> The customer certainly does have a role. If he decides not to pruchase your product/service, your commission, which he pays, is zero.
Actually, you’re mistaken.
If somebody decides not to purchase my product/service then he is not a customer.
If there is no customer I have not made a sale. If there is no sale then there is no commission.
Once I have made a sale, I have a customer. My commission is paid by my employer come Hell or High Water, based upon an agreed percentage of margin on that sale. Even if the customer is subsequently unhappy with what he received.
The customer cannot say “I am unhappy, so your salesman does not deserve his margin” — that isn’t how it works. Commission is a part of agreed remuneration: once it has been earned by making a sale, the employer is responsible — by law — to pay it. In full. Or else.
How is that different from someone splitting an entree with their companion and having a couple of ice waters?
If the waiter doesn't make the sale, he doesn't get paid. Heck, sometimes he makes the sale and still gets screwed, which seems like something awfully unlike "charity."