Going to China & Meeting Suppliers

The first meeting with a potential supplier is likely to be and exploratory meeting. If you act simply as a buyer, your negotiations will be much easier than if you try to have yourself appointed as his official agent or distributor. In a simple buying and selling situation, you will be negotiating such matters as prices, payment terms, delivery terms product specifications, packaging and labelling. If you are seeking agency or distributor agreement, you will also need to discuss the clauses the supplier wishes to include in the agreement and those you wish to have inserted. You will also want to visit your suppliers premises and he yours before any agreement is signed.

Subsequent meetings with the supplier will depend on how important you are to each other. You will be seeking information from one another on the progress of existing business and any new developments. The supplier will want to know how you are developing the sales of his product, how it compares with competition and weather there is any customer resistance to the product, eg for price or quality reasons. You may want to discuss such meetings it is advisable to draw up a list of items you wish to discuss, possibly sending a meeting agenda to your supplier beforehand. Naturally, you should take any relevant documents to the meeting plus any samples of packages, competitive products, etc that you may wish to discuss. The better both parties prepare for such meetings the more likely they will be successful.