inaccurate quotes from furniture and construction hardware manufacturersIf you are an importer of products from China, you will already be familiar with one of its main problems: price quotes. After your initial interest in a supplier and a price request, it is very likely that you will receive inaccurate quotes from furniture and construction hardware manufacturers in China.

As you know, Chinese manufactures do not tend to be very precise when giving quotes. Their quotes tend to be incorrect because, for them, this is only the beginning of the negotiation. Because of this, they use figures that are merely guidelines, with little bearing on reality.

Different ways of thinking

When hardware manufacturers in China send a quote, it is really just a formality. What they are expecting is that, from that point, a series of back and forth actions will take place until you reach the final quote. In short, this is why the document that you first receive is usually very ambiguous.

This is what the manufacturer is probably thinking when they receive your request:

“Great! A request! We’ll prepare a quote. But if it doesn’t reflect reality or isn’t exactly what they asked for, the client will return it and we’ll resolve it then.”

The concept of sending a detailed offer to close negotiations as soon as possible and move on to another prospective client is not the norm in China. After all, we can’t forget that China’s industrial revolution only dates back a few decades. So, if you want to negotiate, it will be necessary to go visit them and meet them in person. You’ll have to eat and drink with them, and sit down together in order to close the deal.

Interpretation of requests

It is very important for importers to realize that the owners and managers of factories in China do not read emails the same way we do in the west. Similarly, they do not process the entire request as in other geographical locations.

The proportioning of service will be more or less the following:

For every 6 critical points, the manufacturer will probably only consider 4 of them in their quote. In other words, you will receive an incomplete quote, but for them, this is correct.

At this point, if you still don’t understand why you always receive an inaccurate quote from hardware manufacturers in China, burn this manta into your brain: If you don’t understand something, ask! Don’t be embarrassed to ask questions. You have nothing to lose. To that end, stay alert, because manufacturers in China may have questions about your request, but they won’t ask you and will seem like they are clear on everything.

Our advice as experts in management of hardware for furniture and construction for more than 23 years is:

If you don’t hear many questions from your supplier, it isn’t because they are concentrating on a deal with your business… Make sure they understand everything you need.

Incorrect quotes

If you aren’t perfectly clear on all the details, they will often prepare a quote for you that is similar to what their other clients usually request.

Some examples:

  1. 1.If other importers request low-cost product quotes from this factory, that is what you will receive. And this is even if you ordered a better product, with high-end specifications. So, make sure that the price they send you corresponds exactly to your request, and not to everyone else’s.
  2. 2.If your order requires 1 unit per interior package in the box, but the supplier generally prepares orders in large quantities, your quote will likely be based on bulk packaging.

Given that these suppliers tend to receive massive quantities of quote requests and that, due to culture, custom and saturation, it is possible for things to get backed up and for them to use this sort of “unification” of quotes in order to give a response as soon as possible.

Conclusions

If you want to avoid inaccurate quotes from furniture and construction hardware manufacturers in China:

Carefully evaluate the time and energy you will have to invest in order to obtain a more precise quote.

To take the right approach, we recommend that you ask yourself the following questions:

  1. 1. Is this really the right supplier to spend all of my time and energy on trying to get an accurate quote?
  2. 2. Despite having requested several quotes from this same supplier, is the success rate very low?
  3. 3. Is this really the best supplier for what I need?

At IBMH, we have helped hundreds of clients who experienced this frustrating inconvenience in their price quotes. We are a very powerful company in China with excellent results. If you leave the management of your imports in our hands, profitability is a sure thing. So, forget about receiving inaccurate quotes from furniture and construction hardware manufacturers in China over and over (and over again).Dare to succeed with our help!