Sales Contests and TARP

I perused the comments section of MSN yesterday regarding the 12 day Vegas trip for top performing sales reps at Wells Fargo and they were quite scathing. After accepting billions in bailout money (which was basically forced upon them by Secretary Paulson - Wells never outright asked for the greenbacks), the powers that be didn't 86 the annual trip. Their spokesperson went so far as to explain to the media that the sales contest was part of the "Wells Fargo culture". After a huge media backlash, the Vegas trip was abruptly cancelled earlier this week.

A few years ago I won a sales contest and got an all-expense trip to Las Vegas. My previous two employers both rewarded their top performing employees with elaborate trips to Vegas, Hawaii, and the Bahamas. Sales contests are designed to motivate and almost encourage employees to pull a couple of fast ones in order to hit the numbers required to win these trips. To be clear here, not everybody is eligible to go on these trips. The Vegas-bound employees of Wells Fargo represent the top performing salesmen in the organization.

Companies like Wells Fargo stay in business because of sales people. If they're not out there doing their jobs, Wells simply does not have the money to pay their other employees. While booking an elaborate 12 day trip at the most expensive hotel in Las Vegas may have been in poor taste, these employees won that trip fair and square. For spectators who have never so much participated in a candy bar fundraiser to complain that these top earners are "lucky to have a job" is ludicrous.

I may be biased, but sales is one of the toughest jobs on the planet. One salesman at Wells Fargo probably supports a dozen other employees. Letting the uber-competitive salespeople have their contest only benefits the bottom line. A lot of people make their livlihood off this one sales person. If all it takes is a trip to Las Vegas to keep this key person motivated then so be it.