Hey newbies,

I found this post in the China forum, thought I share my thoughts with you.

Topic: Where are the reall buyers ?

I received some inquries. Some of them are written very honestly  .

Then i reply them carefully and hopefully

but no reply , WHY??

Can they receive our reply ? Why do they  ignore my reply if they receive ? Why do they send inquries if they  ignore???

When you first start out, you will have a lot of questions. You send questions to suppliers about the products, payment terms and supplier give their replies.  They then ask you some questions about your business etc etc to know you better.

The email ping pong could go on for weeks, it's only natural you want to know more before you commit your hard earn dollars.  Suppliers can sometimes get annoyed, but hey, without buyers, they would go out of business. 

Have you ever asked a question but got an answer to a different question. Example:

me: What is the colour of the chicken?

you: The duck is brown. Very cheap, want to buy? Let's go into production.

I asked about chicken but was told about the duck.  If the supplier doesn't correct their mistake, then chances are the customer will simply give up and look for a new supplier. Would you deal with somebody who take your hard earn cash but don't give you want you ordered?

To communicate successfully, be as specific as possible. If you don't have the exact details, then tell the other party. Keep them informed, don't let them guess, because guessing will lead to more guesses and the end result is a major problem.

Example:

I like you to manufacture t-shirt using pattern CCDD001 listed on your web site (or catalogue no 123, January 2009).  But I am after a lighter fabric. Not too sure what weigh I want.  I am looking between 80 and 120gsm, 65/35 poly cotton. Please send me some swatches and I will confirm. My colour will be choosen from a pentone chart.

Let's analyse.

a.  I tell them what design I want and the source of the design.    Some companies recycles their product code. It's rare but it happens.  So in one catalogue, product code 123 is a chicken, the next catalogue it's a duck.

b. I tell them I am not sure what fabric i want and ask them to provide fabric sample. The supplier doesn't have to guess the fabric.  Just imagine if they gave me 130gsm, when I wanted 80gsm.

c. I provide the colour from pentone chart, then there is no dispute.  Notice I didn't just ask for "pink" because you see pink differently to me. 

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Quoting from [jadedev]:

Hey newbies,

I found this post in the China forum, thought I share my thoughts with you.

Topic: Where are the reall buyers ?

I received some inquries. Some of them are written very honestly  .

Then i reply them carefully and hopefully

but no reply , WHY??

Can they receive our reply ? Why do they  ignore my reply if they receive ? Why do they send inquries if they  ignore???

When you first start out, you will have a lot of questions. You send questions to suppliers about the products, payment terms and supplier give their replies.  They then ask you some questions about your business etc etc to know you better.

The email ping pong could go on for weeks, it's only natural you want to know more before you commit your hard earn dollars.  Suppliers can sometimes get annoyed, but hey, without buyers, they would go out of business. 

Have you ever asked a question but got an answer to a different question. Example:

me: What is the colour of the chicken?

you: The duck is brown. Very cheap, want to buy? Let's go into production.

I asked about chicken but was told about the duck.  If the supplier doesn't correct their mistake, then chances are the customer will simply give up and look for a new supplier. Would you deal with somebody who take your hard earn cash but don't give you want you ordered?

To communicate successfully, be as specific as possible. If you don't have the exact details, then tell the other party. Keep them informed, don't let them guess, because guessing will lead to more guesses and the end result is a major problem.

Example:

I like you to manufacture t-shirt using pattern CCDD001 listed on your web site (or catalogue no 123, January 2009).  But I am after a lighter fabric. Not too sure what weigh I want.  I am looking between 80 and 120gsm, 65/35 poly cotton. Please send me some swatches and I will confirm. My colour will be choosen from a pentone chart.

Let's analyse.

a.  I tell them what design I want and the source of the design.    Some companies recycles their product code. It's rare but it happens.  So in one catalogue, product code 123 is a chicken, the next catalogue it's a duck.

b. I tell them I am not sure what fabric i want and ask them to provide fabric sample. The supplier doesn't have to guess the fabric.  Just imagine if they gave me 130gsm, when I wanted 80gsm.

c. I provide the colour from pentone chart, then there is no dispute.  Notice I didn't just ask for "pink" because you see pink differently to me. 

hey joel

why post nothing?

Quoting from [jadedev]:

hey joel

why post nothing?

Hello ,

For proffesional advice - we can recommend that you visit a website called itrade365.com and it will teach you everything you need to know.

I found the site last week and it is brilliant and answers all the questions of international trading and offers goods advice and guidance.

itrade365.com  - is the website

Rgds GF

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	• Shipping freight costs	• Doing business in Christmas
	• Business in economic crisis	• Ensure a manufacturer is ethical
	• Protect the business from copying	• Be the last man standing
	• To find the quality China goods	• Payment beneficiary issue
	• Buyer's starting steps in Alibaba	• Suppliers like such payment terms

Running to be good sales man.....

i  think most of supplier  will do better when they read this article

Yes, sometimes the suppliers make these mistake you mention. But I think the fact is not like these completely.

Sometimes we reply the buyer with the exactly answer, but there is no reaction also. Why? (we are a steel door supplier.)

I read an article before. It is about how suppliers can get reply from buyer. It mentions that the buyer only reply the supplier who give the buyer a middle-price. I wonder it is right? And why the buyer do not reply? Don't they not the real buyer?

hey,

Buyers don't reply because they obviously don't want to do business with you.  They might find you hard to deal with, could be a language problem, price to high, something wrong with the product, poor customer service.

That's the thing about Chinese suppliers, very poor in terms of customer service. You might think you are doign a very good job but compared to other suppliers, you are not even close. For example, I rang an Chinese wholesaler and he just told me to f-off even before I told them what I wanted to buy.  Man, how rude is that, and I was trying to give them money.   Why would I do business with them again.

So what do you do if no reply?  Call them.  Importers are business selling your doors and don't have time to reply all your emails

Hey, your words is sharp, but right.

Why no reply? It is sure that there must be a reason. Maybe there are still a big space for the seller to improve their customer service, product quality,...and so on. That's a big challenge.

my words are not sharp or they would have shred you to bits, ha ha

when somebody ask for a qoute, perhaps you ask for a contact no and if you don't hear from them, give them a call.

I watch a lot of documentaries about China and Chinese movies, somehow it strikes me that people are not necessary the friendliest people around, don't know, that's the impression I get. The bosses yell at the workers, the workers yell at the customer they customer goes home and yell at their children, the children go outside and yell at the dog. What's with all the yelling?

I guess language plays a big part. Very hard to understand some of the emails and so i don't see a point in replying them.

What is the steel doors for? Haven't coem across too many of them lately, only in very old houses.