How to Find Quality Suppliers?
How to Find Quality Suppliers? SupplierLinkup shares key elements what we shared with the factories in supply chain management.
Price: I have a reason for the price
Some buyers will say, “Can you be a bit more cheaper?” Most of the time, suppliers will say, “We already give you the lowest price we can offer” but they are unwilling to share cost information.
However, if suppliers are proactive in sharing cost information, the buyers will understand the price composition more clearly. Suppliers can gain more confidence in price proposals, and can also make themselves more transparent in terms of cost or finance. What buyers are looking for is not cheap suppliers, but suppliers with excellent management that can guarantee quality product and services.
Cost control: skill combination is important
Cost control requires a combination of skills.
Case Study: Jeans manufacturer A is the world’s largest cowboy jean manufacturer. They produce jeans in Mexico because Mexico’s labor is two to three times cheaper than China’s, But they introduced more sophisticated designs into the Chinese market because they recognized that Chinese laborers possess a high level of skills.
Chinese suppliers are widely recognized as top-tier partners by numerous international buyers. especially for those who require special designs and very fast delivery times.
Time: Quick response from detail to detail
Markets are changing rapidly, and buyers need to react quickly. Therefore, a fast production cycle is required.
When the buyer wants a very short delivery time, how does the supplier respond?
1) Being able to effectively manage raw material suppliers is important.
2) Everyday machines require simple maintenance.
This sounds like some kind of everyday knowledge, and when international buyers come to the factory, they pay more attention to these little details.
Volume of transactions: to deal with multi-frequency small-volume procurement
As product designs change faster and shipping costs increase, buyers are reluctant to stockpile, they tend to buy fewer goods each time and increase procurement frequency.
Given such a change, suppliers should:
1) Strengthen cooperation with product designers and engineers;
2) Increase production and reduce unit cost;
3) Hiring more experienced engineers;
4) When using automated production, it’s important to consider the technical expertise of the staff.
Quality: in the eye of third-party agencies
Usually, the buyer invites a third-party agency to visit the factory.Sometimes this place’s third party says, “I’m here for your good, and ultimately for the good of the buyer, so our third party audit can teach you some knowledge.”Indeed, thanks to attention to supplier management and public development, you can hire a third-party agency for less than $400 before you visit a buyer, who can enter the factory before the buyer comes to the plant, and find a lot of issues that you are used to but the buyers are more sensitive.
6Manufacture prepared: show buyers' demands key points
Buyers come to visit the factory and want to see the key features to meet their needs:
1) production capacity;
2) confidentiality agreement;
3) operational base;
4) skilled workforce stability;
5) minimum order volume;
6) custom design/sampling flexibility.
Quickly check for yourself, when the buyer comes to the factory, do you cover up the competitor’s product with something, or do you treat the buyers’ product in the same way?
On the one hand, the supplier wants the buyer to know: I have so many orders, this one from the United States and that one from Europe;
On the other hand, you don’t want the buyer to see his competitor’s brand name, because he can imagine that maybe six months later, when you lead his competitors to visit, the competitor will see his information and products in this warehouse.
So what we can do is, when the buyer comes to the factory warehouse, pack up the products of their competitors, respecting some of their confidential information.
7Buyer area: Watch the dishes
Some larger, more professional buyers may have their own material source and want to use a designated supplier in the cutting process. Buyers in developed markets can clearly demonstrate their retail chain business, and buyers in developing countries can’t do that, and therefore, suppliers create the illusion that they have better prospects of cooperating with developing country buyers.
8Intellectual Property Rights: Keeping Mind and Self-Protecting
If you want to get into the international market and become a brand, you need to pay attention to whether someone is copying, but you may feel that the topic is a little farther away from you, but it will come out later, and this will definitely affect your brand image.
9Social responsibility: greater capacity, greater responsibility
Buyers don’t have to put pressure on you, they’re pressurized by their own country, and those countries have some specific documentation requirements that will continue in a short time, and buyers will put the pressure of such a social responsibility on the supplier’s side.
If a company grows, then social responsibility comes with it. So how do we deal with it:
1) Advise third-party audit firms;
2) join the Business Society Standard Certification (BSCI) scheme;
3) adopt marketing strategies accordingly; and
4) demonstrate your willingness to improve on specific orders.
10Reliability of suppliers
In general, the mindset of the buyer depends on:
1) the scale of cooperation;
2) the quality of the price, timely delivery and other requirements, but the most important is the credibility of the supplier, help the buyer to solve problems can help to bring more business opportunities for you.
Step One: Search for suppliers
I’m used to Google, because I used to use the English name that the customer gave me to do the first step search, translated into Chinese, there may be some errors!
If I defined Chinese procurement, I would search China A directly, and then there would be a lot of search results, and the first misleading point would appear, and now all the sales are telling you that we want our results to appear in front of us, easy for customers to click, but I’ll tell you, not necessarily!
When a lot of search results appear, I’m not just looking at keywords, but also looking at matching!
What is matching, the keyword, the matching with the short description of the following lines!
That is to say, in Figure 1 I’m looking for the keyword and the result, 2 is the description of the key word, I want to see in 2 the matching description, to prove this product is really exactly what I need, I open it! If it’s the wind horse doesn’t match, I’ll put it first, go to the back of the search, unless I can find more, I will come back
So, when we do publicity, we must pay attention to this problem, which is often called the issue of labels.
Step Two: View the supplier's website
If it is the supplier’s own website, go to the website to browse and browsen the products you need.
If the description is clear, the picture clear, I will find the mailbox directly, usually I will send at least 10 emails out asking for the price! Note here, the product description is still to match, clear, at least you tell me in what way this product is used. Because many times the customer tells me that I need a product for a particular field, need your information for confirmation thanks to the attention of the supplier management and development of the public number, if it is also written on the classification, the parameters are better!
Here is a small detail, many old people are writing mail with the client, such as outlook,foxmail, etc. If the mailbox left on the site is a link, the other person can open the client and write the mail; and then directly copy the mail box, send to the recipient!
There are some websites that compare two, the information is not allowed to copy, even using pictures, it will be very disgusting, to enter a word a word, annoying not to say, and may also write wrong, this is a lot of Chinese websites exist.
If you enter the website is b2b advertising, this situation exists a lot, because B2B weight is high, can make the results very reliable.
My first reaction was to click on the link left on the b2b site, go to the main site to browse, if this time, is your advertising, but your main site does not have your contact information, then you are stupid, is equivalent to advertising to others!
The vast majority of b2b, not registered is not able to see the mailbox, I can not go to register every B2B to look at the mail box, this time if the watermark is placed on the picture, to save the chance, this is the b2B registration technique, I have been emphasizing, many people say b 2b does not work, I don’t think it will never work!
Step Three: Preparation of supplier information
This step does not actually exist for the vast majority of buyers, especially when looking for the buyer who sends the mail, they send it straight away, turn it off, wait for the seller to offer!
I will also send the mail, save a little contact, indicate the name of a company, to prepare for the search, most of it is not the case at all, sent or sent, without leaving the search for the file!
This characteristic is determined, when you respond, try to make a little self-introduction in brief language, if it is a large company, many certificates, also mention, because maybe customers forgot which family you are!
Moreover, if your product can make a bid, make a bidding note to the customer, the bid note must have a heading, contact form, also ordered version, let the customer download can be printed directly!
The buyer did not organize the information, and decided, the latter period to keep track of, because this time I have decided to buy one, the other will not read the mail at all! If the later period you do not follow again, I might forget you dead!
Step 4: Filter back!
This is a very important step in the procurement, and the first thing I look at the return plate is the price, for example, I sent 10 copies and returned 9 copies, the prices are: 1,000, 1100, 1150, 1200, 990, 1020, 1400, 900, 1500. Within this price sequence, the highest 1500 will generally be dropped directly, of course if this turntable is very technical, very professional, and I feel very comfortable, maybe I will give him a chance. If the return panel is simple, grass, the price is so high, a little hope not. As for the lowest price, I will not do it all at once, I’ll take this minimum price down a little bit, for instance, 800, to cut the price! See how the suppliers respond!
