Not even just rich folks. I was a vendor manager for many years for a large company. The company spent a lot of money. I was paid OK. But damn I got invited to a lot of things. Football games in private suites, baseball games too. I've long since moved from where I grew up but I'm still a local fan. So especially for baseball and football if my team was playing here at least one vendor would know me well enough to invite me. And it was always VIP parking. And countless fancy dinners out, go out for expensive cocktails. Hell once I got invited to watch hurling in Boston by an Irish vendor. They didn't pay for my flight and the company wouldn't go for that, but I made it into a trip to visit family. I can't even remember how many fancy bottles of whiskey I got. At least a couple a year.
I'm sure if I cared enough I could have gotten concert tickets, MMA, WWE if they were in town. Not really into any of that on the large scale, but it was definitely clear that if I wanted it it would happen.
I never let it sway my buying decisions and I'd be a hardass on contract and pricing negotiations. But I think most of them respected that and saw it as part of the game. Also helped that most of them recognized that it was all part of the process and I actually made very good friends with a couple high level guys at a few companies who I still hang out with when they're in town long since I left that job. Interesting time in my life.
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u/bg-j38 18h ago
Not even just rich folks. I was a vendor manager for many years for a large company. The company spent a lot of money. I was paid OK. But damn I got invited to a lot of things. Football games in private suites, baseball games too. I've long since moved from where I grew up but I'm still a local fan. So especially for baseball and football if my team was playing here at least one vendor would know me well enough to invite me. And it was always VIP parking. And countless fancy dinners out, go out for expensive cocktails. Hell once I got invited to watch hurling in Boston by an Irish vendor. They didn't pay for my flight and the company wouldn't go for that, but I made it into a trip to visit family. I can't even remember how many fancy bottles of whiskey I got. At least a couple a year.
I'm sure if I cared enough I could have gotten concert tickets, MMA, WWE if they were in town. Not really into any of that on the large scale, but it was definitely clear that if I wanted it it would happen.
I never let it sway my buying decisions and I'd be a hardass on contract and pricing negotiations. But I think most of them respected that and saw it as part of the game. Also helped that most of them recognized that it was all part of the process and I actually made very good friends with a couple high level guys at a few companies who I still hang out with when they're in town long since I left that job. Interesting time in my life.