What I'm about to discuss is an unfortunate but real-life experience, and your comments and thoughts are welcome.

I do business with many major retailers, and quite often I'm shocked (guess I'm still sort of green) that the "buyers" of certain retailers would choose an inferior and more expensive product than what I offer. With quotas and sales pressure, there just doesn't seem to be a way in to a few key accounts I wish to establish business with. Well, someone introduced me to Mr. A, a sales rep. Mr. A tells me how much the buyers I wish to do business with loves him, and asked me to confirm it by phone call - something I did immediately afterwards. The conversation with the buyer(s) went like this:

"Hi, this is Richard from .... and I was wondering, if I was to work with Mr. A, do you think my chances of getting our products into your stores would be good?"

"Absolutely."

So I called back Mr. A and thanked him, then proceeded to discuss the details. To my surprise, I was asked to give Mr. A at least 5% commission - "paid out in my overseas account or send me cash in batches". Also, I realized part of the commission will be used to "take care" of the buyer(s).

After realizing that my hard work in product development and sales call have all been in vain due to several million dollars worth of "taking care" money, I was very upset.

Does business ethics count anymore?

 

I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

I think the jist of it is that even in his legit business dealings he runs into people blatantly asking for bribes.....

Well Mingster, in the world of corporate greed there is no end in site! ENRON etc.

 

Ah, I guess I should actually frame my question: How much would it take for you to sell your honor and integrity?

At risk are major accounts - now if I got in, then I'm looking at potentially 6 figure bonuses. Long term cumulative gain would be in the 7 figures easy, but that means I would have to sell my integrity.

My boss once said "there's a price to MOST PEOPLE's integrity, it's just a matter of zeros"

I don't think any numbers of zeros would do for me - you can only sell your integrity once, and once you do, you can never buy it back.

My rant has to do with the fact that I'm looking at ILLEGAL AND UNETHICAL means to sell what I believe are superior and competitively priced products.

These are the things they don't tell you in B-School.

 

Maybe I'm wrong but it sounds to me like the guy is basically breaking the law .... which could possibly implicate you then as well.

 

Bribes, honestly, if you want me to make a huge change to my company, my products, there better be a good means for this. Saving $2 per unit sometimes doesnt even cut it. You got to make new Skus, new catalogs, new plano diagrams just to put your product on the shelve. Honestly all that headache, is it worth $2 savings a unit. From an owners perspective, not really. Unless you sweating the deal by giving him some spiff so he will STFU and take the offer and take the extra under the table commission.

Business is time AND MONEY

If you bought from Trading A Industries for the past 5 years, love their service, warranty, delievery, why would a company take a gamble like that to save a few bucks and switch. Especially if you arent established in the business, not saying your company is mingster because i have no clue what you do

 

I think I know what you're talking about. A friend of mine was a buyer for a very large corporation that everyone has heard of. He used to tell me stories about the dinners sales reps took him to, and all the free stuff they gave him. He said that most buyers were swayed by this type of semi-bribery because there's no reason not to be. In this type of job, there was no one looking over his shoulder; no one knew or cared which vendor he used, or whether one vendor might cost a little more than another or be of lower quality. If you hate your job, and hate the corporation you work for, why should you care about anything except which sales reps give you get best kickbacks?

As it happened, my friend was not only anti-corporate, but also anti-bullshit, so he usually selected the vendor that had the best chance of not screwing up the job, or the one with the best personality, or something like that. He didn't base it on the bribes. He was eventually fired. Not exactly the same situation as what you're encountering, but similar. I think this goes on everywhere.

 

Rich: I think that Mr A is seriously pushing the legal boundries of commission and/or kickbacks. Had he been up front about a 5% commission in exchange for getting you in the door with this company, I suspect this wouldn't be an issue. However, it sounds like he's asking for "under the table" money (and a lot of it, from the sound of things), which would be tax fraud on both your and his parts, as far as I know. You are officially stuck between a rock and a hard place

For your question - your boss is right. Everybody has a price. I've dealt with sales reps in the past, and I think some of them would sell their soul for a dime if it meant a chance at making a few bucks. Others take the dignified and respectable approach, which doesn't result in the quick money but over the course of time probably pays off. From what I've seen of your business behavior the past 2 years, I'd say you are probably in the latter category.

 

Richard -

At the risk of asking a stupid question, are you talking about US companies or companies based in other nations? The reason I ask is that as I'm sure you know, different cultures have different accepted norms. Business practices that are abhorrent by the usual "accepted" US standards are accepted and in some cases legitimate in other cultures.

In my experience, such cultural differences can make treading the waters of international business quite murky.

But to answer your original question, there is no dollar amount. I still have to sleep at night and look my wife in the eye. As much as I would try and keep things in perspective (from either a cultural or pracitcal standpoint) my integrity is mine alone. I couldn't feel good about myself any other way and would find something else to do for a living.

But that's just me.

 

I know what you are saying Mingster. I found the older I got the more corrupt I realized things really are. Don't give in to it. There is something I believe in called Karma and what goes around comes around. I'm sure we have all been tempted at one time or another wanting to do something we know is wrong but you have to live with your decisions.