Dan Shapiro: Explicit output compensation hurts creative work like engineering
Daniel Shapero · a16z Podcast | Getting Sales Right · Jan 2, 2019 · at 25:01
Dan Shapiro, former VP of Sales at LinkedIn, explains to a16z General Partner Peter Levine why sales roles use commission structures while engineering roles receive flat salaries.
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“Sort of, the other thing that I think if you're a fan of I think is Bob Cialdini, the guy that wrote the Influence book basically says that for creative, expansive type of tasks, giving people explicit compensation is actually really counterproductive. They tend to narrow their field of vision. They tend to focus on known solutions For highly repetitive, narrower tasks, paying someone per their direct output actually drives higher output, and I think sales tends to sit much more in the former engineering, in the latter. Engineering sits way more in the former.”
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