Why Are Sales People Underpaid Yet They Make Millions For Their Companies?

Why Are Sales People Underpaid Yet They Make Millions For Their Companies?

By Jane Okoth
“I am a sales person with a middle sized company that in the CBD” says Daniel Matara.

He further confesses that “I got the job through an advertisement which I saw in the daily newspaper which claimed to pay the sales people 15,000 a week.That was not the case when I reported to work with my colleagues because we were told something entirely different.
The company deals with selling of kitchenware.

A set of kitchenware costs 300 shillings so if you are indeed lucky to sell one, your commission will be 30 shillings.This means that I have to push myself to the limit to sell at least 30 merchandise (which is not easy at all) in order to earn a reasonable commission in a day.The merchandise is normally heavy and fragile and you have to walk with it in every corner of town hoping to find someone interested in buying. This is exactly what I have to go through every day,” he laments.

This is just one of the daily normal occurrences of a Sales person as the job is considered one of the worst ones considering how the sales employees are being underpaid.

Just take a look at any sales person whether in town or in a shopping centre and you will be able to judge based on their appearance.

So why do they allow to be subjected to such treatment?

“Because they do not have a choice,” says Felistus Ochieng, a Student at a Public University.

“Most of the people doing sales are young, with some who have just completed secondary school. That is what drives them into desperation because they don’t seem to have a choice.

Some of them are lured into the jobs with the promise that it will be pay well but that is usually not the case,” he says.

“The problem with sales people is that they are not empowered, that is they have little or less education,” says Jeff Oware, a Research Officer at an international N.G.O.

“There is no way I would let a person mistreat me even if I am jobless. Also we should blame the situation on poverty and unemployment because our youths really need jobs,” he adds.

“The companies dealing with sales people just need to pay their sales people well because they help make millions for their companies.

There is nothing as frustrating as betting your salary on your luck because if you are not lucky to find people to buy your merchandise, you will walk home empty-handed.

The government also needs to step out and issue tough regulations on such companies who are taking advantage of the desperation of poor Kenyans,” he advises.

Why do they still continue to be underpaid yet they generate a lot of profits for their respective companies?

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