Question: Sales Compensation Franco Welles, sales manager for Nanek, Inc.. is try-ing to decide whether to pay a sales rep for a new territory with straight commission or a combination plan. He wants to evaluate possible plans-to compare the compensation costs and profitability of each. Welles knows that sales reps in similar jobs at other bans make about $36,000 a year.

The sales rep will sell two products. Welles is plan-ning a higher commission for Product 8- because he wants it to get extra effort. From experience with similar predicts, he has some rough estimates of expected sales volume under the different plans-and various ideas about commission rates. The details are found in the spreadsheet. The program computes compensation-and how much the sales rep will conrnbute to profit. "Profit contribution" is equal to the total revenue generated by the sales rep minus sales compensation costs and the costs of producing the units.

a. For the initial values shown in the spreadsheet, which plan-commission or combination -would give the rep the highest compensation, and which plan would give the greatest profit contribution to Nanek, Inc.?

b. Welles thinks a sales rep might be motivated to work harder and sell 1,100 units of Product B if the commission rate (under the commission plan) were increased to 10 percent. If Welles is right (and everything else stays the same). would the higher commission rate be a good deal for Nanek? Explain your thinking.

c. A sales rep interested an the Job is worried about making payments on her new car. She asks if Welles would consider paying her with a combi-nation plan but with more guaranteed income (an $18,000 base salary) in return for taking a 3 per-cent commission on Products B and A. If this arrangement results in the same unit sales as Welles originally estimated for the combination plan, would Nanek, Inc. , be better off or wont off under this arrangement?

d. Do you think the rep's proposal will meet Welles' goals for Product B? Explain your thinking.