5 Proven China Sourcing Trade Secrets (Implement Now or Fail)
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” ― Confucius
I go to China at least 3–4 times or more a year for a week to three weeks at a time. Why? I love it. I speak fluent Mandarin and love the culture. I love working in China.
People started calling me “The Product Guy” and it’s stuck. I source products for entrepreneurs around the globe. Forget Alibaba. Those are generally trade agents. You’re not talking to an owner that can get you the quality and price breaks you need. Admittedly, they are recent college grads that know little about products, but they do speak English. Sorry to burst your bubble.
We do the product development, sourcing, logistics, shipping, wareshousing and fulfillment work that would cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars for basically free.
Our clients include some of the biggest names in entrepreneurship and some of the biggest brands. We also use the same mass producing factories that made most of the things in your home or office that you are looking at right now. :-) Is that too creepy? Well, it’s real.
Why free?
It’s not free. It’s better than free.
We get high-grade, high-quality, custom products made for our clients cheaper than they could get on their own (even with our small margin). So yeah…better than free. Our clients save tens to hundreds of thousands to in some cases…millions of dollars because of our service. We’ve also helped our clients collectively do millions of dollars in business. They’re happy. We’re happy.
That’s how we roll.
You’re welcome.
5 proven trade secrects for sourcing products in China as an entrepreneur, buyer, or supply-chain manager, or value-chain manager:
Successfully mass producing a product, any product, requires much planning and careful execution.
When manufacturing a simple product you generally require an engineer, production managers, a staff of operators and workers, and an auditor. The more complex the product, the greater the number of staff involved.
As project plan precision and detail increases, so does the rate of success and with it decreased cost and defects.
Smart planning with quick solutions to the unexpected is always your friend in product sourcing.
Sourcing trips should be approached with the same rigor and planning as the actual production planning.
Showing up to China with a “I’m going to wing it” or “I’ll figure it out as we get there” approach is hardly a strategy worth considering. As my business partner Richie Norton likes to say, “Bad Form!”
My time at the customers expense and away from my family is too valuable, and too important, to try to figure it out what to do upon arrival.
It’s so important, I’ve spent 5 years developing and simplifying the best way to do sourcing trips. Why? Because, we help our customers cut and control costs, it’s expected that we operate in a way that does just that.
By optimizing our sourcing trips we cut costs, improve effectiveness of visits, and increase revenue for ourselves and for customers.
So what’s the magic sauce? Planning and prioritizing.
Most Sourcing trips have the following objectives and activities should be prioritized in the order that best suits your timeline. This is where the 5 trade secrets of sourcing start — I call it the A, B, C, D, Es of sourcing:
5 Trade Secrets of Sourcing in China (Implement Now): The A, B C, D, Es of Product Sourcing
Whatever you do start with C!
A. Audit Production & Protect Investments
We don’t always get paid to audit every production, but if I’m in the area or can be, and have a product being made. I always go. It’s smart business. Our orders vary from a few thousand dollars up to the millions, and there’s no way we are risking any of it. Take the time to check-in and make sure the deliverables you paid for are being seen to appropriately.
Trust, but verify is the best practice.
B. Build Relationships
Guanxi, or relationships, is critical for longlasting business collaborations. For foreigners, it is also the single most misunderstood principle of working with China. There are many great articles, very few on medium, about this. What you need to do is spend time with the owners and sales managers. Get to know them, their business, even their family. Look for opportunities to network with other buyers.
Over the course of my travels I have developed professional relationships with buyers from the USA, France, Myanmar, Germany, and many other economies. These relationships have allowed us mind share, partner on deals, and even disclose manufacturing partner information.
If done right, building relationships can have the greatest benefit of any activity of the trip.
C. Contracts and Obligations
These are always, always, always, the most important. Fulfill your contractual obligations first regardless their nature. Most contracts for Prouduct are production audits, spot checks, product development, etc. Whatever the contract, it must be the first thing planned for.
Nothing else can be done until your contractual obligations are done.
D. Define Revenue Opportunities
Your running a business. Be business focused. Whatever tradeshow, factory, or meeting we attend, we look for what products or services we can offer to existing or potential customers. If it’s being made it means there is a market, or someone thinks there is.
Capitalize on your newly acquired knowledge and resource.
E. Explore and Discover
Get out and do something not business related. For years I travelled and did the 7am to 11pm business day, with little time to enjoy the culture, destinations, and food. Get to know the natural and man made wonders of the areas. This makes for great talking points while on the trip, but also with customers and friends at home.
I can promise that as you learn more about the people, the culture, and the language that business will become easier.
“By optimizing our sourcing trips we cut costs, improve effectiveness of visits, and increase revenue for ourselves and for customers.”
Objectives set, the plan must be made. I personally like to use an excel spreadsheet. A template will be provided with an example trip to anyone interested. Please see contact information below. The most challenging part of planning is managing the time of each meeting and the transportation between each rendezvous if several in a day.
Identifying what can be done in each city or region is critical. For example, it may be more effective to have all manufacturers in 1 city meet you in a conference room in your hotel, one after another.
On a recent trip we were in the city of Dongguan and were ending our day in Shenzhen. To be most effective with our time, we planned our meetings from North to South, or in other words from where our hotel was, towards where our next hotel would be. By doing this we saved a lot of travel time and were always moving closer to our destination.
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
― Confucius
Whatever your travel strategy, remember to allow enough time to build valuable business relationships with the factory owners, productions managers, and sales representatives.
I promise you need these relationships more than you can imagine.
Call to Action
For more information on China and sourcing trips please reach out to me, Thiefaine via LinkedIn.
