Business Ethics 3rd Edition by Laura Hartman

Exercise 7

Many sales people are compensated predominantly on a commission basis. In other words, though the salesperson receives a small base hourly rate, most of her or his compensation derives from a percentage of the price of items sold. Since basically the salesperson only makes money if you buy something and he or she makes more money if you spend more money, do you ever trust a salesperson's opinion? What would make you more likely to trust a commission-based salesperson or less likely? Is there anything a commissioned salesperson could do to get you to trust her or him? Best Buy, the consumer electronics store, communicates to consumers that it does not pay its salespeople based on commissions in order to encourage objectivity. Are you more likely to go to Best Buy as a result?