Commission vs Salary

Whether you are in a traditional sales role, like a car, insurance, or real estate salesman, or a nontraditional one like someone behind the counter at a hardware store, you will obviously get paid however, there is normally a difference between how you get paid.  In a traditional sales role, you probably make a commission, which is just a percentage of the dollar amount, on the sale that you make whereas a nontraditional salesperson will probably make a salary or annual wage.  Either way the people are motivated to sell but when it comes to commission, there is definitely more of an incentive to sell.  For nontraditional sales roles, commission does not make sense because for the most part the customers just need pointed in the right direction and are probably buying a small ticket item.  These positions also require a less specialized education about the product(s).  In a traditional sales role, they are normally bigger ticket items and require a more specialized person to guide you.  For these roles it makes sense to have a commission-based income because that way they always have motivation to bring money into the company.  If you were a car salesman that got paid 30,000 dollars a year you would only be willing to give that much effort to the company.  If you made a commission on every car sale, you would be motivated to move as many cars off of the lot as possible because that puts more money into your pocket.  However, commissions can make some salespeople only look at the money perspective and disregard the customer which is not what should happen in a sales role.