I was a salesman and a sales manager for a lot of years--until I got sick, in fact--and I spent a lot of money on customers, commercial and governmental. Never once did I do it out of altruism. I took customers on trips and bought their meals and took them hunting and fishing and on trips to manufacturing plants because I wanted to sell them construction equipment and, in the future, parts and service for that equipment. I was selling the best made product and represented the company with the best product support.
If I could persuade the customer to write in requirements that machines last for a minimum length of time and have a high % of up time, I would almost always win because none our competition could match what we could offer. Influencing the way the specs were written was the end-all, be-all of selling to government entities. Thus the trips and the lunches and the fishing expeditions.
www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/education/inquiry-into-school-officials-travels-paid-for-by-pearson.html?src=recg
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