you should be vary careful. never forget that sales people are good at selling things, which includes their own value, whereas traditionally software developer

you should be vary careful. never forget that sales people are good at selling things, which includes their own value, whereas traditionally software developers are not. you may be particularly talented in this area for all i know, but be aware of this. making reward results based to avoid becoming a victim of their superior ability to convince you they are worth more than they are. commission is a classic approach... its hard to argue with getting paid better if you do good work... but it does incentivise bad work if not done carefully. ... on the other hand, if you get legal advice to draw up paperwork for sharing equity the default position is to make it very difficult to cash in on, so offering equity might be safer... but i'm not sure the recipient will enjoy having to learn the lesson of how difficulty equity can be to turn into cash. what kind of product is it? do you really need sales? usually its a way to sell more, not sell at all... all of that said, why not discuss it with them and see what they expect too? that might be an easy way to rule them out or bring them onboard because what they might want might be either completely unrealistic, or undervaluing themselves.