Are sales bonuses old hat?

Things may have changed too much to justify heavy bonuses to sales people for hitting sales targets…. Is this a controversial argument or an actuality? With the regulations in the finance sector minimising commission to advisers specifically to encourage best practice and minimise mis-selling to unknowing consumers, the attention surely should shift to the motivations of all sales people who are heavily commission based? In a technical sales role, the sales person should be concentrating on a discovering the customers needs/wants, finding a solution... a win:win. It’s really important in a technical selling role that the salesperson is seen as a trusted advisor and relationship building is key to the role. And yet, with large commissions, I still see a few sales people who focus on “bucking” the bonus system, selling the wrong products and unprofessionally representing the company. It’s not just about rogue sales people though, the sales process is changing. We are more likely to use marketing campaigns to create warm leads and rely more on internal customer support based staff and inside sales teams to progress and maintain sales. For this reason, it may be that companies should be focusing more on team bonuses and company wide profit share schemes to encourage a company wide sales focus? I would be really interested in your views on bonus schemes and where they should be heading.. ?