How to achieve win-win cooperation?
I started to contact various supplier factories in 2005. There are countless people, and they have indeed been struggling for more than ten years. As a foreign trade person, I always keep in mind the words of my former boss: win-win! Whether with customers or suppliers, the concept of “win-win” should be kept in mind.
As the times progress, young people like fast food culture and make quick money. Business rules are slowly changing, and so-called business ethics will inevitably change with the development of society. Gradually, people in this era no longer like rules, or they only like rules set by themselves, and everything depends on money. As Marx said: When the profit reaches 10%, they will be ready to take action; when the profit reaches 50%, they will take desperate risks; when the profit reaches 100%, they dare to trample all laws in the world; when the profit reaches 300% time, they dared to risk hanging.
A good business circle should look like this: consumers-retailers-wholesalers-logistics-producers. Then what our entire society advocates is to “remove the middle links”! This is also the reason why all e-commerce is so popular. The world is always moving forward, and we inevitably have to drift with it.
In fact, some things were not clearly described in the last factory inspection experience summarized. This article focuses on the relationship with the factory.
Article 1: Long-term cooperation with factories with professional ethics
Professional Morality, first and foremost, is to define one’s own position. Do not go beyond our reach to customers, and be able to keep our and customer information and product information confidential. The contract can be implemented as much as possible, and defective products will not be shipped as qualified products. There are many other problems. Foreign trade workers are tired of facing various questions from customers and no longer want to quarrel with the factory. Moreover, foreign trade people generally have a straightforward temperament and are not very scheming.
A few years ago, we cooperated with a factory on behalf of a client and purchased the first container. It happened that the factory was going to the customer’s local exhibition. I did not clearly tell the factory the name of the customer at that time. I just told the factory that the customer would definitely visit the exhibition. After the factory returned to China, I already had my customer’s business card and sent the customer a price list. In view of this situation, I contacted the factory at noon and asked the factory to clarify whether it would cooperate through me or directly with my customer. The factory hesitated and refused to reply. The salesperson said that he would ask the leader for instructions. I communicated again in the evening before leaving get off work, but the factory still didn’t reply and said the leader was not here.
In the evening, something unexpected happened. The customer sent me a screenshot. It turned out that the factory sent an email to all customers received at the exhibition:
How are you my dear friend? Do you have a trading company supplier for xxxx?
What the factory didn’t expect was that the customer directly copied the email to me! What a smart factory, it actually sent an email to all potential customers in the afternoon to ask if there was a trading company that was cooperating. I really don’t understand. Can we judge how to cooperate after knowing the final customer? Well, game over! The salesman from the factory is still on my QQ and asked me a long time ago: Mr. Wang, can we cooperate again? I just replied with a smiley face.
The first factory failed, and the cooperation with the second factory was not smooth sailing. After working with a few containers, I accompanied the customer to visit the factory. Unexpectedly, I was left alone at the conference table while several salesmen and foreigners competed with foreigners to show off their foreign languages and exchange business cards! I almost overturned the table at the conference table, and told the factory in a straight-forward manner: Have you figured out who your customers are? it’s me? Or a foreigner?
The atmosphere in some areas is not very good, and it is not a matter of regional discrimination. However, regional customs lead to the way most people treat others, so we really need to pay attention to this. I still prefer bosses from Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, and they have little urge to steal customers.
A factory with ethical standards starts with the boss. If the top beam is not straight and the bottom beam is crooked, the boss’s behavior will definitely affect the attitude of ordinary staff, and the attitude of ordinary staff will also reflect the atmosphere of the entire company.
If you accidentally find a factory with ethical standards, please cherish it!
When you ask your factory to do something that is against business ethics, such as taking photos of other customers’ products and providing other customers’ technical parameter requirements, if the factory agrees to you, then congratulations, your Information is also flying all over the world. I have asked my mold factory countless times not to disseminate my drawings, so when I ask the mold factory for designs from other customers, the mold factory is always unwilling to give them to me.
Article 2: Study with innovative factories
Have a career Ethical factories are not necessarily the ones with the best development. Many factories uphold professional ethics, but at the same time they are synonymous with not being open and flexible.
In our era, the so-called innovation is imitation! All over the country, imitations are everywhere. High-level imitation of foreign designs, low-level copying of domestic counterparts.
Go to the factory to see if a new product is launched every year? Are there some new technologies and equipment every year? The sales of old products always have a time limit.The profit segment may be high, but once the product is saturated and the market matures, it will always be difficult to sell! Therefore, we need new products and new technologies to enrich our product lines.
In most factories, the research and development of new products is relatively difficult. But new technology should improve it!
I am engaged in non-standard design work, so most of the products I come into contact with are new products. I have tried countless new things with the factory. An innovative factory must have certain technical capabilities, so that when we encounter some problems, we can cooperate with such a factory. When new products and technologies break through a difficult and complicated disease, they will bring several times the profits and market. There are countless cases like this for me!
For a product seven or eight years ago, the material designed by the customer was cast steel, and we usually used precision casting technology to realize it. However, various problems were discovered in actual production, such as cold insulation, thermal cracking, deformation, shrinkage, etc. The actual yield rate has been lower than 40%, and it is impossible to produce at all! It is the factory that studies and decides together to change materials and processes. The product yield increased to 80%, and the cost was reduced by 30%. Full profits have increased a lot.
Last year, I asked more than a dozen foundries about another high-grade stainless steel material, but they couldn’t produce it or the cost was too high. Later, we cooperated with the factory and finally successfully developed it and won the order.
Article 3: Grow with small-scale factories
Factories are not non-standard factories In terms of scale, small factories have the advantages of small factories, especially some small batch products that are easier to convince. Large factories have the advantages of large factories, with more assured quality and more suitable for customers to visit.
As a foreign trade person, we must clarify our positioning. What we call profit comes from the price difference of the product. Large factories are doing foreign trade on their own. What are our prospects for cooperating with them? Therefore, we should prefer cooperation with small factories. Small factories do not have the ability to do foreign trade, but we do; small factories do not have the ability to innovate, so we help them innovate and replicate; small factories do not have the ability to make overall plans, so we must strictly supervise and supervise them. Our efforts are the reflection of our value; we grow with small factories, just as we grow with small customers.
Small-scale is not just a few people and a few guns. The small-scale in each industry is different. The small-scale in our industry may only have three or five people, but the textile industry, no matter how small it is, still needs dozens of workers. Different industries have different requirements.
It is undeniable that most of the factories I cooperate with are small and medium-sized factories. The cooperation with several relatively large factories and even factories affiliated to listed companies has been smooth. However, the price advantage of small factories and the resolute work efficiency are more suitable for us foreign trade people. Don’t have any illusions, foreign traders just need to keep in touch with customers. The so-called contact is also various coordination and improvement, not just chatting and eating with customers.
Article 4: How to achieve “win-win” with factories
In fact, there is no real win-win. The so-called win-win is the psychological suggestion of each other. For example, if we divide peaches, you like the bigger ones, and I value the color of the peaches more, then in the end you take the bigger ones and I take the red ones, it’s a win-win situation!
A win-win situation means everyone gets what they need! Let the opponent have a winning effect. Just like the Indians bargaining for a dollar, you are rolling on the floor crying and getting a 10 cent discount. The Indians feel extremely happy, even though your base price can be reduced by 50 cents!
Please think carefully about how to make the factory win!
A more important idea, why does the factory want a win-win situation with us?
The so-called win-win situation requires that we are equally matched! How does a millionaire win with a beggar? Let the factory know our strength, or let the factory know our development potential in the industry! In this way, the factory will accompany us to achieve a win-win situation. I used to tell the truth to the factory: the order was only a small amount, which caused trouble to everyone! That was the factory of the past, and the factories of the past valued people more. Today’s factories pay more attention to efficiency. But if I still keep such a low profile with the factory, it only means that I really have no intention of cooperating.
They are equally matched, not only in terms of enterprise size, but also in terms of professional knowledge, understanding of the industry, and grasp of the market. We may be small, but we are professional. Professionalism is not only reflected in professional knowledge, but also in every detail, such as email format, contract format, inspection requirements, and technical requirements.
Long-term cooperation, more emphasis on prospects! So we have to learn how to draw cakes!
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