As the second-largest economy in the world, China has provided great help to world economic development. Many enterprises want to import products from China or view China as their supplier. Therefore, how to negotiate with China suppliers has become the prerequisite for this cooperation. The ultimate goal of negotiation is a win-win situation. This article will provide 6 ways to negotiate with China suppliers.
Prepare data for your negotiation
Usually, we don’t just look for one supplier. If there are multiple suppliers, we can share some information with them to compare and highlight the differences between them. Each supplier has its strengths and weaknesses, and when you summarize the data from both suppliers and send it to one of them, you can highlight its weaknesses so that the supplier can find a way to make up for their weaknesses and meet your needs. For example, if A and B are the two suppliers you choose, you can organize the data of the two suppliers into a table. When sending the table data to A, it can highlight B’s comparative advantages, such as quality and customization, and vice versa. In this way, A and B will seek ways to make up for their disadvantages. One other thing to note is, if the MOQ of the supplier is too high, we cannot bear such risks, so we need to decrease the risks. We can order products of different categories with the same total number of orders, so as to spread the risks and test the market shares of different products.
“Puzzle” him, but also pay attention to the fact
Some suppliers are not willing to work with relatively small companies, generally speaking, we communicate with Chinese suppliers online, we can indicate some information to make suppliers deem your identity, team scale, and company background are bigger than your actual situation, this would allow the suppliers have a strong desire to cooperate with you, which also help you get the most preferential price. However, we should also pay attention to the facts and not exaggerate ourselves too much. In this way, we can provide our development plan and our long-term cooperation partners to the supplier. If the supplier thinks that you are taking your business seriously, they will take your cooperation more seriously. Let them know your market situation, on the one hand, it can make suppliers have a stronger desire for cooperation, on the other hand, it can also let suppliers control the quality of their products.
The quantity you provide must be true
Some importers will make the mistake of overpromising when they start to cooperate with Chinese suppliers, because you know that suppliers like large orders, so they will be more enthusiastic and more interested in you, if the quantity you told at first just to attract the suppliers, the actual quantity is far less than what you promised, then the supplier will think you are cheating so that your opportunities of cooperation with Chinese suppliers will drop, which also will have an impact on your reputation. A good way to handle this situation is to start with small orders as a test. We can gradually increase the number of orders to make things go smoothly. However, we can also use the actual sales of one month to estimate the sales of the whole year. Although the quantity of the whole year is not particularly accurate, at least the quantity of this month is true, provided that your actual quantity of this month is higher than the market average or your estimated target. This isn’t lying, it’s just estimating that if you provide as much data as possible, it will be seen as more credible.
Pay attention to Chinese local customs and practices
Chinese people are very hospitable, so we need to keep a clear head at some meals, some importers feel the hospitality from their suppliers and think they have made a good friend, keep objective and put your business first, a lot of importers are not rational when they get drunk. Dinner is an opportunity to improve the relationship, but don’t let it become the capital and bargaining chip to get you to order quickly. At the same time, the Chinese pay attention to their face. When negotiating, we are supposed to be a good listeners and express gratitude and praise to them and create a friendly atmosphere of cooperation, give full respect to each other, so that your goal is more likely to be achieved. You need to understand that your goal is to achieve cooperation, not to demonstrate your status as an importer, to communicate with suppliers on an equal footing, and to make them feel your sincerity.
The order of quotation
Firstly, we should negotiate with the supplier we are least interested in. The reason for disinterest may be his high price or the factory facilities are not perfect, etc. Finally, we will negotiate with the supplier we are most interested in. However, it should be noted that we must ask key and sharp questions, such as You are not the most competitive in the market, so what can you offer to improve your competitiveness? Can you customize the product? Or can you offer your own specialty products? Once we receive a quotation from multiple suppliers, whether the price is too high or too low, or whether it interests you, we need to find out why the high or low price? Are there any costs that are unique to them? Are there other materials that can be used to reduce costs while maintaining quality? When negotiating prices with suppliers, ask as many questions as you can and find out everything about them to help you get an offer.
Use your product knowledge as your leverage
If you know a lot about your products, take advantage of it so the vendor will not fool you, But you can’t think that everything can be done very easily just because you know it. The question you ask your supplier at this point is “How do you do it?”, rather than “Can you do it?” It may be very simple in your knowledge, but it takes a lot of steps for a vendor to get there. If you do not know enough about your products, don’t worry too much. You can learn some product knowledge, market conditions, material specifications, and other information in advance, and then combine it with the information obtained in the process of communicating with suppliers, which will be very helpful to expand your knowledge. At the same time, in the process of communicating with suppliers, we can also get the factory’s information, such as capacity, scale, and general cooperation mode, which is undoubted of reference significance for future cooperation.
Conclusion
These are my six tips for negotiating with Chinese suppliers. When negotiating with suppliers, price is not the only factor we need to consider, quality, discount, delivery time, payment terms, after-sales service are all factors we need to take into consideration. However, in many cases, the above preparation does not mean that we are foolproof, only in practice can we get what to pay attention to when negotiating with Chinese suppliers. Negotiating with Chinese suppliers not only helps us to get lower prices but also benefits long-term cooperation. Good luck in your negotiations!
