I remember a time when it was said that "a salesman's car always burns the petrol with the highest green shield factor".    I guess the equivalent these days is the business traveller who flies with the airline with the most generous awards program.  And, by the way, in both cases the product bought isn't necessarily the best value for the person who's actually putting up the money for the product being bought.   I've always felt that this way of attracting business is a little seedy - perhaps "unethical" would be too strong a comment, but certainly I feel it goes in that direction.

And perhaps that's why I'm bothered by the practices of some agents who book training courses - these agents will charge their clients list price for a course and negotiate a heavy discount with the training provider with that discount providing their fee.   Which courses do they book their clients onto?  The ones with the highest list price and greatest discount   .  Now it could be that the course booked is ideal for the trainee ... but it's more likely to be the course that's run by the training provide who's having the most trouble filling his courses and has to discount the most.

Suggestion - let's learn from the theatre industry, where a booking fee is charged on top of your ticket price if you use an agency rather than queue up in the rain at the theatre - I'm certainly happy to pay for their service.  Or if this is too radical, how about agents declaring their "take" to their client, rather like the sellers of financial services have to do by law these days.

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