India is still one of the most corrupt countries in the world - one could say: the corruption there is almost legendary... You will often be confronted with the topic of "baksheesh", especially when dealing with authorities. But the topic of corruption is also surprisingly present in the sales of many companies in the form of its “Siamese twins” of nepotism and kick-backs. We already have that in our article Corruption in India described in detail and we would like to come back to it today.
With or without payment – both ways lead to success.
It goes without saying that your company behaves absolutely correctly - for you that is a question of principle. However, you will always be confronted with situations that make it difficult to strictly adhere to this principle. Especially when your own Indian employees assure you that you cannot achieve the desired sales success without “payment”.
In India, when it comes to achieving business success, there are always two systems that are more or less equal: one is the path “without corruption” and the other is the path “with corruption”. The path “with corruption” is particularly taken when one fails to achieve the goal at the right level with good arguments. Then the obvious way out is to support the arguments with generous accommodation, i.e. the second option. This path is often – and often – taken by Indian employees and managers.
However, if someone from your Indian team claims that the only way to achieve project success is “payment”, you should be aware of one thing: your employee is obviously not at the right hierarchical level and certainly not in the right and correct way.
The wrong employees in the wrong position
However, this happens very often in India and - even if you might not want to admit it - the error is often to be found in your own management or directly with the company management itself. Because simple and cheap Indian sales employees (you want to save costs...) are let loose on contacts for whom they are not suitable in terms of their personal standing and position in order to conduct the necessary discussions at the right, i.e. usually higher, level. On the other hand, massive internal pressure is put on the sales employee to achieve his sales goals. It is then tempting to take the “second” path…
So if someone in your sales team demands “funding” for fees or commissions in order to influence a potential customer’s purchasing decision in your company’s favor, it clearly shows that “you” are on the wrong level with the customer.
