Q & A Table of Contents
Now He Tells Me Kickbacks Aren't Enough
From: Marwan, Cairo, Egypt
Question: I need some negotiation advice concerning a client of mine. I am a supplier and he is my client.
I promised him that I will give him money for each check paid by his company to my company as part of the contract. Unfortunately he didn't fulfill his obligations and he has sometimes delayed payment to my my company to show his manager that he is committed to his organization.
Upon receiving the first payment from his company, I paid the man as we had agreed. In order to receive the second payment I did a lot of effort and the man didn't help at all. He just delayed the check to my company and then he came up with the stick and the carrot approach: he is saying the he has a big business opportunity and he will not tell me unless I give him the second installment of the cash I promised him in return for his company's payment to my company.
Frankly I do not think he does he really has the capacity to offer a credible business opportunity So what can I do?
Response: The man sounds like a thief. He is demanding that you give him a bribe for getting his company to fulfill its obligations under the contract to your company. Now it sounds as if he is compounding the impropriety of demanding a bribe by trying to get you to give away more in order to be able to take advantage of the 'fantastic business opportunity' he claims to have available.
First you need to consider your BATNA, your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. Ask yourself some questions:
How would your employer feel upon learning you have to bribe a client to get an agreement to do business?
Unless bribery is legal, are you personally or your company at risk if the bribe becomes known to law enforcement authorities?
Are there alternative ways you could do business with this client company -- for example could you deal with a different person or department?
Do your homework on how the client company's accounts payable process works so you find out who the decision-makers are -- and whether the bribe-demanding client can be bypassed in getting payment to your company.
How would your client's boss feel to discover you are paying his employee money under the table in order to receive payments due under the contract?
Are you in a position to tell your client that you will reveal the situation unless he ceases to conduct business dishonestly? What would the consequences be to you, to him, to his company, to your company?
Does your company have other clients now -- or with whom you could do business -- if you put more effort into working with them? Would they be likely to demand bribes or other questionable activities?
If you do 'go public' in some way about this client's behavior, could it damage you or your company's reputation in the marketplace in which you do business?
The next thing you have to examine is your interests and the interests of your company. Why do you accept business practices or relationships of which you do not approve or in which you are being victimized? Do you have an interest in undertaking business in a different way, avoiding dishonest dealings and 'clients' who are really attempting to take unfair advantage of you? What are the interests of other stakeholders in this situation: your boss, owners of each company, your clients, the ultimate users/purchasers of the finished products, the general public? For example, if some of your clients don't demand bribes and some insist on being bribed in order to get payment to your company that raises your company's cost of doing business and means, most likely, that other clients are paying for the bribery in the prices you have to charge them.
If you tell this particular client you are not interested in the business 'opportunity' he is offering and that you only care about fulfillment of the legal agreement between your two companies, what do you risk? Unless the risk is totally unacceptable for you or your company, you should begin to organize a strategy for improving the situation.
A strategy for improvement includes building up a team of supporters for your approach: your boss, other clients of your company, colleagues within your company, your family -- whoever can help you feel confident and comfortable about what you have to do. You need to let the bribe-demanding client know that someone who demands bribes for fulfillment of a contract's elements lacks personal credibility. As a consequence, you do not understand why you should believe him or his description of the business opportunity he is dangling in front of you.
Ask your client to demonstrate why you should believe him when he seems to have a habit of saying one thing and doing another. Ask him all kinds of questions to help you figure out when it is possible to trust him, whether he has the capacity to do business in an honest way, and whether it is really necessary to do business with him and not another person from his company.
If the client is a fundamentally dishonest person, unless you live in a society where such things are considered appropriate (which I hope is not true), if you behave honorably, if you fulfill your obligations and tell the truth, if you have done all the homework suggested above, I suspect you will find alternative opportunities that don't put your own reputation at risk or harm your company.
Good luck in a tough situation,
Steve
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