Last year, Company X reconfigured its direct sales team to include more experienced sales people. The company spent less time and money training the experienced sales hires than they had found necessary to do with the previous, less experienced new hires, and both groups obtained equal direct sales results. The more experienced sales staff, however, received higher financial compensation, and what Company X saved on training costs was less than the additional expenditure of financial compensation. Company X concluded that the reconfiguration strategy would not increase profits in the future.
Which of the following would it be most useful to know in order to evaluate the argument?