HBS Working Knowledge has some insight for us:

"bell asked the executives how they paid their start-up sales staffs, given that it takes a while for sales to ramp up and cash to flow in. And how do they mitigate against a bad hire, whose lack of productivity might not become evident for months?"

"Papa said that early on sales people were recruited with a longer draw---six months instead of the more traditional three, to give them income. But after about nine months, Endeca execs were able to spot "patterns of success" among the better sales people, and use that as a model for who to fire and who to recruit. The problem: sales dropped during that time of staff turnover."

"Your first sales team is crucial for obtaining feedback from potential customers, information that can be used to improve the product, Allaire said."

"Another key is to make sure that the right people are being incentivized to sell your product, Schneur added. Emptoris products are resold by IBM sales staff, but those people also sell a variety of other products during a call. Schneur said he would like to work out a way he could reward the IBM rep directly for sales of Emptoris products, but IBM has resisted the idea."