Should You Adjust Your Sales Compensation?
Compensation & Benefits
A sagging economy may cause some HR professionals to reconsider pay programs for sales personnel.
For the woman working in travel sales at AAA of Western and Central New York, moving from inside sales to a position as an outside sales rep seemed wise. She would be trading the certainty of an hourly rate (plus bonus) for the risk of commission-only compensation, but a quick review of the previous year showed she would have come out farther ahead earning commissions.
She started her new job Sept. 4-one week before the terrorist attacks that brought the travel industry to its knees. "There are sales reps who didn't make any commission the whole month of October," says Hayley Schultz, HR manager at AAA.
