delayed, etc.) By comparison, an engineer's work is "deterministic" in that is fully under his or her control to complete the goal. Sales is a risky job and it'…
Putting prediction hat on before reading article: "because your competitors pay commission" > Company A pays commissions and, if you do what you know you can do, you will earn $1M/year. Company B refuses to pay commissions for “cultural reasons” and offers $200K/year. Which job would you take? Now imagine that you are a horrible sales person who would be lucky to sell anything and will get fired in a performance-base…
Why do sales people get commissions and engineers don't? Because the sales person knows exactly how much money they bring in and can claim "if I didn't make the sale, that money would not be coming in" even though it's not always true it's a good story. An engineers actions are so far removed from revenue that they can't make a claim so directly. Also, if they did want to claim a portion of product revenue they could…
Also personality. Good salespeople are... Good salespeople. They apply their craft when negotiating compensation. What am I going to do, make a single page app about why I should be paid more? ...actually that's not a bad idea.
A salesperson who is making quota and running way over it into big bonuses is by definition earning their money.
Sometimes people are in the right place at the right time, of course, but in general it's hard to say a sales person is overpaid unless they're completely useless and failing to earn their base pay.
A strong argument would at least consider the systemic consequences of commissions, rather than just extolling the assumed virtues in a circular argument. What is their impact on product? On support? Engineering morale? On the customer experience itself? Just a myriad of effects not even considered here when commissions are looked at in isolation, the system be damned. It's probably very true that it's not plausible…
I like how he inadvertently admits that engineers are compensated less well in part because they mistake their jobs for something fun they'd do anyway.
In a field where your products are indistinguishable from competitors, you need to pay for sales people.
And in field where your product is probably worse than cheaper (or free) alternatives, you have a company entirely made of sales people (eg Oracle)
Sales people earn commission because their work is "non-deterministic," meaning they could execute a perfect sales strategy to win an account but the opportunity could still fall through for circumstances beyond the rep's control (budget is yanked, project is delayed, etc.) By comparison, an engineer's work is "deterministic" in that is fully under his or her control to complete the goal. Sales is a risky job and it'…
Why do sales people get commissions and engineers don't? Because the sales person knows exactly how much money they bring in and can claim "if I didn't make the sale, that money would not be coming in" even though it's not always true it's a good story. An engineers actions are so far removed from revenue that they can't make a claim so directly. Also, if they did want to claim a portion of product revenue they could…
Also personality. Good salespeople are... Good salespeople. They apply their craft when negotiating compensation. What am I going to do, make a single page app about why I should be paid more? ...actually that's not a bad idea.
Dats watt we 'ere fer.. we do what's you needs.
Now, I'm not gunna lie to ya, I love ya, why would I lie to ya... what I got 'ere fer ya t'day is da best deal yer gunna see in yer lifes!
So whadda I gotta do ta get you behind this deal ofs a lifetime fer, say, twenty cores on da best DB on da freakin planet for a fraction of what da others would even dream of?
You sign right now and I promise you I'll take dis deal all da way to the top and get the CEOs personal sign-off on dis deal so dat you get da best pricing you ever seen!!
What say you? We gots a deal? C'mon, you have to only say yes and I'll get my guys all over dis and you will look like a freakkn rock star to your boss for savin da moneys! (Plus I'll be out dere in august and I'll take yous out fer a steak dinner, c'mon that will be our celebrations!!)
/oracle