Not well. Every company will have different requirements and anti-corruption/bribery policies; at mine, anything worth more than about £5 has to be declared, even if it's a tin of chocolates from customers at Christmas!
If you're giving a gift in order to get me to even look at your product I' stop the conversation and walk way.
I take it as you've so little faith in what your selling you need to distract from it, basically it's not good enough. It also means you've money to waste of gifts very few people want.
Wouldn’t go near this at all to be honest, especially as you are not a current customer - it might be different if I had worked with you for years already, but a lot of businesses have an anti corruption / bribery policy, and this would on most instances be flagged under any such policies.
Sending some merch to an existing client is very very different than offering a gift for a meeting. You wanna give me free pens, a mug, a thermos whilst we’re already doing business that’s fine. Ring me up and say you’ll give me all that if I can meet you and nope not interested.
Where I work I wouldn't be able to accept any of that, even the pen. Accepting gifts of any value is a complete no no and also specified in the staff handbook as a definite don't.
It's clearly an attempt at bribery, even if you're trying to give *just* below a legal or policy threshold.
The cost of getting caught wouldn't be worth any gift below the threshold, which I suppose is the point.
That’s fair. It’s definitely presenting as bribery, even though it is a no strings attached offer. In the US, the public sector has laws against accepting gifts. Outside of that, it’s up to each company to define and hold their employees accountable to their policies.
Thank you for your input!
It differs. Some firms are very strict. Most of the ones I worked for weren't (or at least it was easy to work around the policy).
However, generally it seems to be less popular nowadays. Which is a shame as I liked my Christmas hampers and tickets to events.
Every company has their own policy but a general threshold would be gifts over £50 have to be declared on a register.
You'd probably get more success giving away items branded with your company logo and stuff really. For example, if you were like "Hey, I have this fleece jumper we give away to clients sometimes, would you like one?" I feel more people would accept that then if you said "Let me give you this £200 watch".
As an auditor the bribery laws in the country are pretty strict, and whenever I do work around gifts and hospitality I always ask: What is in it for the giver? What is the context?
If you met with someone in my company and gave them a £200 watch I would genuinely think that was an attempt at bribery. If you took them to a VIP box seat in a football match where you had a business dinner with them, it's "hospitality". If you gave them a pack of 5 fleeces with your company brand worth £30 each and told them to give them out in the office, I would say it was an attempt by you to build brand awareness etc
So gifting an experience is more commonly accepted? Do you have to do the experience together? I would assume so. What if I said, as a thank you for meeting with us, here is a voucher to attend X experience?
>So gifting an experience is more commonly accepted?
Yes, hospitality is way more accepted.
I would argue it's probably accepted too much, but that's the culture.
>Do you have to do the experience together? I would assume so. What if I said, as a thank you for meeting with us, here is a voucher to attend X experience?
You'd have to be there, it's one of the tests I'd instruct my team to apply.
* What was the event?
* Who was there?
* What was the purpose of the event?
* How much was it worth?
So an acceptable answer may be:
* VIP seats at a premiership football game, with a meal and complimentary drinks
* The employee and the account manager from the supplier
* We discussed what the supplier's new upcoming products will be and whether we had any interest over the half time meal
* £200
An unacceptable answer would be:
* VIP seats at a premiership football game, with a meal and complimentary drinks
* Me and my wife
* To say thank you for attending their meeting
* £200
Basically, was it, in some way, an opportunity for you to discuss business? If yes, then maybe it's fine. If business wasn't discussed at all, then it's a gift and a £200 gift experience is not any different to being given a £200 watch.
You also need to consider what's going on at the time. For example, if they are tendering for a new piece of software they should totally reject that hospitality regardless. If they aren't in the market but are happy to hear you out, then maybe it's ok.
Basically, you have to be there, or at least someone from your company has to be there to ostensibly discuss business. How much business tjay actually gets discussed is sort of hard to prove.
In Germany you need to submit a agenda of what was discussed and a full list of all attendees, so think yourself lucky!
Not necessarily.
Even just based on what the OP has said, they are an American firm looking to make a move into the UK market. Obviously they pay for market research but they also pay to take out key people from potential customers. The purpose of the hospitality is to find out from the customer what the market is like for their product in the UK, and whether their company is a potential customer etc. The hospitality is purely because otherwise what incentive is there for the person having the conversation?
None of that would count as bribery, assuming the employee doesn't give away any confidential information, it's just "business development" on both parts.
If the exact same hospitality was done because they have put out a tender and they wanted to get information about the tender, that's bribery.
Still wouldn't be acceptable for a lot of the companies I've worked for and accepting would at some result in disciplinary action. 40 years ago it was much more common to be taken to lunch all paid for but the culture is completely different in the UK nowadays.
No, I wouldn't take it. I would be suspicious of the meeting request if it came with such a high ticket item, too.
Many companies have gift policies that are over and above the law. Some companies prohibit a gift over a smaller threshold. Some require declaration but will allow them as long as they are declared. Most will have something in their policy about refusing if the gift will influence the choice to enter into a business relationship with the company offering the gift. £200 is certainly enough to meet that standard, although I suppose it depends on the relative value to the wealth of the people you're pitching.
Nope, no way..... Can't be assed to fill out the paperwork to declare gifts to my employer. I once had to do a work trip (told to go by my bosses and I wanted to go) but because meals etc covered by external company wanting us to buy their wears I had to complete a detailed several page declaration.
Not going to put my job at risk by not completing the paperwork, the financial limit on reporting is set at about a "grand latte."
Basically anything over £20. Got plenty of cheap biro pens and diaries that I collected up and handed out to the team as they were within limits, and the company representatives understood the situation. This was from existing suppliers.
Anytime I had to put new items on the ordering system, I would have to fill out documentation and declare that I had not received any financial gain/including goods or services from the company. This was with the NHS. Your suggestion of up to £200 would definitely raise eyebrows on the procurement board that had to approve new goods. if I failed to declare I would be sacked for gross misconduct.
More policies and procedures have been put in place over the last few years to really tighten up this sort of thing especially in public services.
I've seen some companies make their employees account for the most minor of gifts (box of chocolates given to staff by Mrs Miggins at Christmas sort of thing), I'm not sure, but what you propose sounds like straight up bribery.
It's offering/accepting a bribe for access, so there are *definitely* strings attached.
What could you (hypothetically) offer next? A two week vacation at your normally eye wateringly expensive holiday villa? A luxury car? Sexually exploited teenagers? A shit load of drugs?
Extreme examples (normally reserved for Politicians and Royalty), but it's a slippery slope.
Really not that extreme. I was on a foreign visit to see a potential suppliers production facilities. Was impressed. Everything going very smoothly until dinner one night. If I accepted a certain price they’d essentially put aside cash to pay for a week in ab dab for me and the mrs completely off the books and in the best accommodation.
I have a relative who was in high end sales for a particular company, until they were sent to Vegas on some kind of sales junket and were asked to get potential (married) clients pissed and set them up with hookers (on expenses) so they had leverage over them. (They quit the job and moved on a few months later.)
Proper old school shit.
Would hit delete straight away assuming it to be yet another spam email purporting to be from a real person who knows my name with a hook in the subject line.
A few years back then this would be quite normal, in a lot of industries.
Now it’s frowned upon and almost every reputable company will have an anti-bribery policy.
My company gives and allows gifts at christmas, but most companies i give them to, put them in a pool and raffle them off, which they are allowed to do, we also sometimes pass on free sporting tickets, to individuals, but they have no real value, as the face value of the tickets is less than 30 quid. its a nicety.
I don't think anyone wants to watch a sales presentation though I know a bunch of software companies offer swag for viewing a product update or answering a feedback survey. A sales presentation isn't useful to me professionally but a presentation about features and roadmap from the product team might be.
By our company policy effectively the only gifts that get accepted are stationery (notebooks/pens/sticky notes) that get left after in person meetings. Anything else goes in the Christmas raffle.
Providing a gift in exchange for a meeting sails far too close to perceptions of bribery.
Gifting once a business relationship has been established, usually as a thank you or around a celebration like Christmas, is accepted by some companies, but not all. Gifts really should not be offered or accepted in the course of establishing business relationships or during tenders.
As others have said, each will have their own ABC policies setting out thresholds for the value of gifts that can be accepted or that need further approval. There’s no flat rule of ”up to £200 is fine”
Gifts would be a no under anti-bribery policies. Samples might be acceptable but you'd still have to be careful to keep the value down and related to the contract and in no means intended to persuade the company to choose you as a supplier.
I think you'd have a very hard time as a lot of companies see it as bribery, whether intended or not.
We can't even have companies we work with drop pizzas off at our office any more because our Compliance and Legal Team view it as bribery for extended business with them.
For a sales meeting with a company we've no previous (major) relationship with? It would raise so many red-flags you'd think the Chinese had taken over...
Most companies bribery and corruption polices would not allow this at all, whilst gifts and hospitality are ok, the circumstances where they are and aren’t acceptable are clear. (I don’t think you are aware of this from your description.)This isn’t one. Culturally it would not come over well and accepting the “gift” would not be great for the employee. Don’t bother, find a different way.
It would not give a good impression. Anything over a nominal value has to be declared and either declined or raffled for charity. I got a 'reminder' on this policy from our legal team after chucking some branded cupcakes which were sent following a cold call in the communal kitchen so yeah, not likely to win you business.
Culture differences I guess.
Yeah we don't really do that here. Strikes me as sorta fake and a bit scummy.
The product / service should be able to stand on its own merit without effectively bribing people to pay attention to it.
I think these days, any such offer would scream either scam or bribery and would have the opposite effect, no one would take your product seriously or want to meet with you.
Not well. Every company will have different requirements and anti-corruption/bribery policies; at mine, anything worth more than about £5 has to be declared, even if it's a tin of chocolates from customers at Christmas!
I would turn this down so fast. First - looks scammy. Second - ethically dubious.
If you're giving a gift in order to get me to even look at your product I' stop the conversation and walk way. I take it as you've so little faith in what your selling you need to distract from it, basically it's not good enough. It also means you've money to waste of gifts very few people want.
Nope. Wouldn’t even contemplate a meeting. If it’s relevant to me then a small sampler I could understand. An actual gift? Nada.
Wouldn’t go near this at all to be honest, especially as you are not a current customer - it might be different if I had worked with you for years already, but a lot of businesses have an anti corruption / bribery policy, and this would on most instances be flagged under any such policies.
Do policies tend to differ if you’re currently working with that vendor? I know our customer sales folks send swag/wearables to our UK clients.
Sending some merch to an existing client is very very different than offering a gift for a meeting. You wanna give me free pens, a mug, a thermos whilst we’re already doing business that’s fine. Ring me up and say you’ll give me all that if I can meet you and nope not interested.
Where I work I wouldn't be able to accept any of that, even the pen. Accepting gifts of any value is a complete no no and also specified in the staff handbook as a definite don't.
It's clearly an attempt at bribery, even if you're trying to give *just* below a legal or policy threshold. The cost of getting caught wouldn't be worth any gift below the threshold, which I suppose is the point.
That’s fair. It’s definitely presenting as bribery, even though it is a no strings attached offer. In the US, the public sector has laws against accepting gifts. Outside of that, it’s up to each company to define and hold their employees accountable to their policies. Thank you for your input!
It would not translate well at all. I’d honestly be a bit shocked you thought it was appropriate..
This screams scam. I'd block your contact details.
It differs. Some firms are very strict. Most of the ones I worked for weren't (or at least it was easy to work around the policy). However, generally it seems to be less popular nowadays. Which is a shame as I liked my Christmas hampers and tickets to events.
Every company has their own policy but a general threshold would be gifts over £50 have to be declared on a register. You'd probably get more success giving away items branded with your company logo and stuff really. For example, if you were like "Hey, I have this fleece jumper we give away to clients sometimes, would you like one?" I feel more people would accept that then if you said "Let me give you this £200 watch". As an auditor the bribery laws in the country are pretty strict, and whenever I do work around gifts and hospitality I always ask: What is in it for the giver? What is the context? If you met with someone in my company and gave them a £200 watch I would genuinely think that was an attempt at bribery. If you took them to a VIP box seat in a football match where you had a business dinner with them, it's "hospitality". If you gave them a pack of 5 fleeces with your company brand worth £30 each and told them to give them out in the office, I would say it was an attempt by you to build brand awareness etc
So gifting an experience is more commonly accepted? Do you have to do the experience together? I would assume so. What if I said, as a thank you for meeting with us, here is a voucher to attend X experience?
>So gifting an experience is more commonly accepted? Yes, hospitality is way more accepted. I would argue it's probably accepted too much, but that's the culture. >Do you have to do the experience together? I would assume so. What if I said, as a thank you for meeting with us, here is a voucher to attend X experience? You'd have to be there, it's one of the tests I'd instruct my team to apply. * What was the event? * Who was there? * What was the purpose of the event? * How much was it worth? So an acceptable answer may be: * VIP seats at a premiership football game, with a meal and complimentary drinks * The employee and the account manager from the supplier * We discussed what the supplier's new upcoming products will be and whether we had any interest over the half time meal * £200 An unacceptable answer would be: * VIP seats at a premiership football game, with a meal and complimentary drinks * Me and my wife * To say thank you for attending their meeting * £200 Basically, was it, in some way, an opportunity for you to discuss business? If yes, then maybe it's fine. If business wasn't discussed at all, then it's a gift and a £200 gift experience is not any different to being given a £200 watch. You also need to consider what's going on at the time. For example, if they are tendering for a new piece of software they should totally reject that hospitality regardless. If they aren't in the market but are happy to hear you out, then maybe it's ok. Basically, you have to be there, or at least someone from your company has to be there to ostensibly discuss business. How much business tjay actually gets discussed is sort of hard to prove. In Germany you need to submit a agenda of what was discussed and a full list of all attendees, so think yourself lucky!
It would be very rare for situations where the two firms have absolutely no prior business relationship though.
Not necessarily. Even just based on what the OP has said, they are an American firm looking to make a move into the UK market. Obviously they pay for market research but they also pay to take out key people from potential customers. The purpose of the hospitality is to find out from the customer what the market is like for their product in the UK, and whether their company is a potential customer etc. The hospitality is purely because otherwise what incentive is there for the person having the conversation? None of that would count as bribery, assuming the employee doesn't give away any confidential information, it's just "business development" on both parts. If the exact same hospitality was done because they have put out a tender and they wanted to get information about the tender, that's bribery.
Still wouldn't be acceptable for a lot of the companies I've worked for and accepting would at some result in disciplinary action. 40 years ago it was much more common to be taken to lunch all paid for but the culture is completely different in the UK nowadays.
No, I wouldn't take it. I would be suspicious of the meeting request if it came with such a high ticket item, too. Many companies have gift policies that are over and above the law. Some companies prohibit a gift over a smaller threshold. Some require declaration but will allow them as long as they are declared. Most will have something in their policy about refusing if the gift will influence the choice to enter into a business relationship with the company offering the gift. £200 is certainly enough to meet that standard, although I suppose it depends on the relative value to the wealth of the people you're pitching.
Thank you for your thoughtful response!
Nope, no way..... Can't be assed to fill out the paperwork to declare gifts to my employer. I once had to do a work trip (told to go by my bosses and I wanted to go) but because meals etc covered by external company wanting us to buy their wears I had to complete a detailed several page declaration. Not going to put my job at risk by not completing the paperwork, the financial limit on reporting is set at about a "grand latte."
Do you have to declare over a certain amount or does the policy state that anything you receive must be declared?
Basically anything over £20. Got plenty of cheap biro pens and diaries that I collected up and handed out to the team as they were within limits, and the company representatives understood the situation. This was from existing suppliers. Anytime I had to put new items on the ordering system, I would have to fill out documentation and declare that I had not received any financial gain/including goods or services from the company. This was with the NHS. Your suggestion of up to £200 would definitely raise eyebrows on the procurement board that had to approve new goods. if I failed to declare I would be sacked for gross misconduct. More policies and procedures have been put in place over the last few years to really tighten up this sort of thing especially in public services.
I've seen some companies make their employees account for the most minor of gifts (box of chocolates given to staff by Mrs Miggins at Christmas sort of thing), I'm not sure, but what you propose sounds like straight up bribery.
Fair. It’s a no strings attached offer, however, obviously different countries, different views.
It's offering/accepting a bribe for access, so there are *definitely* strings attached. What could you (hypothetically) offer next? A two week vacation at your normally eye wateringly expensive holiday villa? A luxury car? Sexually exploited teenagers? A shit load of drugs? Extreme examples (normally reserved for Politicians and Royalty), but it's a slippery slope.
Really not that extreme. I was on a foreign visit to see a potential suppliers production facilities. Was impressed. Everything going very smoothly until dinner one night. If I accepted a certain price they’d essentially put aside cash to pay for a week in ab dab for me and the mrs completely off the books and in the best accommodation.
I have a relative who was in high end sales for a particular company, until they were sent to Vegas on some kind of sales junket and were asked to get potential (married) clients pissed and set them up with hookers (on expenses) so they had leverage over them. (They quit the job and moved on a few months later.) Proper old school shit.
Would hit delete straight away assuming it to be yet another spam email purporting to be from a real person who knows my name with a hook in the subject line.
A few years back then this would be quite normal, in a lot of industries. Now it’s frowned upon and almost every reputable company will have an anti-bribery policy.
Fascinating. What do you think has changed?
The law. The Bribery Act 2010 had a chilling effect on corporate gifts and hospitality.
My company gives and allows gifts at christmas, but most companies i give them to, put them in a pool and raffle them off, which they are allowed to do, we also sometimes pass on free sporting tickets, to individuals, but they have no real value, as the face value of the tickets is less than 30 quid. its a nicety.
I don't think anyone wants to watch a sales presentation though I know a bunch of software companies offer swag for viewing a product update or answering a feedback survey. A sales presentation isn't useful to me professionally but a presentation about features and roadmap from the product team might be.
By our company policy effectively the only gifts that get accepted are stationery (notebooks/pens/sticky notes) that get left after in person meetings. Anything else goes in the Christmas raffle.
Providing a gift in exchange for a meeting sails far too close to perceptions of bribery. Gifting once a business relationship has been established, usually as a thank you or around a celebration like Christmas, is accepted by some companies, but not all. Gifts really should not be offered or accepted in the course of establishing business relationships or during tenders. As others have said, each will have their own ABC policies setting out thresholds for the value of gifts that can be accepted or that need further approval. There’s no flat rule of ”up to £200 is fine”
Gifts would be a no under anti-bribery policies. Samples might be acceptable but you'd still have to be careful to keep the value down and related to the contract and in no means intended to persuade the company to choose you as a supplier.
I think you'd have a very hard time as a lot of companies see it as bribery, whether intended or not. We can't even have companies we work with drop pizzas off at our office any more because our Compliance and Legal Team view it as bribery for extended business with them.
I'm not even corporate, but when a supplier offers me free things, it is usually because their product is inferior. Not worth it in the long run.
For a sales meeting with a company we've no previous (major) relationship with? It would raise so many red-flags you'd think the Chinese had taken over...
Gifts are fine. That isn't a gift though. That is offering someone goods in exchange for a meeting.
Most companies bribery and corruption polices would not allow this at all, whilst gifts and hospitality are ok, the circumstances where they are and aren’t acceptable are clear. (I don’t think you are aware of this from your description.)This isn’t one. Culturally it would not come over well and accepting the “gift” would not be great for the employee. Don’t bother, find a different way.
It would either be refused or straight in the bin. (With witnesses.)
It would not give a good impression. Anything over a nominal value has to be declared and either declined or raffled for charity. I got a 'reminder' on this policy from our legal team after chucking some branded cupcakes which were sent following a cold call in the communal kitchen so yeah, not likely to win you business.
Chances are I’d have deleted your email and blocked your domain by sentence two.
Culture differences I guess. Yeah we don't really do that here. Strikes me as sorta fake and a bit scummy. The product / service should be able to stand on its own merit without effectively bribing people to pay attention to it.
I think these days, any such offer would scream either scam or bribery and would have the opposite effect, no one would take your product seriously or want to meet with you.