While attending an equipment manufacturers' convention in Las Vegas, Nevada Perkins learns that a competitor, East Valley Sports, pays its customer service repre sentatives on a pay-for-performance basis. Intrigued by this compensation philoso- phy, Perkins asks her assistant manager, George Balkin, to research the pros and cons of this payment strategy. This request has become a priority because only last week two customer service representatives expressed dissatisfaction with their hourly wage. Both complained that they felt underpaid relative to the large amount of sales revenue each generates for the comipafiy