by Tina Cherpes, Featured Contributor
Once a year, the corporate dog-n-pony show hit the road visiting the regional offices to share the vision for the upcoming year; with little variation the message delivered went something like this: “…grow net revenue by increasing sales volume and reducing operating expense”.
This year however, in a move uncharacteristic of his predecessor, the new CEO allotted time for questions and answers. He kicked-off the first Q & A session with 
“Okay, so what’s on your mind?” dead silence “Who has something they’re dying to ask?” dead silence “I know somebody has something they’d like to ask?” a hand goes up.
“Great, tell me who you are and what’s on your mind?” Every head in the room whipped around, “My name is Jackie, I work in the Operations area and I want to know why sales people get paid so much more than Ops people?”
Without missing a beat, the CEO responded “You’re fired” (just kidding, that’s a different story) he said, “Jackie, the only reason any of us, including me, have a job is because there are people out there willing to buy what we make; through their purchases, these people – our clients, create the cash flow that keeps us in business. We find our clients through the efforts of our sales team. Our sales team is the highest paid group in the company because without profitable sales, there would be no way for us to survive – at least not for very long; does that make sense?”.
While we can agree or disagree with the new CEO’s specific response, his vision/definition of what’s important to the organization left very little to the imagination; sales generates income and everything else generates expense. Can a sales team be as successful without the ongoing support of creative finance managers, capable service associates, or competent operations staff?; probably not. Yet without the initial sale, who or what would these teams support?
While Jackie may not have liked the answer she received, managing her own career path would become much more simple because of it. If her goal was to maximize her employer’s compensation plan, she would need to transition into a role deemed valuable by the company and like a majority of the companies on the planet, the highest paid positions are in sales.
