Elksourcing：Procurement Professionals Have 5 Attributes in Common

China Sourcing Agent

Elksourcing：Procurement Professionals Have 5 Attributes in Common

Apr 7, 2021 , by 露露

During my work in China sourcing industry for about 20 years, I’ve met many procurement professionals. I noticed that qualified procurement professionals have 5 attributes in common.

1. Excellent communication skills

The procurement department often finds itself at the crossroads between multiple stakeholders: suppliers, customers, management, sales, etc. (If you need help identifying your company’s stakeholders, check out this article.) Excellent communication is essential. A procurement professional must be able to express him or herself clearly in writing and in conversation. Of course, a good communicator must also be able to listen in order to better understand the needs and perspectives of colleagues and suppliers.

2. Savvy negotiation skills

This skill goes hand in hand with communication skills. The ability to negotiate doesn’t just refer to the ability to get something at the cheapest possible price; negotiations usually involve conversations about quality, delivery date, future relations, and more. A good negotiator knows how to get the best value from a supplier while still maintaining a positive business relationship. Also, knowing when to take negotiations out of the boardroom and onto the golf course or into a more relaxed, social environment can be a key attribute as well.

3. Ability to prioritize

A great procurement professional knows how to prioritize. In a busy office, there will often be many fires that need to be put out all at once, so to speak. While the ability to multitask may come in handy, it’s absolutely useless if you don’t understand what tasks are more important than others. This skill can be honed with experience, but it may be difficult to teach. Being able to prioritize successfully means being able to efficiently analyze potential worse case scenarios and quickly rank which tasks need to be dealt with immediately and which can be put off until later.

4. Integrity

Integrity is important to many professions, but it is especially important in procurement. Integrity means doing what you say and saying what you mean. Integrity helps professionals become leaders within the company and well respected by those they deal with outside the company. Integrity also implies a sense of reliability; if they say they will get the job done, they’ll do it.

5. A positive attitude

A positive, can-do attitude may be the most important attribute of all since it can’t be taught. Look for someone who approaches problems as exciting challenges rather than tedious tasks and views procurement as an essential component of the company rather than a necessary evil. If they don’t see their job as important, how will they convince colleagues in other departments to follow through with the procurement process?

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Elksourcing：4 Tips to Keep Product Costs Down

Apr 7, 2021 by 露露

As a Startup, with limited resources, time and money are working against you. In order to succeed, you must go the most out of the small funds you have. Below 4 tips will help you to keep your product costs down when importing from Asia.

1. Focus on one or two products.

Don’t try to start off by launching an entire collection of products – especially if these are so different that they require separate manufacturers.

Every product is an investment, in terms of time and money. Finding the right manufacturers, drafting specifications sheet and buying samples, take a ton of time and quite a bit of money.

If you spread too thin before you even have something to put on the market, chances are that you’ll never get there in the end.

As a Startup or small business in general, your only strength is your expertise. You must be focused on one product if possible.

2. Keep your design simple

It’s typical that Startups, be in software or e-commerce, run out of money as they try to perfect their product into infinity. As you launch a product, you cannot afford to get hung up on features that don’t really matter.

I’ve seen time and time again, how importers set design and functional requirements, that are either very expensive to reach – or even impossible.

In most cases, this is due to a lack of experience. There are physical limits to what can be done in manufacturing.

Also, too many design details or functions increase the risk of severe delays, or even failure to produce a single product sample.

Indeed, you should not compromise on design requirements and functions that are core to your business model. That said, keep things as lean as possible – and further develop your product once it’s proven on the market.

3. Don’t spend too much on new tooling

Every custom designed piece of metal or plastic requires an injection mold. The more custom designed pieces of metal and plastic needed to assemble your product, the more money you’ll end up spending on tooling.

If you want to keep costs low, you should try to use existing tooling to the extent possible. For example, you could put off a new product packaging design until the next order.

4. Start out with just one target market

The United States and the European Union have different sets of regulations. So does Korea, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Nigeria and India.

For every market you attempt to enter, you need to provide a new set of compliance documents and test reports.

This takes time and costs money. Third-party laboratory testing is not cheap. In fact, it’s a major expense on many importers’ balance sheet.

Testing costs are charged based on the number of products, or materials, and the number of different regulations (to which a product shall be checked).

In short, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and money if you decide to focus on one market to begin with.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Common Mistakes Made by Importers

Apr 7, 2021 , by 露露

During my experience of helping business people sourcing from China, I’ve seen many mistakes that importers made when sourcing from China. Below are 8 most common mistakes:

1. Using PayPal

Almost all beginner guides will tell you, only choose suppliers who accept PayPal. We say otherwise. There are a couple issues when it comes to using PayPal. You’re required to pay service fees. This can end up costing a ton and ruining your profit margins.  A lot of guides will explain, PayPal is great for that added piece of insurance. The problem with this, if you’re using PayPal as a piece of mind to know your supplier can’t run away with your money, then you have not been vigilant enough with your sourcing. You should never choose a supplier unless you are absolutely confident they are capable of performing to your qualifications.

International Trade is an industry that is older than all of us. PayPal disrupts the system. Maybe this is my old school mindset coming into play, but a supplier is going to have a hard time taking you seriously if you demand PayPal. PayPal for international trade tags you as an inexperienced buyer who can easily be taken advantage of. Regardless of your buying power, it is important to act like you know what you are doing, even if this is your first purchase from China.

In the long run, PayPal isn’t going to help you. You’re buying from China, and because of this, you’re expected to conduct business with Chinese business understanding. A true business in China is built on trust and relationship. Using an American processing company notoriously known for favoring the buyer over the seller, and holding/confiscating funds for unknown amounts of time, is not going to help you in your efforts of extending the olive branch. 

2. Neglecting Compliance

Regardless of your import country, there are product laws that extend much further than getting past customs. When buyers don’t fully understand the product they are importing and all the necessary rules and regulations that go along with said product, serious issues can arise at any part of the life of the product. As the importer, it is your duty to import responsibly and legally. While a common issue is not understanding the necessary certifications to get past customs, resulting in fines or seizures, another overlooked mistake is further compliance with various government agencies and entities protecting buyers, products and the environment.

3. Not sourcing forwarders

Not all shipping prices are equal. The shipping industry is large, competitive, and as ‘out to get you’ as any industry looking to make a quick buck off small, inexperienced importer. Just as it is vitally important to obtain product quotes from various suppliers, it is just as important to obtain quotes from forwarders too. If you don’t already have a strong relationship with a logistics company, or understand the cost structure of various ways of shipping, the best way to ensure you’re not being quoted an over inflated price is by shopping around.

4. Showing your size

A common mistake new importers make is assuming Chinese suppliers have the same vision they have of their small but mighty startup. Chinese culture works much differently than western culture. In China, everything bigger is better. Because of this, some suppliers will refuse to work with importers who are clearly of small size because it is assumed, the more amount of employees you have, the bigger your warehouse, the nicer your car, dictates your businesses success and buying power. When in reality, for the west, this is far from true.

When creating on online buying profile, it is important to exaggerate just enough so Chinese companies don’t quickly discard you as insignificant. Instead of explaining you’re a small startup, build yourself up so when they quickly glance over you and your website, they have trust that your purchases won’t be a one and done deal.

5. Expecting the sales person to be organized for you

Mistakes in production happen, and they happen a lot when you assume the sales person is the one taking all the notes for what you intend to purchasing.

Make sure everything is 110% understood, clearly written down in an organized fashion, and confirmed multiple times by the supplier.

6. Assuming you can ship defects back to your supplier

It is illegal to ship defective goods into China. Chinese customs will seize the goods. The cost alone would eat up profits because you’d be expected to cover all shipping costs. There are easier and less expensive alternatives to look into, such ask supplier for some percentage of free replacements, get a certain percentage of refunds from supplier, and so. Most importantly, you should always find a trustworthy QC to do pre-shipment inspection for you, so as to find out defects in China, problems are much easier to be fixed by China suppliers.

7. Assuming the factory is going to follow Western business customs

Many buyers assume that because they are messaging factories from the comfort of their own computer screen, that they are not doing business in China.

By not taking the time to learn about Chinese business culture, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Your understanding will be recognized and greatly respected if you can adopt to Chinese business customs.

8. Not building a personal relationship with your supplier

The suppliers you are speaking with are not faceless drones taking you order, they’re actual people. A great way to build a relationship is to also build a rapport with these sellers.

Chinese business is fueled on relationships. Any personal relationship you have with someone at the factory you intend on using continuously, will allow you to greatly excel your imports.

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Elksourcing：How to Be a Successful Promotional Product Importer?

Apr 7, 2021 , by 露露

Unlike a regular importer who only deal in a few products, a promotional product importer has to deal with various products. Because of the wide product range, promotional product importers usually aren’t experts on production processes, but they have to frequently work on a wide range of products at aggressive time frames.

Those importers who successfully import promotional products, have habits that set them apart from the regular importers.

1.)  They prepare

The successful promotional product distributor who treads offshore, doesn’t treat the process the same as if they’re buying domestically.

Successful importers spend time in preparing their inquiries. Whether it’s clearly laid out specs or detailed mockups, they’re ready to use visuals and measurements to show the supplier exactly what they need.

Successful importing, regardless of the industry, avoids as much guess work as possible from the supplier.

2.)  They communicate

A successful importer, especially in the fast-paced world of promotional merchandise, knows to be quick on the follow-up. There shouldn’t be a ton of downtime between emails.

When a supplier has a question, the successful importer is quick to provide insight.

When samples arrive, they keep your vendor updated on the sign-off process.

The successful importer quickly lines up their freight forwarder and there are not lags which ruin an otherwise successful order.

3.)  They keep perspective

Promotional product importers who keep perspective on the bigger picture by growing long-term relationships with their suppliers have more success. They aren’t always out shopping the next vendor hoping to save $300.

They realize that a 1-time order with a first time supplier is not going to be as smooth as when they deal with the same supplier over and over.

4.)  They know their products

They know more about their production line than the average promotional importer. Yes, they may not be experts, but they practically apply fundamental knowledge that a factory expects when dealing with an importer.

This importer works arm-in-arm with the factory on design, on calling out material specs and in reminding the factory what problems to keep an eye out for.

5.)  They’re experienced

A distributor who goes offshore for the first time will run in to obstacles.

Success in importing promotional items really comes over time.

This success comes with experience, the successful importer of branded merchandise rolls up their sleeves and doesn’t stop after the first try.

The experienced importer’s success isn’t tied to what the supplier did or didn’t do.

They’re solution-oriented even when the supplier didn’t take the best path.

In working with China, any importer deals with times when suppliers take an ill-advised step or makes an error.

Promotional product importers don’t fall to pieces but figure out a plans of action.

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Elksourcing：How to Get Lower MOQ from Chinese Suppliers?

Apr 6, 2021 , , by 露露

To test the market and limit the risks, for new projects, usually buyers will try to purchase a small QTY. However, Chinese suppliers will always require MOQ – usually it’s a QTY larger than importers are comfortable to start with.

So, how to get lower MOQ from Chinese suppliers?

The easiest way to get low MOQ is to buy the supplier’s existing design.

However, buyers taking this strategy will then face packaging as the key issue. There are three main choices:

1. Plain box: MOQ is low (around 100 pcs). The buyer uses a plain brown box at supplier’s same die cut, and put stickers with brand name, model, product description and barcodes on the box. Should be fine if products are sold online (Amazon, eBay, etc.), but unacceptable for retail.

2. Supplier’s non-branded packaging: MOQ usually is medium (around 500 pcs). Should be fine if products are sold online (Amazon, eBay, etc.) Sometimes it’s acceptable in retail, but many times it’s not acceptable as retail channel emphasizes more in brand recognitions and promotions.

3. Custom color box: MOQ is high (around 1,000 pcs). Consequently, the factory will set MOQ at 1,000 pcs.

Some factories, on the other hand, work with box suppliers that may do smaller runs but at a higher price. One company, for example, quoted $300 extra to accommodate the setup, ink injection, test run and other steps. Other suppliers will quote a higher per-box fee.

If the factory’s box supplier won’t do smaller runs, the buyer can find its own box factory, and have it print and deliver the boxes to the factory. If the buyer has lots of repeated business at the box factory, it is possible to get factory’s support to do small runs.

Then, factory will typically accept the smaller MOQ if boxes are provided by the buyer.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Why Chinese Suppliers Ignore Your RFQ?

Apr 6, 2021 , , by 露露

It happens often, you, as a buyer, after hours or days searching on Alibaba, has found a promising Chinese supplier, and sent out a RFQ (Request For Quotation). The next day, and next few days, you check your mailbox but nothing happens, you have not heard back from the Chinese supplier at all.

Why Chinese suppliers ignore your RFQ?

When sending the RFQ, do you fall in below bad situations which quenching the fire of the supplier motivation?

1-  Wide-open RFQ shows you do not know what exactly you look for.

These broad inquiries are heavy on generalities and low on specifics.

If the supplier is responsible and not too busy, they may come back and ask the buyer questions, in hopes to nail down some specifications.

Otherwise, the supplier simply puts your RFQ in low quality category and ignores it.

2- No indication of time frame.

An indication of time frame would be letting the supplier know, “Why they are quoting?”

For example:

“If all goes well, we hope to start sampling next week.”

“We hope to bring the order next month if all goes well.”

But without any time indication when the quote is sent, you’ve basically asked your supplier to shoot a quotation into the wild blue yonder of cyber space.

3- Unrealistic price negotiation from the beginning

This is when the buyer, in hopes of being professional, gives a target price to the vendor.

The trouble is, this target price forgets the basic rules of mathematics.

It’s not good for the supplier motivation if your figures look like you think their margin is coming from some alternate universe.

If you are going to provide a target price in your RFQ (which I recommend by the way), then make sure you are in tune to some of the basic pricing parameters of your product.

Giving a target price – good

Giving an unrealistic target price – bad.

4- Poor mouthing your own inquiry or client

The buyer, when speaking about their own client, may say something along the lines of:

“They’re really pushing us for pricing and being annoying. We just have to send them something.”

Or when a supplier asks for more detail, the buyer says “I don’t know, we’re not really sure, this job isn’t going too well…”

The buyer, in their internal frustration for whatever reason, express disdain for the project.

Well, if you’re not motivated for the project, guess who else will not be?

5- Letting your supplier know how many people you are against in the bid

“Hey, we’re up against like 30 other companies for this one”.

That says enough.

6- Unrealistic quantity request

Some buyers make the mistake of giving too high quantity scales.

Look, you may order a million units or something like that, but those kinds of inquiries do not usually come to fruition of one emailed RFQ. And unless you’ve built a track record of ordering substantial quantity from this supplier, they may not take you seriously.

If you have a high potential quantity, break that down to a few lower scales in case the large quantity does not hit the pay window.

When sourcing and quoting, be known as a serious client who sends potential business. Show that you value your resources.

Supplier motivation whizzes out like air from a balloon when you request 50,000 units and end up ordering 1,000 units.

7- Complicated item

This could be items require extensive development and items that do not fall into the supplier’s line of expertise.

“Hey, we’re looking to quote a great product that takes lots of development time. But at the moment we’re not sure how many we are going to order. Can you spend some time analyzing everything and then give us a quote?”

These kinds of inquiries usually get ignored.

8- You never close an order

If you inquire over and over but never actually close anything, the supplier is not going to really be holding their breath thinking finally, this is the big one.

You need to be careful not to exhaust your resources.

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Elksourcing：How to Use Customer Testimonials?

Apr 6, 2021 , by 露露

Using customer testimonials in your marketing efforts can be very effective. They help to build your reputation, credibility and sales. Don’t be afraid to ask your satisfied customers to give you a testimonial. Most will be happy to offer their opinions. Be sure to ask their permission to use the testimonials in your marketing campaign.

Be sure to use the more detailed testimonials. Generic lines such as “Your product is great” are not as effective as one such as:

“I’ve only been using your product for one week and already I have more energy than ever before!”

You want the testimonial to highlight the benefits of your products or services – the more detail the better!

You can also use small snippets from a long testimonial when appropriate. For example: When advertising a diet supplement, you could use a snippet such as “I lost over 50 pounds!”

Below are ten easy and effective ways to use your testimonials:

1) Use small snippets on your business cards. This is a great way to draw more attention to your card.

2) Use portions of the testimonials in your email signature. Everyone you send an email to will see these testimonials.

3) If you write and submit articles, use snippets in your resource box. This can increase the amount of clicks you get from your resource box.

4) If you publish a newsletter, have a section for feedback/testimonials. Add new testimonials each time you send one out.

5) Use them on your website. Have a Testimonials/Review page for complete testimonials and then sprinkle them throughout your website as well.

6) If you print out flyers or brochures be sure to add some of your most detailed and convincing testimonials.

7) Post them on your social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Video testimonials are quite effective as well.

8) Use the most detailed benefit oriented lines in your sales copy. For example: when writing an ad use small snippets such as “I made over $100 my first week!”

9) When you sign up for message boards and forums, use them in your signatures. Most forums will allow you so many words for your signature.

10) Always use them in your email marketing campaigns. Testimonials can get more results than just about any kind of sales copy! If you have people selling for you, give them to your sales team to use as marketing tools as well.

Gathering and using testimonials is one of the easier yet more powerful ways to build your business and gain customers so be sure to ask for, gather and save all the testimonials you can. Comments made by actual customers will go much farther with your potential customers than any ad copy you can write!

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Elksourcing：Important Matters to Achieve Success in Selling

Apr 6, 2021 , by 露露

Those who cherish all-round success believe that success is a journey and not a destination. That is, if you are a very strongly-ambitious person, you must continue to set fresh goals for yourself to achieve success in other areas as soon as you have achieved success in one or some areas. Just like any journalist reporting can be called a “reporter” in some instances, irrespective of his or her official designation as an editor or otherwise, so can anybody that does one form of business or another be referred to as a “seller”.

So even if your job description is not officially that of a salesperson in your organization, you are indirectly a salesperson and need to learn the fundamentals of selling. That is why we are examining another critical area that you need to target success in this article.

1). Interpretation       

Selling is basically about persuasion. That is, the art of getting people to go along with your points of view, to see everything your own way. Persuasion is the ability to induce beliefs and values in other people by influencing their thoughts and actions through specific strategies. The ability to influence the behavior of another person or group has been a necessary element in human culture since the beginning of time. In short, the greatest changes in the course of humanity have all been guided by individuals with mastery in the persuasion process.

2). Power of persuasion      

The fact remains that whether or not you have had training in persuasive speaking, you are familiar with it and your happiness in your business engagements and success may largely depend on your persuasive skills. Paul Nelson and Judy Pearson, co-authors of “Confidence in Public Speaking” say whether you are selling a product, soliciting votes, marketing services, canvassing for donations, seeking a job or simply attempting to convince someone to believe as you do, you are engaging in persuasive speaking. The difference between an impotent conversationalist and the motivating communicator is the ability to persuade people to participate in win-win relationships. According to Dr. Kevin Hogan, author of “The Psychology of Persuasion”, the ability to communicate persuasively is a skill that can be used in all aspects of our personal or business life. As a salesperson, your sales will dramatically increase if you can master this art.

3). One important factor

One of the very important factors in persuasion is outcome-based thinking. Your state of mind is a very important thing to consider in the persuasion process. It is also very important to know the other person’s desired state of mind. When you determine this, you can persuade the person by showing him or her how to get there.

Whether you want to become a master persuader or simply a better communicator, it is important to take on the thinking process of a master persuader. Outcome-based thinking is simply about the ability to visualize the exact outcome of a process before beginning that process. It is like vision in goal-setting. It is the ability to set goals and keep them in mind all through the persuasion process. Obviously, outcome-based thinking can apply to much more than the persuasion process. It is very important because it is said that you must first succeed inside to be able to succeed outside or in real life.

4). Enthusiasm and motivation

To succeed as a salesperson, one important attribute you need to have is enthusiasm about your product. Every serious salesperson stresses enthusiasm as the most important asset in sales persuasion. You cannot be a top salesperson unless you genuinely believe in the value of your product or service and can enthusiastically convey that to your buyers. Beyond this, you need motivation.