On Setting Optimal Sales Commissions

Abstract

AbstractThis paper treats the problem of determining the commission rates a company should choose to establish for each of n products sold by a salesman. It has been shown that a sales commission plan based on paying equal commission rates on the gross margins of the salesman's product lines is optimal under the assumption that sales generated as a function of time spent on a product is a deterministic increasing function of time. This paper explores a similar problem with relaxation of the deterministic assumption. It considers a stochastic sales function in order to show differences in preference functions between a company and salesman in determining optimal commissions.