Your friend is the VP of Sales for a suite of optometry products that are sold to optometry health care providers around the country. He has been troubled by the high turnover and poor performance amongst his Lead Generation Sales Associates. This group (made up of relatively junior level people) is responsible for combing through long lists of people who responded to marketing campaigns, cold-calling health care providers, and tracking down who has purchasing authority within a target company. Based on this work, they develop a short list of "qualified leads" which is then turned over to more Senior Sales Managers who do the actual selling and who are responsible for developing client relationships. To improve retention and performance, your friend is considering increasing the base salary for Lead Generation Sales Associates, creating a minimum quota requirement for qualified leads, and offering a bonus for those that exceed the quota. Those that fail to meet the quota will receive negative job evaluations.

Focusing on what you have learned about Incentives and Motivation (though drawing from other topic areas as well where appropriate), answer the following two questions

1. Evaluate your friend's plan. To what extent do you think it will address the problem? Why or why not?

2. Advise your friend on other approaches he/she could take to improve the situation and explain why.