Doing business with a different culture and custom is sometimes a bit of a chore. There are different laws, international tariffs, and then you have to deal with the people who have different business traditions. Importing goods and services from foreign countries will need you to take every such thing into account. Only then can sourcing agencies step ahead with business relations with other countries. Similarly, Indians who have a completely different culture to China, will face some sort of difficulties while doing business with them. When the east meets the west, business owners have to deal with certain subtleties. And even if you overcome these issues, you will have definitely have communication issues, which will have grave consequences.
In this context, you will learn about certain communication and business tips required to conduct business successfully. If you ever think about doing business with a foreign country, especially China, you can read through this article and gain some basic ideas about communicating with foreign organizational owners. Learn about the intangible communication issues that might arise while doing business and also lean about the ways to deal with them.
Have a diversified chain of suppliers
The first and the foremost thing that you need to take care of when dealing with Chinese suppliers is have more than one supplier in hand. There will be number of difficulties paving way for you. These difficulties, especially production issues, timings, and miscommunications, will definitely be inherited when importing goods from China. These issues can become the reason for sourcing agencies business running in loss. But there is a way to deal with it. Have more than contract to fulfill your order requirements. Miscommunication is rampant with Chinese suppliers, which is why you may need to diversify your supplier network. When you have a list of reliable suppliers to work for you, you can be free from the stress of your orders not getting manufactured in time. Even if one supplier fails to deliver you the products within the desired time, the other one will surely do it for you.
Understand your supplier
The second most important thing you need to focus on is in understanding the motive of your suppliers. Be it one or many, you need to have a proper understanding of your suppliers.
Understand their goals and business standards. Make sure if their standards align with your business requirements. This particular tip is not only exclusive when you are conducting business with China, but it is a vital point nonetheless. Doing thorough research about the people you are going to trust your products with is vital. This will decide your future with your target customers. You need to know some of the things with your suppliers. These are:
- To make sure if they are on their level and loyal with your investment, you need to have their physical address
- You need to find out if they are an actual manufacturer or they are just working as a broker. You might end up paying extra cash to a middleman.
- You take references from your client to understand what you need to expect from your suppliers and what not
- Ask for product samples frequently to have an idea about the quality of goods
- Have an experienced person in place who can monitor if the manufacturers are honestly on their way to manufacture quality goods
Before building business connections, build relations
When youonly focus on building business relations with China sourcing agencies, you only earn monetary results. But when you focus on building relations with your suppliers, you have a possibility of gaining respect and trust. Building relations brings with it a lot of positive values that benefit your organization. When your suppliers trust you, they open up about their monetary requirements more likely. They also feel responsible for your organization’s reputation, and therefore, focus on producing quality products for you. They feel they are also a part of your business family, and they work accordingly. Also, you might even expect for discounts from the next time you place your orders. Repeated social interaction with your list of suppliers will help you maintain a productive relationship in terms of mutual benefits based on trust. Chinese suppliers place ethical relations first and contractual relations on the second position. Strengthening relations with Chinese suppliers will be more advantageous than a loss.
Do not let your subtlety conquer you
Chinese culture consider directness as a sign of immaturity. If you say something directly, be ready to get some other thing directly. If you want to have productive business conversation with Chinese suppliers, all you will need to have is subtlety. If you ask direct questions while negotiating with Chinese suppliers, this will only increase their level of discomfort, and rarely you may get any direct answer. This goes double when you directly stating their mistakes. Cornering Chinese suppliers with their mistakes or manufacturing issues will make them angry and they might even avoid taking the blame. Since Chinese suppliers view complaints differently, they might weasel out from their responsibilities, making you fall in trouble. They vie issues and mistakes as unavoidable facts of life and they belief such facts can have no cause. In order to get the desired result you will really need to put aside direct complaints and state facts by implying your own meaning. And to their credit, they are more practiced in understanding your underlying intentions.
If you can have a little motivation, you can go a long way working with Chinese suppliers. Keeping these tips in mind when sourcing out products to a foreign country, especially China, will only bring you with benefits. The china sourcing agencies are easy to handle. You just need to be more careful when negotiating with them. State about facts with no underlying intentions. The real secret to be successful with Chinese suppliers is being culturally sensitive. Be sensitive, subtle, and generally congenial. When you follow these rules, you will amazed to see how much difference it really makes.