How to give a good quotation to buyer?

Is it a good idea to bargain with the buyers? Beginning with high price,then down and down after discussion. while someone would like to give buyers a no-modifiable price when they meet first.what price stratagy should be taken?

I hope people could give their opinions and speeches with deep consideration,thanks!

Replying to charliewillbe:

I remember that I ever read auch a article:one European big buyer when they inquiried quotations from a Chinese supplier, the supplier changes five tims for their prices from the afternoon to the next morning. And this arose a hot discussion concerned for quotation from China. But most of the comments are negative.

According to my expereinces, you should treat those guys differently. Normally speaking, most of buyers from European countries, United States even Southern-east Asian countries don't like to bargin. If they think your price looks good or attractive products, they will continue to talk with you. Otherwise they will give up. But it will be a different occasion when you talk with Indian buyers, Middle-east buyers, they are used to bargin more.

Actually I think it's no meaning to play a price game any more in such a transparent information era like today. Professional guys know how much you need to make for. And in some occasions the price you quoted means how professional you are.

In the other hand, if a buyer begin to bargin with you in first contacting and non-sample evaluation, I think those buyers are not valuable at all. That may mean they only want to talk with you for prices things, or at business beginning.

So my stage is to quote honestly, No matter how much you have marked up.The most important thing just you need to make sure he/she is a real buyer, a serious account.

Hope others share more opinions with us.

I think it is not fixed to make a price strategy to the buyer. As for different countries, it should adopt different price stategy.

Replying to [charliewillbe], [regaltech]: i fully support your opinion. Nowdays information is so transparent, we need to quote each buyers with best price, even he/she is not going to buy at this time or from other mid-east country. If the buyers hope to deal with lower price than we quoted, we can take or reject the order. But if you give a higher price, the buyer will scare away by your price. So just do it carefully and truthfully. good luch

Replying to [charliewillbe]:

This mainly depends on what kind of products, could you tell me what kind of products you deal with? for electronics, the prices is quoite transparent to the world.

But for some other kinds of products which can be made with different quality level, such like us, we manufacture laptop bag, camera bag, cd bag, if make for Europe, we use better material for them, then the prices for them should be higher, for mid-east such like india or UAE, give more cheaper price for their cheaper material and bigger quantity.

Now, I think you can have a little idea from my opinion.

Replying to [charliewillbe]:
The response so far is encouraging,however, in Nigeria, ability to give a good quotation is the order of the day.Hence it can be done as follows: The actual cost of goods + transportation + logistics + VAT [if any] + service charge hope you find this useful

Replying to [charliewillbe]:

I totally agree with regaltech.

Replying to [ak247]:

I think what Regaltech said must be combined to this.The actual cost of goods + transportation + logistics + VAT [if any] + service charge is the best quote. However, Europeans are not much considered about minute percentages. But will definitely couont the genuinity of the product / supplier.

I shall tell one thing from my personal experience: If one needs to buy a product from a shop for which he has no idea about the price. He will first access the shops from outside where the product is available. This is not a big thing: oue could easily understand from the crowd, staff performance etc. After deciding a shop, he will go to another shop and will get the price, working or operational or technical details etc from tem. Then he will go the the decided shop and will act as an expert and will start bargaining. Since the dominating community in the Middle East is Indians, one would experience the same bargaining in this area too.

Good day to all,

I am interested in this topic.

What is the most important is that the suppliers have to decide their price according to the markets and their margin ratio. This is an example. Last time, I inquired of Slim Lift. First I found most of suppliers offering me almost same price. But the last supplier's price was 2 times higher than others. I asked them to refer to others' price. Later he told me that it was true that his price was higher and he would lower and quote me again. But I rejected him at last.

Secondly, few suppliers show those factors related to the price such as materials on their quotation sheet. Actually, on their price list, we only can see the price and packaging information. If they put some important information, it is easy for the buyers to tell the difference between lower price and higher price. So, please study what is the professional quotation sheet.

For some guys, they rely on luck. But since the competition is so tense and the price is so transparent, why not offer your base line directly. Nobody likes playing price game. Price game will make real buyers keep off you!

Their is another worst thing. Some suppliers actually want to get some money from shipping. They are so stupid!! Higher shipping will also make your business bankrupt. Do honest business, please!!

Replying to [Peter Chan]: as far as I see the contributors of this topic regard the price as the main point of a quotation.

As a sourcing agent and buyer I can tell you what is a good quotation for me: it includes all relevant information! My job is to find a reliable supplier at a reasonable price in the shortest time possible.
It is very possible that I will choose a supplier whose price is a few percent higher but the quotation is complete. That means, it includes:
- FOB (!!!) price, with seaport marked! (I often get FOB quotes without location. Obviously for me in Europe a FOB Shanghai price is higher than a FOB Xiamen price, since shipping rates are different).
- delivery time (so far no Chinese supplier was able to keep the promised delivery time for my projects - 90% delay, 10% early)
- package unit (carton details)!!! Carton weight, size, volume, content, material. It is very important!!! Usually this point is simply left out by suppliers. But I - and most full-time buyers - have just simply no time to beg for any details separately!!! If a quotation misses this, I simply delete it. I have no time to ask for these points, but I can only calculate my shipping cost with this info!!!
- payment conditions must be exactly discussed.

I hope suppliers will consider these points in the future. If you include all relevant information, you can really help your partner in his decision. And for the supplier, it is a job done once, you needn't work out each detail separately.

Replying to [Gabor Bathori]:I think your reply will give many suppliers a completed model of quotation sheet, and i think many suppliers will benefit from your reply! But do you think if the quotation with all detailed information will get prompt reply? Obviously, still many buyers are just comparing the price.