Specifically regarding compensation for engineers who help with sales ... I would suggest carving out a percentage of each commission for a "pooled" bonus that gets distributed to engineers supporting sales on a quarterly basis; this bonus then gets divided to individual engineers by the number of hours they spent supporting sales as opposed to actual sales deals closed. This model gives an incentive to tech folks to support sales, but will hopefully let them maintain some neutrality as a trusted adviser with an "arms-length" bonus that is not directly tied to any individual sale.

A few things ... 1. A GOOD sales person acts like a good consultant; they aren't the stereotypical used car types -- they are there actually helping the client try to figure out what's the best product to meet their business needs. 2. Traditional IT roles have become a commodity with the outsourcing movement; the long term path for an IT professional to survive and flourish is by getting more deeply involved in business facing functions. 3. A company can't survive without sales; if the sales department wants help, give the sales department help!!!