What Makes a Good Sourcing InquiryChina Sourcing Club Newsletter 08/09/2007
A good inquiry get you quotes
in no time.
A good inquiry saves confusion and leads to
efficient communication with Chinese suppliers.
A good inquiry starts good
DIY Sourcing business.
A good inquiry is NOT
simple. Below are necessary elements in a full and complete inquiry.
1. Product Name
2. Product specifications
3. Quantity
4. Timing
5. Samples, Photos or Drawings
6. …
7. Your List of Questions
8. A Good Attitude
Product NameProvide industrial name as well as nick name when people addressing the product you inquire. CZ stones could use names like Cubic Zirconia (or zirconium oxide; ZrO2), and synthetic diamond.
http://en.wikipedia.org and
www.google.com are places to find a couple more names.
Product SpecificationsThese include
features, materials that product are made of, dimensions of the unit, your preferred packaging, and certain industry or market standards.
www.wikepedia.org is good for general product specification. However, you or the clients knows the best of it, the detailed the better. Refer below description of a model of ATVs, in another word, Four Wheel Motorcycles or quads.
1. Engine: 50cc-110cc, four stroke
2. Max speed: 50km/h
3. Max load: 90kg
4. Specifications of front wheel: 14. 5 x 7-6, 30kpa
5. Specifications of rear wheel: 14. 5 x 7-6, 30kpa
6. Rated power and rated speed: 2. 2kW/6, 000r/min
7. Rated torque and rated speed: 3. 7N. M/4, 500r/min
8. Compression ratio: 6. 7: 1
9. Gearshift mode automatic
10. Starting system: Electrical start
11. Fuel consumption: 2. 4L/100km
12. Fuel tank: 3. 00L
13. Brake: Rear disc brake
14. NW: 100kg
15. Product size(L x W x H): 122x 76x69c
You don’t have to be this specific in your inquiry, but this could be an ultimate example of how detail the information you can provide on a product. Besides those features and dimensions, ATVs sold in USA also need EPA to address emission and fuel economy concerns. Electrical supply would need UL certificate. That’s what you would need to find out before giving a professional sourcing inquiry.
QuantityQuantity is a very important elements in inquiry because it determines the price range you are soliciting. That
the bigger quantity the better price is a norm in terms of sourcing. Why, this same norm applies when your manufacturer/supplier is purchasing raw material and use other people’s service to make your products. When you buy more, the factory would buy more raw material from its own suppliers at lower price per unit, which lowers the cost per unit to your product eventually. Manufacturers requires different amount of Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ), sort of because of the same reason. Quantity could be a rule that helps you to find the right matching supplier for your specific product need.
Timing The timeline of your expectation can be another rule finding you a matching supplier for your project. For instance, normally it takes a factory 2 weeks to make a sample and another week to ship in by air. But if you need it early than 3 weeks, you need a factory that can sample for you in one week. Some popular and reliable factories that you know of may not be able to feed your need at this moment. Their delivery time is as it is. Sometimes, you should feel lucky when you are taken care of in 3 weeks as promised because meanwhile, they might be postponing other big backlog orders.
Sampling takes about 2 weeks to make, and 1 week by air shipping. Mass production time could vary from 1 week to 4 weeks depending on the quantity, your communication and negotiation skills, the popularity and the capacity of the supplier as I described a little bit above.
Efficient communication facilitates the whole process not only in the sampling and mass production with the supplier, but also for freight forwarding with the shipping agent. Ocean shipping and local trucking takes about 4- 6 weeks if everything goes smooth.
Samples, Photos or DrawingsThese are used as live illustration to get across your idea to the Chinese manufacturers. If you don’t have a sample, use photos, or AutoCAD drawing. If you don’t have photos for the product you want, take pictures of those similar ones, and add detail elaboration along. If you don’t have AutoCAD drawing for your invention, try a hand drawing.
A picture worth thousands of words, and a sample means millions to your Chinese suppliers.Your QuestionsI am putting a lot of attention in the previous paragraphs describing how to give out information, but you sure need to ask questions in the inquiry. The right questions includes, such as
the mould fee, sampling fee, price per unit, sampling time, mass production time, their packing sizes and etc.
Being specific in the question asking helps Chinese factories to address your specific concerns. If you are looking to buy maternity clothes made in China and you don’t have specific preference in the style or design, you can ask the supplier to provide you with their catalogue and MOQ (minimum order quantity) for each. Mostly in this case, the Chinese wholesaler would be the right supplier to answer you than any manufacturers.
Asking right and specific questions are good ways helping Chinese persons to understand you. Another two skills are good to employ are
repetition, and making
bullets, not paragraphs, to emphasis your points, questions and concerns.
A Good AttitudeBeing specific, but
never be brief and rude. For a successful sourcing business, you need to treat your suppliers as your clients. When you start a new search by sending out an inquiry, make this inquiry as good as we described above, but also take up nice and gentle words to encourage instant responses.
Don’t just put “looking forward” as the end, but use “looking forward to your kind reply at your earliest convenience” etc. Always show thankfulness when they respond fast and give compliment when they run any extra miles for you. You will feel a difference this good manner rewards whenever you need negotiation on the prices, and speed in production.
