They are. And they have one job. To sell. So they’re motivated by the only output that matters in their job, how much they sold.
A lot of selling is zero sum. For you to win, if usually means someone (a competitor) has to lose. So it attracts competitive people just like programming tends to attract more analytical people.
There's an underappreciated corollary to sales comp.
1. If they're variable comp.
2. And corp controls equations.
3. Then corp can drive sales outcome it wants by changing equations.
For how messy ground-level sales at scale is (read: relationships, promises, conversations), this nicely simplifies and aligns what leadership wants to happen in sales with what actually happens.
Simply by tying sales comp to whatever the specific sales plays leadership wants more or less of.
Smart sales people are excellent at self-aligning their behavior to compensation incentives.
A lot of selling is zero sum. For you to win, if usually means someone (a competitor) has to lose. So it attracts competitive people just like programming tends to attract more analytical people.
The right skills for the right job.