As many have said here, there are occasions when it makes good business sense to spend the money on a nice meal for customers, and $120 or so per person is a good average for budgeting, but depending on the customer's drinking habits, this can change radically. In a nice steak house, for example, a decent bottle of wine can be hard to find for under $100. In a group of 4 ppl, that's about 1 glass per person for a whole bottle, so if you're having 3-4 glasses each, that's $300-400 just on wine, and I've seen it go way up from there...we all have our stories for sure.
I wanted to chime in specifically because I've noticed a welcomed trend, at least in my area, and that is that customers aren't really looking for that expensive wine & dine as an expected practice anywhere near as much. I've had plenty of customer go out, order modestly, have 1-2 drinks (beer or house wine), and be more than happy with that. The cool part is that I have made sure they know they can order whatever they like, but they choose to just keep it reasonable on their own.
I think that things are changing a bit, as younger customers don't place as high of a value on fine dining, but rather prefer a good experience. I don't do a lot of expensive dinners lately, but I have a lot of customers asking for targets to hit that would justify a high end experience, like a golf weekend at a desirable location. I think this makes ton more sense. Yes, it does cost significantly more than a nice dinner, but it is seen and structured as what it really should be -- a reward (and thanks) for achieving a revenue target. It is sometimes harder to justify this type of activity to the bosses, but when you look at it as an investment toward a goal, it makes a lot more sense to me than just having nice meals in hopes that they'll sell my products.
Thoughts?