Studies dealing with incomes in the business community indicate that salespeople earn significantly higher incomes than most other workers. Some salespeople actually earn more than their sales managers and other executives within the organization. In fact, a successful career in sales and sales management can result in earnings similar to doctors, lawyers, and chief executives. 19, 20 U.S. companies spend more than $800 billion on sales force compensation each year—three times what they spend on advertising.21 This high level of compensation (whether from base salary, bonus, or incentives) is justified for good performance. Table 1.1 provides a summary of a recent compensation survey by the Sales Account Management Association. Executive and sales force compensation continues to climb despite uncertain economic conditions.22

In recent years, we have seen new ways to report compensation for salespeople. The Hay Group, working with C&C Market Research, developed a reporting method that tracks earnings for different types of sales approaches. Research indicates that salespeople involved in transactional sales, which generally focus on selling products at the lowest price, also earned the lowest compensation.

Sales personnel involved in value-added sales earned the highest level of compensation. These highly paid salespeople created improvements and, therefore, value in the sales process that enhanced the customer experience.23