You raise an interesting and perpetual dilemma for the sales manager, RJ. Should we not remunerate an order taker (one who can get results effortlessly because of product or territory) and the sales person (one who, using his or her talents, citrates opportunities that others might not) differently? It is poor management to have them on the same remuneration scale. But equally important is whether we are recognizing the sales people who are making a good job of communicating and selling our reputations, our true brand? Are we penalizing sales people who, perhaps get the numbers, but compromise our integrity or reputation. In the long run, values - and a match between the salesperson's values and the company's values - wins. But it needs guts in the short term to penalize or even fire individuals who hit the numbers but erode the brand. @DavidLapin Author: Lead By Greatness http://LeadByGreatness.com

As always, Simon, I find your words to be quite profound in their simplicity. Thank you for them. Of course you are right. Treating employees well is good for business, although as you know, there are examples of many extremely profitable businesses (at least in the short term) that don't. Treating employees well is the right thing to do and one of the ways to ensure, as I argue in Lead By Greatness, that the hours we spend in business are building our human characters, not just our economic value. The other piece of character growth through business is to be ever mindful that as important as our employees are, their and our first and foremost ethical responsibility is to deliver satisfactory and growing ROI to our investors/owners. The only way we can do this is by efficiently providing a valued product or service to customers whose wellbeing we genuinely care about. David Lapin Author: Lead By Greatness http://LeadByGreatness.com