老外今天升级了,你今天升级了吗?
Why is it so frustrating trying to deal with chinese suppliers?
Everyone of them acts like they are going to get rich on the first order and don't seem to understand the concepts of creating a relationship that is a win-win and starting with lower quantities until trust, service level and quality have been proven.
It seem also that all of them speak some english but none speak good english and the level of english speaking ability or desire changes on a daily basis with the same person.
The common thread seems to be they want money but don't want to create awin-win relationship.
Can anyone provide me with some perspective from the trenches that maybe I'm just not getting my mind wrapped around?
国情分析:
Re: Dealing with Chinese Suppliers
There are a lot of things at play here but the most important thing to remember is this. If every seller in China spoke perfect English and was professional then there would be no need for middle men and your customers would just buy direct from China themselves. So the very frustrations that we encounter are the very things that protect the industry in my opinion.
1. Professionalism - this is a cultural thing. Many Chinese people deal with problems after they become a problem whereas many foreigners try to avoid problems. It is not uncommon for a supplier to discover a problem during production that could be easily fixed but they choose not to tell the customer in the hope that the customer will just accept it. They wont tell you early as they would then need to fix it. So they will either tell you once it is too late to fix, or let you find out when you receive the production. Perhaps this could be seen as dishonesty, but then again perhaps it is just optimism on their behalf!
2. English ability - this will depend a lot upon the type of supplier that you deal with and the price you pay. Smaller, cheaper factories outside of major cities tend to offer lower wages and therefore attract recent graduates or those whose English abilities are not the best. Once those sales staff have become competant they tend to move to higher paying jobs in larger factories or larger cities and often those factories charge more for products. So the price is low in some factories for a reason.
3. Bear in mind that often factory bosses cannot speak Englsh so their only guide to the capability of an English speaking staff member may be a test score. China has a national English test ranking but even individuals with the highest ranking can sometimes be very lacking in English comprehension ability as a lot of the testing is theoretical rather than practical.
4. In line with the above most sales staff prefer to communicate via messenger or email rather than telephone as their reading and writing comprehension is much better than their speaking and listening.
5. Sales - most sales staff are under considerable pressure to close deals. That pressure may be financial or may be the potential loss of their job. So when they see the potential for a sale they will often jump the gun to get to the finish line and get the money into the bank acct. You are probably not going to be able to change this so the best that you can do is to explain clearly in a point form basis how you work.
6. Inline with the above most sales staff are pretty transient in factories which is why they do not really care about potential sales in the future. They are only concerned with getting the best sale that they can now. This can conflict with your plans in building long term business slowly.
So my recommendations are as follows:
a. If you want good quality communication abilities and sales professionalism then stick with larger factories in larger cities and pay the price premium for this. These factories will often have English speaking management which will be more attuned to customer service and long term relationships - but bear in mind that many of these factories have long term relationships with large customers so if your orders are too small they may reject them.
b. If you want lower prices and enthusiasm from the seller even if you are a small buyer then you are probably best to stick with small factories. They will be a lot more work for you, but the returns can be very beneficial also.
各位FOB友友你懂了吗?其实老外无时无刻不在总结归纳中国外贸业务员的行为特征,现在的理论很多已经不合时宜了,老外升级了,你升级了吗?
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