I have always stressed with you that it is very important to build trust between suppliers and customers. In order to maintain this trust, we need extreme professionalism and mastery of every detail.
I think most of my friends are serious about their work, but there is no denying the fact that sometimes some friends will inevitably get lucky. This is extremely unfavorable to the relationship between suppliers and customers. Once problems arise, trust can easily collapse.
When the time comes, it will be very difficult to recover the customers.
01, lucky psychology let cooperation fell through Some time ago, a friend lost a big customer because of his lucky psychology. To tell the truth, I am very sorry for her.
Let’s look at his question first:
How do you do, Mr. Yi Bing? I have recently encountered a very bad thing and would like to ask you for some advice. I have been in the foreign trade industry for almost a year and a half. The factory where I am now is producing LED mosquito killer. I received an inquiry from a large Amazon customer in the United States in early August. According to the annual purchasing plan drawn up by the customer, their total annual purchasing amount is nearly 800,000 U.S. dollars. I went to Amazon platform to check the sales volume of this product, and it is indeed the first one on Amazon platform. If I can win this customer, it will be a great progress for me. I learned from the customer’s purchasing office that two factories had produced this product for them before, but I wanted to change the supplier because the quality of the products of these two suppliers had problems one after another. Coincidentally, the new machine that our factory just bought back in August, the grinding tools are exactly the same style as the customers need, so the conversation process is also more pleasant. After we quoted the price, all the details of the product have been confirmed with the customers.
In mid-August, the customer asked us to send samples, but because our factory had not made such products before and some specifications were still being explored, we have not sent samples. Although it looks ok on the whole, there are some basic mosquito killing functions, but some details are not perfect, such as circuit boards, and the quality department found many problems during testing. Although the research and development department has been urging the revision, the customer has repeatedly urged that there is really no way to delay it any longer.
In the middle of November, I sent the first batch of revised samples to customers, thinking that there should be no big problem. However, customers found serious quality problems after receiving the first batch of samples. Even the most basic mosquito control function was not available, and the lamp tube would not be lit. The customer was very angry and said that he had wasted 4 months to receive such samples. To tell the truth, we did not expect such a situation, and we are very sorry about it.
I asked if purchasing could give us another chance and send us another sample. The tone of the purchase was rather impatient, saying directly that there was no need to send the second batch of samples. The implication was that our factory was no longer under the consideration of customers. And the payment method changed from the original 10% deposit to 30% deposit before the final payment is delivered and paid within 60 days after the final payment is delivered. Our boss thinks that such a statement is too risky to allow.
Now I have a few questions to ask you:
First of all, I also want to win over this customer. Can I send another sample to the customer now? How can customers accept the second sample?
Second, if the customer accepts the quality of the second sample, how can we talk about the payment method? Customer procurement said that if we do not accept the payment within 60 days after shipment, we can also do LC. However, our manager is worried that the customer’s quality requirements are so strict that there will be discrepancies in the L/C if there is any fault, so he does not agree to LC. Do you have any good suggestions? Looking forward to your reply, thank you!
Trust is especially important in business Frankly speaking, this is actually the friend’s mistake and there should be no fluke mentality. Clearly know that there may be quality problems, but still send it to customers, this is the problem.
At that time, I replied to him like this:
The sample was not good enough, so I told the customer directly and generously that sampling had some problems. I feel a little defective, so I must be responsible to you, defective products will never leave our company. I will immediately arrange for the re-proofing, roughly how long it will take, and I will keep you informed of the latest developments. This kind of email is written in the past, it is to let the other side admire.
In this way, you can turn a bad thing into a good thing that shows your advantages. In business, there must be no fluke mentality. Maybe nothing happened in the previous few times and the situation was muddled through. But once the trust cracks, it is basically over.
Perhaps based on other considerations, for example, you are the only one making the current product. Therefore, even if there is a quality problem, the customer has no way to replace the supplier immediately and can only choose to continue to cooperate with you temporarily. However, this is a special case, and the supplier is still easily replaced in most cases.
This customer, because of the quality problem, has been once attacked by the previous suppliers. This was originally the best time for you to enter, but you did not grasp this opportunity well.Moreover, the problem happened to be the quality problem that customers care most about. The consequence is not only that this cooperation fails, your company cannot earn money, and the purchasing manager is also likely to lose his job because of this incident. The company requested to change the supplier. The purchasing manager received the assignment from the company. After all the details were settled, he promised the company that he had found a good supplier and the price and quality were OK.
What happened?
As soon as the sample was tested, the difference was so horrible that even the lamp could not be lit. What will the company think at this time? “Has this purchasing manager received any benefits from the customers, and has there been any desk-side transaction?” “Such a poor lamp still said no problem, fortunately this test found a problem, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.” In this case, do you still dare to believe you when you say purchasing?
Once trust is broken, it is extremely difficult to repair. But if you really want to be this customer, you must make great concessions.
First: We must ensure that your quality is no problem, and this mistake will never occur in the subsequent cooperation.
Second: if the customer doesn’t want to send the sample, you can send it to him for free, and the customer doesn’t have to spend any money anyway.
Although customers say they are reluctant now, it is difficult to say if they do not test after receiving the test. Anyway, it is very important to show your willingness to cooperate.
Third: Find a third-party organization to test and send it to customers so that customers can rest assured.
Fourth: A small deposit is collected from customers. The inspection of purchased raw materials before production, inspection during production and inspection after production are all conducted by third-party organizations.
Fifth: accept long-term payment.
Sixth: Direct door-to-door visits.
In fact, in this way, it will cost more than developing a big new customer. The key is still a word, don’t have fluky psychology, otherwise it wastes everyone’s time, affects cooperation, and makes all your past efforts go to waste.
Original Artical，Author：China Trade Agent，if repost，please give references ：https://offers-bg.com/a-fluke-psychology/
