Last year my wife moved from a sales engineering position to a sales rep job with her company. It has been a bit of a challenge, but she's enjoyed it, and it's been good for the family. On top of a small raise, she has a large potential upside to her income as a sales representative. I'm amazed how much money some of the people in her company make from selling software and services, and I sometimes wonder how it works out.

Recently I sent her this link about salespeople and commissions. It talks about the problems with commissions and the potential misunderstandings of what commissions actually do for our company. I know that some companies think paying salespeople flat rates and no commission is heresy. I know others that have transitioned to flat rates, including many retail companies, and they have continued to achieve high sales.

Read the rest of "Programmers v Salespeople" at SQLServerCentral.