There are 3 main things you want to assure the customer gets: a- Name of company b- Your name and c- That you are willing to serve.

When folks start a new conversation, especially by phone, if they don’t have an expectancy of what you’re going to say, they are automatically not going to hear you. For example; you go up to someone on the street and out of the blue ask them, “What’s the temperature?” without first establishing a connection, although you may have asked the question in 100% perfectly clear English or whatever your tongue may be, the first response is going to be “huh?” or “what”?”… you caught them off guard. So you generally, walk up to them and first say, “Excuse me”, this let’s their guard down.

On the phone, you don’t have that much time nor face to face contact, so your “Hi” is that point of establishing the contact and after that “Hi”, here’s the key… you have a second pause. This puts the listeners’ mind in to listening mode and ready-to-receive-the-rest-of-the-sentence mode.

The same thing applies when you state your company name or your own name; pause briefly afterwards. This allows what was just said to sink in for a moment. It seems 90% of the time if I make or receive calls, I have to ask the person to repeat their name, because they didn’t clearly enunciate it and make sure it had a moment to float a bit in the air and then land on good ground.

Giving your name and giving it clearly is a point of sales. It shows willingness to be known and help the customer. It shows that the connection is getting deeper and allows the customer to have another point of contact within the possible company that may be serving them.

When calling an individual small business or  organization and getting the gatekeeper, it seems the person answering the phone starts screaming the question before the phone is actually up to their mouth. So instead of it sounding like, “This is Acme, how may I help you?”, it comes off sounding like “mrfble, mrfble, mrfME, MAY I HELP YOU?” They don’t give their name, each syllable gets progressively louder and huffing in such a way as to say, your phone call is a bother.

Because of the lack of enunciation and rushed sound of the answer, the caught-off-guard customer has to say, “Is this Acme?” and the person answering is annoyed and says in a sing-songy voice “Yeeees..this is Acme” as if to say, “I already told you that goofball why are you asking again?”

This can all be a turnoff for a potential client and make them consider if doing business with the company is their best option. At the moment, it’s one strike against the ease of doing business with this company.

Not only does the customer feel like a bother but you’ve made them to now be in a subservient position by having to ask who you are and to repeat yourself.

You want to avoid this. In customer service always avoid the customer having to feel like they’re coming “hat in hand”, you know, coming in a bothersome way. Don’t answer the phone in “hey, I’m really rushed and really having a busy day” sort of way.

Answer the phone in more of a cool-cucumber format and that you have all the time in the world to handle the need of whoever is calling. Answer the phone expectantly as if the next call is the next big thing.

Don’t make the company name something the potential client has to confusedly ask about; “IS THIS Acme?” It’s now become a bad taste in the customer’s mouth and now valuable time is starting to feel lost.

Being that 1st point of contact, make the company name a banner you’re proud of and hold it up in clarity.

In today’s quickie world, customers, for manifold reasons, already dislike having to phone businesses, so don’t just not be rude and semi-polite to your customers, but use their phone call as an opportunity to let your professionalism shine.

Although basic points, they, like many things in life, take discipline to consistently make part of your work habits. What happens, is that basic control points become “routine” and we forget to implement them in our work. This is when problems spring up in the process; either in sampling, production, or the final legs in the logistical phase. Without further adieu…

Educate the Supplier: Did you clearly inform the vendor where these products are going? Is it for an event, for retail, for children? What’s the expected life-span of the product?

You are thinking good quality and 9 times out of 10, they are thinking as cheap as possible. Keep in mind, a low-cost tote bag in China is much, much lower in quality than a low-cost tote bag in the Western world. Although the factory may frequently export, their thinking is local and day-to-day. They don’t consider their own international markets for most cases. Most of the sales people you deal with are not students of the game. They are not “industry savvy” with a love for the business. Many times their jobs are right place, right time sort of thing and probably were hired by their uncle because they speak English.

Keep in mind that most factory workers don’t have a concept of the toy or the promotional item they are making. Aside from a portion of modern-day or new China, the majority of the folks haven’t seen or handled a lot of the merchandise the average Joe sees in the West.

You may be thinking, “yeah, but they’ve produced this before”. That doesn’t matter. There could be a new sales person controlling passing the order from the client to the factory, a new staff on the factory floor or they may have sent out their only sample of the product and are producing the item from memory. There are many variables involved when dealing with China and when importing from China.

Especially in the low-cost industries, factories are notoriously bad at keeping and cataloging data.

One of a factory’s main goals, is getting the order off line and getting another order on line. Not making sure the customer is content.

Don’t think in terms of “common sense says they would do this”, think more in terms of “I have no idea what weird thing the factory could do so I’ve got to make sure I have a close eye on the processes”.

Ask for Proof: If the supplier says they can produce something or have produced something before; ask for photos. This is simple enough. But any supplier can send any photo from off the web, so stress that you want to see photos of their previous production. If it’s a white-background, clean photo, be suspicious. If possible and if time is on your side, ask for a sample of a previously produced item.

They say they can duplicate your branding requests; ask them how? How will they get from point A from point B?

The same goes with lead times. If factory says it will take 25 days, then ask them to show you how it will take 25 days. Ask specific questions; how many days waiting to get on the production line? how many days for this process? when will this process start?

Use common sense in this area. If the factory has never successfully produced a super-fast order for you before, don’t bet the farm on them doing it this time. If timing will be the deciding factor of you winning the order with your client, you may want to go back and negotiate with your buyer to see if they have extra days or are flexible.

Unless it’s a supplier you highly trust and has done previous fast-turnaround times for you, it’s very risky to base everything on a tight lead time. What if they have a much larger client who is also basing everything on a tight lead time and they have to bump your order to fulfill their larger client’s order?

Speak in Bullet Points, Pictures, Samples and Facts: This point is akin to the above “asking for proof point”.

In your communication, speak to-the-point. I’ve seen the supplier get confused and implement something erroneous in to the production because the buyer was very wordy and the supplier was unable to determine what was important and what wasn’t.

Make your emails bullet-pointed and ask the supplier to reply under each point. If the supplier doesn’t reply to a point, don’t move forward until they do. This takes time, because if you send 6 points, they may respond to 3 or 4 and leave some blank for whatever reason. This doesn’t mean they are clear or got it. This may mean you need to press that point.

Send photos when you can. Don’t rely on your description as much as a photo or a physical sample. Let visuals do the talking. They have different names for different processes than you do.

These kind of control points are foundational vital across the board in importing from China. Regardless of the production, whether promotional products or high-tech components, by implementing this mindset, you’ll have less of a headache.

This is an unofficial part II to the recent post “Watering Down Your Inquiry in the Quoting Process“. That post showed how to water down your inquiry; not getting any supplier motivated enough to handle your request. And if the supplier does handle the RFQ, it may come right back to you riddled with mistakes.

You want to make your inquiry look promising. You want the supplier to look at your inquiry, see a professional buyer and most importantly, have the hope of doing business together. Many RFQ’s that buyers send to Chinese suppliers basically say, “Please invest a bunch of time getting this together, but most likely nothing is going to come from it…and if it does, I’d be surprised. By the way, we need it asap”.

In the promotional product business, where many Chinese factories don’t have the greatest desire to serve, your inquiry should say, “We have a fairly exact idea of what we want, here are the details, let us bring you some business”.

Realistic quantity scales: If you need pricing by quantity scales, have a reasonable number of scales. Have 2 scales if necessary but no more than 3. When there are a multitude of scales in your inquiry, you’re saying to a Chinese factory that you don’t know what you want and that you don’t mind them doing additional work in helping you to not know what you want.

Just because your buyer requires so many options, doesn’t mean you must require the factory to provide the same service. Have the factory give you the 3 scales and then for the remaining scales, professionally estimate the price for your buyer.

For example, instead of 2,500 / 5,000 / 7,500 / 10,000; ask the factory for the 2.5/5/10k and if your final customer requested 7,500, you should have sufficient wherewithal in your business to provide that quote based on all other factors. If you want to play it super safe, give the same price for 5k that you do for 7.5k. Remember, overseas business is different than local supplying; A Chinese factory’s prices (whether right or wrong), for the most part, are not cataloged and almost every time, they’ve got to go back to square #1 to determine prices.

Solid details: “Quote us something cool”. That doesn’t hack it when dealing with the source. Be sure your inquiry is loaded with visuals, examples, links, etc… Let the supplier see as much as possible. Look what Renaud Anjoran says from the Quality Inspection blog article “How Chinese Suppliers will Understand Your Requirements“:

“At the very least, you need to concentrate your requirements in one document. Don’t send some info in several emails, with updates by Skype, and so on.

Also, the salesperson shouldn’t have to translate big blocks of text. She would probably summarize it in any way she can, and the result wouldn’t be pretty. Go visual. Use many photos. Videos might be OK, but remember that Youtube.com is blocked in the mainland.

Keep updating the same document, and make sure it can be understood by the production staff without much effort.”

Keep a bullet-pointed mindset when dealing with China. Use simple English. This isn’t a time to show how much corporate lingo and industry speak you know.

Proactively include what you may need: Avoid sending a vague inquiry the first time only to come back a 2nd time with 10 more add-ons. Accurately consider your project and what you may need for the Chinese vendor to offer you in your quote. Go ahead and consider the different kinds of print that may be necessary, consider the logo placement, or the different materials that you may want to offer to your end customer. Be as thorough and as inclusive your first time around. Don’t expect the supplier to know what should be offered.

Here’s a tip; the more often you quote and add on to the same inquiry with a Chinese vendor, the more you are compromising detail and exactness. It’s like suppliers only have enough “exactness” in them for a few tries. The more and more you touch back on the job, the less serious they take in providing details.

Stay hot on your inquiry and in communication: Let the supplier know you’ve received their quote and are working on bringing them the order. Even if the project dies down or goes to another vendor, be professional and let the supplier know. This lets them know you’re human and you treat them like humans. This motivates them to try the next time there is a potential job.

Be loyal: Keep a few quality suppliers close by and do your best to grow them as partners. Let them know you are doing that and to do so means more than just telling them over email (every buyer tells them that). Close some orders with quality vendors even if you have to give up a *gasp* a thousand bucks. Think long term. Importers complain that suppliers don’t think long term, but it’s the same thing on the importing side. Quit always shopping around for a cheaper price.

Offer to Pay:  Is that a typo? No, it’s not. Offer to pay for your samples, be willing to make your deposits and balance payments without having to cause the factory to beg. You can be a small and even an annoying customer but all of that is overlooked by a Chinese vendor who finds the customer to be prompt with payment. Prompt payments cover a multitude of ills. (Obviously, be sure your supplier is producing correctly..that goes without saying).

In conclusion, don’t only water down your inquiry, but make your inquiry professional and show that you’re a buyer, whose inquiries lead to orders. A motivated supplier is a good supplier.

When you inquire for a price from a vendor and kickstart a project; you want to establish some sort of credibility with the company providing you the quote. You want to give them a reason to quote you. When you grab your inquiry or RFQ by the shoulders and pick the poor guy up and dunk him in a bucket of water over and over and then hand this sopping wet request to your supplier, it no longer makes the job appealing.

From the supplier’s standpoint an unappealing inquiry is a job that lacks credibility. When working with China, a less than credible inquiry can either receive a less-than-credible quote or the supplier ignore you altogether. An erroneous quote from the China-side can be a disaster because you end up quoting your buyers on false pretenses (and this is very common..more so if your inquiry is watered-down). Sloppy quoting, leads to sloppy quality. But to take it a step further, a water-bogged inquiry leads to sloppy quoting. The process may indeed start with YOU, the buyer.

Think about it, even if your requestst is full of detail and professional, the Chinese vendor is still likely to give you a faulty quote (they have a low percentage rate of getting things right the first time).

How much more so when you’ve given them something sloppy in the first place?

“Well, the reason they should quote me is to get my business, right?”

The reason a vendor should quote a buyer to get business is because the inquiry has hope of bringing business. A watered-down inquiry doesn’t give the seller hope that their effort is going to be fruitful.

Keep in mind that, the closer you get to the source, the more effort it takes to quote. For example many suppliers in the States have their prices cataloged, they have inventory, they are doing less customization and the prices are firm. But in China, the job is more “from scratch”. Factories don’t hold stock and are notoriously horrible in cataloging prices. They have to check material costs on almost a case by case basis. Not to mention if there are customized prints, packaging, shipping requirements, etc… each quote is a mini version of “reinventing the wheel”.

Most overseas buyers don’t consider this. They think it was easy for their local supplier to quote 50 stock tote bags, so it should be easy for the Chinese supplier to quote 7,500 customized tote bags with branding, customized colors and shipping included. Do you see the imbalance of the two dynamics? One is stock, one takes much calculation.

If you discover that your inquiries with your vendors are not getting prioritized, not getting prompt responses and not being “cherished” as you hope they would, it could be the way you’re presenting the inquiry.

So what causes an inquiry to be watered down?

Too Vague: When you contact a Chinese supplier with an inquiry; if you do not know what you want, they are not going to help you to know what you want. Chinese suppliers’ specialty isn’t service and presenting options. If you’re not providing details and giving them something solid to quote, they’ll move on to the next customers who are. Do your homework before you contact your offshore supplier; learn the basics about a product and the processes. Be sure you’ve included everything in your request to help the supplier avoid the guesswork.

Quantity Scales: When a buyer goes to a supplier with a quantity scale that is convoluted, it looks like you are waterboarding your inquiry.

“We need pricing on 300 / 1000 / 2000 / 3000 / 4000 / 5000 /6000 / 7000 / 8000 / 9000 /” (that was taken from an actual email but I left out the 12 other qty scales the buyer had on the email…no joke).

This screams: “This inquiry is not serious, we have no idea what we want to order, our buyer has no idea what they want to order, but we don’t mind if you jump through hoops and spend much time and energy quoting”

Buyers need to know enough about their business, products and the fundamentals of price quoting that if an end-customer (end-user) needs a slight quantity difference, they should be able to quote that themselves. i.e. don’t ask the factory for an excessive amount of quantity-scale quotes, but ask for the parameters and then fill in the remainder yourself.

Continuous Changes / Multiple Quotes:  When working with China on a project, it is my firm belief, from my own experiences that you have a few chances to strike while the iron is hot. So the factory may be very motivated when you’ve first inquired about the job. They spent the time to gather the quote and sent all the details to you. Ok, now the ball is in your quote.

…then you asked for the factory to quote customized colors.

…then you asked for the factory to change the size.

…then you asked for the factory to quote a few more options.

…then you add one a few more quantity scales just for kicks… 5,000 / 7,500, /10,000 units (see above).

By then the inquiry is so convoluted and watered-down, the factory prefers you simply go away instead of giving them more fruitless work.

Here are a few honorable mentions:

Hot and Cold: You’re on again, off again. You pop up out of the woodwork every few weeks to touch back on a project. China is a fast-paced country and their tolerance to “long-term” is very small if not non-existent.

Multiple Suppliers: Bcc’ing multiple suppliers on the email inquiry and not addressing anyone by name but just saying “Hi”. Unless you’re a really big buyer, this is not going to motivate a lot of serious suppliers to jump all over your quote. Serious suppliers have buyers who use their names and there are only 24 hours in a day. Also if you work with trade companies (which many buyers in the promotional product industry do), they know when the inquiry is being shopped and sent out to multiple vendors. This decreases the seriousness the supplier puts on the job and in turn can affect your pricing, accuracy..all that good stuff.

Negotiating Prices: Penny pinching on just costs; sample costs, freight costs. Not exactly letting the factory they are dealing with think they have a solid customer here.

This is not to sound like the embittered supplier who wants their clients to fit in cookie cutter mold. My hope is that buyers will read these tips and learn how to professionally and effectively present an inquiry to their supplier or factory. This leads the factory to professionally offering sold price quotes and in turn increases the efficiency and accuracy of the job. Increased efficiency and accuracy lead to good quality. Good quality leads to happy customers and everyone looks good.

“Work hard and you’ll get ahead” is largely unheard of in China. People who make it are because they knew the right people. Their parents knew the right people or are the right people. They had good connections. They were in the right place at the right time. But seldom if ever does hard work and working smart fit in to the equation.

Although the playing field, for various reasons, is no longer what it was in the USA, compared to China’s playing field, it looks like the levelest and straightest game board on the planet. There is still a large enough support system and open opportunity for a diligent person in the States to get ahead.

Mixed with the humungous population, the lack of jobs, the corruption, the fact that nothing is transparent, facts don’t flow freely, it’s hard to self educate, and in order to achieve the slightest advancement up the ladder, the guy ahead of you is going to require you “scratch his back”, the Chinese go-getter has great odds plaguing his journey to success.

In my ten years of living in China, from my perception, it went from a laid-back, content place to almost immediately rushing full-speed towards the materialistic development you see today. Who can blame them. They see the other developed countries with cars, they want cars. They’ve made the West’s junk forever, it’s time for their junk. But the problem, is, the soft skills haven’t been laid. Back to the transparency thing, corruption, their educational system of pumping facts over and over but never learning application, and I could go on and on…

Daily in my own work, the mountain of individuals who are not able to freely-think and consider and create is a large struggle. But in a large sense, that’s why my company exists. People in the States don’t realize how much is around them from a free-thinking and creativity standpoint until they’ve dealt consecutively with a place that lacks that ability.

I read a good article earlier this week from the English Edition of the Epoch Times, that sparked me up to write this post. Here’s an interesting chunk from the piece and this blog is largely about importing and manufacturing, I thought it was relevant.

In this industrial chain, the processing–manufacturing link is the step in the labor process that creates 10 percent of the product’s value, and the other 6 links, vital in the value-creating process, create the remaining 90 percent.

Lang takes a Barbie doll as an example. A Barbie doll’s retail price is nearly $10 at Walmart stores in the United States. In this international industry chain, the 6 links owned by enterprises outside of China are responsible for $9 of that price, while the hard link, which is China’s manufacturing link, can only take credit for $1.

What is true of the Barbie doll applies to much of China’s economic output. Global economic competition is fierce, and the most profitable links in the chain of production are often not controlled by Chinese enterprises.

Notice how much of the money, benefit, glory of the project doesn’t stay in China. When the kids graduate from the illustrious university, they are faced with opportunities of going to work in these factories. Nobody is hoping to hit the jackpot of success from working in the sales office of a toy factory.

One thing the HK economist from that article left out is, and this is Jacob’s take, is that whole society from start to finish isn’t encouraging the soft-skills side of life, thus the inability of the individual to provide value to an organization. Nose-in-Book trumps life application, creativity and critical thinking. These kids are not only over-educated, but they don’t have the first clue in how to apply the knowledge they just crammed in their heads.

Any importer or buyer who deals with China and who is constantly surprised at quality, control and safety problems, must be living in their own world. The folks working in those low-paying, low-motivating, dead-end factories have a bit more on their mind.

When importers don’t keep their cool, it complicates projects to causing outright catastrophes. Bad emotions in China manufacturing directly effect a job.

Communication is one of the biggest causes. Buyers deal with Chinese vendors in English; thus the vendor is using a second language. From the Western perspective; Chinese are subdued, don’t proactively communicate and are not straight talkers. This makes the already-nervous buyer more uptight. Even the coolest cucumbers start sweating when there is 10 or 100′s of thousands of dollars on the line.

Throws an Order Off Track:  An example comes to mind, of a buyer emailing the supplier, on a daily basis, that she will lose her job if they don’t ship her goods earlier. Talk about some undue pressure! This was not a case of the supplier delaying production. It was a case of developing a product and the buyer not allowing proper time for the factory to produce.

Not only does the frantic buyer not allow proper time to produce, (which is suicide on an order) but sends frantic emails that further take the supplier’s mind off the main thing she wants them to do. Talk about counter productive!

Chinese vendors are already nervous in dealing with overseas customers. Emotional and threatening attacks in China manufacturing lead to the factory withdrawing in communication and reducing efforts they put on the order (they can be quite sensitive and have “face” to uphold). Chinese factories don’t excel in customer service and aren’t equipped to handle hysterical customers. The worst case is the factory yanks the order off the production line and sends an incomplete batch of goods.

*Side note: when developing a product or opening a mold, give the factory sufficient time to properly manufacture the job. If the factory tells you they can do it in 30 days; add 10 more days (for example). The Chinese-way of thinking is, if you want something to be developed and developed right, it takes time.

Factory Treats You Like the Boy Who Cried Wolf:  This is the type of buyer who treats every  possible situation like a 4-alarm fire. This buyer loses their cool over normal peaks and valleys of China manufacturing. Hairy things are bound to happen, that’s part of the game. How an importer handles these hurdles can make a difference between a successful project and a disaster.

A good rule of thumb in China manufacturing is to not get too excited about good news or don’t get too distressed about bad news. In the ever-changing world of China, news changes in a flash. Keep a level-headed approach in dealing with your suppliers.

Destroys any Loyalty from the Factory or Vendor:  All it takes is one good time of you losing the temper and you can lose all favor from the vendor. Sure the vendor may still finish the job, but will they go the extra mile check the production line to make sure no rejects pass?

Pick your battles when dealing with China. If you let small mistakes slide the factory will recognize that and they’ll be more willing to support a buyer who they consider a “non-finger-pointer”. More importantly, when they see you do a little give-and-take, they’ll do the same and more likely on the larger issues of substance.

It’s Unprofessional: Just on a general level of professionalism, keep your cool. Nothing looks worse than an importer going bananas on a 25 year old sales person, first job out of the university and they can barely understand what you’re saying. Don’t take it personally. Believe me, the Chinese certainly don’t. Especially if you’re already a “small buyer” in the eyes of the vendor, you want to at least keep yourself looking professional and regal. You’ll give this factory more of a reason to adjust their current work method if legitimate problems are found. If you lose your cool the vendor will have zero compassion. The bigger the client you are, the more temper tantrums the factory will bare. The problem is, most buyers aren’t as big as they think they are.

China manufacturing is not for the faint of heart. Keep in mind that you’re buying from this place, first and foremost because it’s low cost. Use China for it’s advantages and be prepared to grow in patience.

“Silence is a true friend that never betrays” – Confucius.

Silence can sometimes be an advantageous card to play; although I’ve seen that option abused to the extreme in my line of work. Have you ever noticed that when people speak about a place they’ve never been, it’s usually from the assumption that life is not as good there? Sometimes, in a condescending, head-shaking way, as if “we’ve got it all here, how do those poor souls struggle from day to day?”.

Folks mean well. They chalk up some points for attempting to discuss. But bless their hearts; in not knowing what to say, sometimes they grasp at straws. On the other hand, many folks think they do know what to say and, what they say, speaks volumes.

Here, in a fun way, is a look at some of the random insights I’ve heard from others while discussing my connection and past with The Peoples’ Republic of China.

Fast-Paced Life:  As I sit in a city of approx 8,800 residents, I remember a conversation I had whenever I was still in China, towards the end of 2011. I let one contact know about my impending homecoming.

This person said, “I think you’ll be surprised about how fast-paced life is in the States”.

I lived in 4 cities in China and traveled to a multitude of others. I never visited a place that had less than a million people (the cities I lived in all had over 4 million people, 3 of the cities closer to 10,000 million), cranes speckling the skyline, a small, unknown city would have more skyscrapers than what’s considered in the states to be a large hub, people dotted the streets well-late in to the evening, food vendors, clothing vendors, international companies flooding the market with facilities, goods, etc… I could go on and on.

Many folks who’ve never visited another country, especially a developing one, consider by default for it to be “backward” or not as fast-paced.

I think this is why buyers think a Chinese factory is sitting around, playing mahjong and sipping tea, just begging for an inquiry.

Blue Jeans:  One character, in hearing about my life in China, said if he ever had the chance to go, “he’d take a whole stack of Levi’s with him.” The insinuation being that Levi’s are a scarce commodity and the poor, ignorant Chinese are thirsty for some fashion relief in blue jean form.

I saw Levi stores there. There are obviously jeans everywhere and I’m not sure most Chinese are too concerned about what brand of jean they are wearing.

Military:  When informing folks of my past 10 years living in China, one of the first questions I’d hear was “Were you in the military”. I never tired of that question and it always made me want to do a spit take (if I had been drinking something). I always wanted to reply, “Yes, I was in the USA army base located in Beijing…close to Tianamen Square.”

Holidays: It never fails, that every year, buyers are amazed about how much time the country takes off during Chinese New Year; especially those in the manufacturing sector.

“They take how much time off?”

“How can they do that? We have to work here….” shaking head and clicking tongue…. indignantly as if they never received the luxury of time off. If I add up all the Christmas holidays, Easter Break, July 4th, Thanksgiving and not to mention, Saturdays, we’d find the Chinese factories log in much more actual work time.

I can remember back around 2006 talking with a contact from Spain; I told her that we couldn’t quote because of the Chinese New Year. She said, “that’s all well and good, but we’re a serious country and we work.” This is coming from the land of “descanso en la playa”, the land that closes the whole month of August and has a “Saint’s Day” multiple times throughout the year. If they worked as much as the Chinese, they may not be in current…never mind…I’ll leave that comment alone.

Honorable Mentions:

-Did you see a lot of Kung Fu? I’m not very familiar with this art and practice, but, no, you don’t see much over there comparatively. This may be something that was squelched with the Communist rule and I think most “Kung Fu” themed culture that’s exported to the West actually comes from Hong Kong or Taiwan. I may be wrong.

-Are there any skyscrapers over there? Similar to the “fast-paced life” comment…there are just a few skyscrapers over there.

-How many Dollars to the Yen? I don’t know but they use the Yuan in China.

-How do you say (__) in Japanese? Whenever you mention China, folks seem inclined to switch the conversation to Japan for some reason….

Lastly, I recall one situation earlier this year when my family and I first came back to the States. We were in the DMV working on my wife’s ID card. One of the DMV gals was admiring my wife’s scarf. She was telling them how it was from Suzhou, the city we lived in and how it was a famous place for silk.

This led to our recounting about our life in China. The DMV lady kind of whispered into my ear, “China; how far of a drive is that?”.

I questioned what I heard and had to recalculate in my lightening fast mind what she had just asked. I just said, “well, it’s a really long flight”.

…But for sure, it is a long drive….

Life is full of disappointments and if you don’t manage certain expectations, you’ll be singing the blues more often than not. When importing from China, this can happen to even the seasoned importer or buying department. They approach jobs with all sorts of ideas but not necessarily expectations that are fit for the situation.

Same Country, Different Location: “China is the same as us; the only difference is the people speak Chinese and their holidays are different. But they understand things the same way we do, they understand processes the same way we do here and their business practices are in line with what we do and expect”

It’s a factory, not a marketing agency. Use their advantages.

Now, no buyer may say or think this on the surface, but this is what their actions show. When odd manufacturing mistakes or misunderstandings happen, where the buyer cannot fathom why or how this is happening; keep in mind there is a reason China is cheaper. There is a reason it’s called a “developing country”. Buyers think the cost savings of manufacturing offshore is just a hidden plus and don’t take in to account, that, when importing from China, there is also the disadvantage of cultural and capability pitfalls.

Customer Service:  A factory is like a big machine. They’re not known for striving to uphold their personal brand in head-spinning customer service. Don’t expect feedback, proactive updates, or even motivation from the factory at the start of the relationship. Even though you’re the buyer, you may be the one having to lay groundwork and inspire them to care about your case.

Mind-Reading Capabilities:  “Doesn’t the vendor know my buyer is going to expect a nicer packaging than this?”  How will the Chinese vendor know this if you haven’t educated them? When importing from China, don’t assume vendors should know anything about styles, brands, what’s hot, what’s not… educate them.

Cheap Price, Perfect Product: We need to low-cost, but it’s got to be a killer product. Low-cost in importing from China means cheap and cheap means garbage.

If you are ever fortunate to travel to China, visit their Wal Mart. Cheap in China is an all together different world than cheap in the Western World. Don’t view “low-cost” from your point of view, but how the factory is going to see low-cost? What portion of the product will lack? The decrease in the cost will lead to a decrease in the product in some form or another. Proceed with caution.

It’s no longer 1995 or even 2000 for that matter. Costs have gone up and for many industries it’s hard to offer value and still have an advantage based on only low price. Buy on value and offer value to your customers.

Your Own Personal Marketing Dept: “Why won’t my vendor pitch me some fun ideas?”.

Or have you ever said to a China vendor, “Suggest some cool items.”

Most likely these two requests have led to the sounds of crickets chirping. And then if or when they did pitch some ideas it usually wasn’t up-to-speed to what you had in mind. Information is not something that “flows” or goes back and forth in China.

Many times, Chinese suppliers don’t know your market, they don’t know your end-users and what’s hot or cool in China, is a different than where you live. Keep in mind, a humungous chunk of merchandise you see in the Western market, is nowhere to be found in China. And if it is found in the China market, it is much, much more expensive.

That’s not to say vendors cannot pitch; there are some quality vendors, traders and factories that can supply you with ideas. That is also usually going to reflect in the price per piece. A “thinking vendor” is a higher-priced vendor.

Use China and use it’s suppliers’ capabilities according to their advantage. You don’t use a chainsaw to hammer in a nail, and you’ll have trouble chopping firewood with a hammer. In the same respects, find the advantages of your Chinese supply-partners and let them fill in those gaps and even excel in those areas. Once you establish how to navigate certain responsibilities with a Chinese vendor, you’ll see them excel in that specific area. Over time, they’ll be able to offer their own input and branch out in to other areas of assistance.

During that time, as a distributor or an importer, when you’re “waiting” on something from your client (could be a payment, a sign-off, a change in spec), that time period before mass production starts should be an active critical period with the factory, not a period of “waiting” and doing nothing.This is what I call “between sign-off and deposit”. Whose deposit? The deposit you send to the Chinese vendor.

9 times out of 10, the Chinese vendor is not going to budge an inch until they see 30% (at least, sometimes 50%) in their bank account. But before the Chinese supplier budges, it’s highly important that during this time, you keep communication open with your supplier.

Keep the Supplier Updated

What’s happening on your side? Is the brand confirming, is the order coming, is something changing? You’d be surprised by how many Chinese vendors have no insight in to what’s taking place with their buyers, only to receive an email the next day that says the buyer is ready to start the order.

So why is that a bad thing?

Because between those 2 weeks, anything could have happened. The factory could’ve taken on more orders and now the lead time you worked so hard to confirm has increased by 15 days. How about cost of materials? Those don’t stay the same forever and especially after certain yearly milestones in China (post holidays specifically) costs seem to go up.

During the “waiting period”, before mass production starts, use that time to stay in touch with your supplier. Let your supplier or factory know what’s going on. Sincerity shown by a buyer in China can go a long way. If you don’t show the supplier you care about your own possible order, then guess who else is not going to care.

Reconfirm Your Lead Times

You’re waiting on the last piece of “go-ahead” from your brand and pushing them to close. Don’t just sit on your laurels and assume the Chinese supplier is going to hold the previously quoted delivery time.

I’ve seen factories wait for at least a month on a morsel of news from the buyer. The buyer suddenly appears and is all like, “I’m ready to order, here is the deposit and we need the delivery time you confirmed 3 months ago.”

But a lot has happened in those 3 months. The factory is 30% busier and all production lines are full.

Also as a matter fact, there are generally 2 lead times; the quoted one and the real one. Many Chinese factories, especially when working for promotional product orders or clients, don’t firm up the actual delivery time until the order is a sure thing. Why should the sales person you’re dealing with spend time haggling with the production line and nailing down confirmed dates when they don’t know if you’re even bringing the order. During this “waiting period”, give the supplier a scenario and get to cracking in firming up that lead time.

[Importer to Factory] “Ok, imagine that by Friday you will have the deposit. Give me a production schedule based on that. How many days for material purchase, how many days for color dying, how many days for assembly? From Friday until the day it ships, how many days total?”

Then as you’re waiting for the brand/end-user/customer to finish up the formalities, you send them this information.

[Importer to Final Buyer] “I know you’re still waiting on approval from management, but keep in mind that sign-off by Thursday still keeps us on schedule, etc, etc, etc. If that’s delayed until next week, we’ll have to go back and reconfirm the schedule”.

If you want your order leaving in the time frame your buyer requires and you want to be in control, you have to be proactively detailed. Your factory is not going to do it for you. The Chinese, although come from the land of “layered red tape” are also very practical. They will think that if you needed the goods sooner, why didn’t you order sooner?

Kinda makes sense to me but maybe I lived in China too long….

If you stay in close communication with your China supplier or factory, especially before mass production starts, they are more likely to show you favor and let you squeeze ahead of another order from a smaller client or a client they don’t deem as worthy.

Critical Steps to Take Before the Factory Puts Hand to Plough

Reconfirm All Specs

Before the mass production starts and there’s that lull on the buyer side, use that chance to reconfirm all specs. Don’t assume your supplier knows exactly what they quoted or that what you think they quoted is what they quoted!

Especially if you sampled various times, there were various quotes sheets back and forth, and multiple changes. Chinese suppliers are pretty bad at organizing and cataloging detail. You may think you’ve been going after the 9th set of changes, but the factory may be working on the 1st batch of information. It’s what I call the “Law of 1st Impressions“.

Put together a spec sheet with all expectations; from the product, to the packing to the shipping terms and reconfirm that with the supplier. Don’t be timid to repeat info and speak the obvious concerning your expectations for mass production. What’s obvious to you isn’t obvious to the supplier.

From my 10+ years of dealing with China, there is no such thing as a waiting period. You’re either staying on the radar or falling off the radar. Even if you told the supplier the “order is coming”, that doesn’t mean anything. Stay on top until the order actually comes. Nothing, to the Chinese factory, shows an order is coming until that deposit is in their account. Make up for the supplier’s short-sightedness by being proactivs.

Don’t hesitate to ask your supplier questions, give reminders and double-confirm points. Even spend time going over what you may consider “the obvious”.

What’s obvious in one culture or work environment is not obvious in another.

As always my posts are geared to the promotional product and ad specialty industries.  But these reminders may help with other markets.

“Will this quoted price achieve the branding we need?”

Your logo may be a fancy, full-color job that a normal print process cannot achieve.  There may be an additional process needed to make sure the logo doesn’t scratch off with minimal effort.  Did the supplier consider all factors when quoting?

Typically when a Chinese factory quotes a job, ESPECIALLY if they get wind that this is for the promotional products industry, they are quoting the lowest common denominator; low-cost, low-grade material, how to make the most money at the least expense, etc….

Maybe assorted colors throughout the item is part of your branding scheme. Did the supplier take this in to account or once you go back, ready to move on that price, they will say, “Oh, we only considered one color.”

In the suppliers’ mind, the quoting process is stage 1 in discussions, in delving in to the job and hashing it out. In the buyer’s mind, they assume the quote was considered as accurately as possible.

Give your supplier a bullet-point list of expectations and have them confirm that the quoted price can achieve your goals.

“How will this sample differ from production?”

Here is a common scenario;  the order is placed and you receive the pre-production sample, you confirm the sample, you get the order and something is different.  It’s not necessarily a bad-quality different, but a difference either way. Or although it’s not a bad-quality different, it could be a difference detrimental to the brand. It’s a difference you didn’t expect and a difference the end-user won’t be pleased with or may not accept.

Before you sign off on that pre-production sample, find out from the supplier, “how will this sample differ from mass production?”

Many times material is available for a sample that isn’t available for mass production or vice versa.  Sometimes a sample is made by a smaller machine, a different process or handmade, thus giving the sample a different look.

An experienced importer considers there are going to be some variations from the pre-production sample and the mass production. But for the glaring differences, ask your supplier in advance to spotlight the differences. This will give you the chance of informing your buyer on the front end or letting the factory know that the planned difference is unacceptable.

From brand to factory, the communication chain is lengthy. Will this floor-worker receive proper instruction?

On the flip-side you can let the supplier know, what aspects of the sample must be in the mass production.  Don’t assume mass production will be the same as the sample, don’t assume some random characteristic won’t change for whatever reason.

But, do consider and make provision for slight variations (usually when a buyer is shocked by slight variations betwixt sampling and mass production, that comes from not understanding production and offshore manufacturing).

“I know you’re waiting on my confirmation to start production, but is there any aspect that cannot change?”

Here is another all-too-common scenario.  The factory says that have not started production and are waiting for your sign-0ff.  You inform them you got the sample and…

-[Buyer]  I want to change the color.

-[Factory]  That’s difficult to do, we purchased material and there will be big cost and delay.

-[Buyer]  We need to change the logo.

-[Factory] We’ll we already printed all the material swatches, we’re just waiting on assembly.

When a supplier tells you they haven’t started production, that ambiguous statement may not mean what you think it means. The real question from you should be, “when do we go past the point of no return?”.

Find out your “points of no return” (material purchasing, printing, 3rd vendor action etc…) and strive to not let the factory go that far until you are sure you and your buyer are ready for them to do so.  Don’t think so much of production started / not started, but get to know processes and what step is what and when it takes place.  This is part of  true production control.

Don’t expect the factory to hold your hand the whole way through;  they’re like a big machine. The factory’s main concern is production in, production out.

“You quoted 20 days for the delivery time;  20 days is from when to when?”

So the supplier confirmed a million times that the project takes 20 days. But when does this 20 days start?  From the time you issue the PO? The time you send the copy of the payment? Or the time they actually received the payment? If you don’t have your communication lines down, you can lose a whole chunk of time just trying to sort through that.  And don’t expect on the sales person you’re dealing with from the trade company or factory to give you a thoroughly straight answer. Much of it depends on the accounting department (the boss’s wife) the production line and other variables.

On the back end did that quoted delivery time include the time they wait for your balance payment?  Or did it include transportation to the port and if it is a sea shipment was the “closing date” considered in all that.

If you don’t hit the port at the right time and know your closing date (which in short is the day the goods have to be at port to pass through customs to hit the next sailing date) then you could potentially lose 10 days.

I’ve seen many an order go south when it came to delivery time, not because of the manufacturing but because of the payment and logistics details.