Question: I need an adjective for the term "financially motivated." The word I'm looking for isn't exactly greedy or rapacious. Although it can have connotations like that, the word needs to directly mean something more similar to "he does his job well if there's money (or perhaps just incentive) on the line."

Thanks in anticipation.

Answer: 
The word you are probably seeking is ***mercenary***, which exists both as noun and adjective.

It tends to carry negative connotations and is applied more specifically than in any other context to soldiers of fortune, who fight, not for a national flag, but for financial reward. indeed that is how the term is applied as a noun. ***A mercenary*** is such a soldier.

Its etymology is from Latin via Norman French, though the earliest example the OED has, is from Chaucer:

> 
> ▸ c1387–95 Chaucer Canterbury Tales Prol. 514 He [sc. the parson]
>  was a shepherde and noght a mercenarye [v.r. mersenarye].
> 
> 
> 

The full range of OED entries for ***mercenary***, without the multiple examples under each sense, is as follows:

> 
> A.
>  1. A person who works merely for money or other material reward; a hireling. In later use (probably influenced also by sense A. 2): a
>  person whose actions are motivated primarily by personal gain, often
>  at the expense of ethics. c1387–95—1998
> 
> 
> 2.a. A person who receives payment for his or her services. Chiefly and now only: spec. a soldier paid to serve in a foreign army or other
>  military organization. 1523—1974
>  b. In extended use, with modifying word. 1861—1987
> 
> 
> B. adj. 1 a. Of a person, organization, etc.: working or acting
>  merely for money or other material reward; motivated by self-interest;
>  materialistic. 1532—1997 b. Of conduct, a course of action, etc.,
>  or its motivation: characterized by self-interest or the pursuit of
>  personal gain; prompted by the desire for money or other material
>  reward; undertaken only for personal gain. 1532—1990
> 
> 
> 2. a. Hired, serving for wages. Now: spec. designating a soldier paid to serve in a foreign army or other military organization; (of an
>  army) composed of such soldiers. 1569—1974 †b. Salaried,
>  stipendiary; profit-making. Obsolete. 1656—1782
> 
> 
> 	3. Of or belonging to a mercenary. a1616—1922
> 
> 
>
I suppose you could say that one is "economically ambitious". To get it into one word you could say "greedy" but this implies a sense of self-centered focus without regard to others. 

A term we use to describe effective salespeople is often "coin-operated"