[josefresco]

Why is it hard to imagine that selling the 'cool stuff' developers/engineers make (and being the best at it) is motivation enough? Without sales people all the cool stuff we hackers create, would be seen and used by almost no one.

The art of selling, even without the ugly side of it (which there's plenty) is pretty amazing. We all admire guys like Steve Jobs but don't realize that he's the best salesman there is.

[swombat]

Technically, Steve Jobs is in Marketing (creating the market / generating the leads) rather than sales (turning leads into customers)...

[trebor]

Don't forget the satisfaction of helping people! When your widget fills a need, not merely a want, in a company or team, you can feel good at having met that need.

There will always be the slimy, rip-his-granny-off kind of salesman because people are like that. However, the flat-pay system would reward the good kind of salesman more often than the bad kind, and would bolster friendly competition within the company.