As a sourcing agent and buyer I can tell you what is a good quotation for me: it includes all relevant information! My job is to find a reliable supplier at a reasonable price in the shortest time possible.
It is very possible that I will choose a supplier whose price is a few percent higher but the quotation is complete. That means, it includes:??- FOB (!!!) price, with seaport marked! (I often get FOB quotes without location. Obviously for me in Europe a FOB Shanghai price is higher than a FOB Xiamen price, since shipping rates are different).
- delivery time (so far no Chinese supplier was able to keep the promised delivery time for my projects - 90% delay, 10% early)
- package unit (carton details)!!! Carton weight, size, volume, content, material. It is very important!!! Usually this point is simply left out by suppliers. But I - and most full-time buyers - have just simply no time to beg for any details separately!!! If a quotation misses this, I simply delete it. I have no time to ask for these points, but I can only calculate my shipping cost with this info!!!
- payment conditions must be exactly discussed.
I hope suppliers will consider these points in the future. If you include all relevant information, you can really help your partner in his decision. And for the supplier, it is a job done once, you needn't work out each detail separately.
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I remember that I ever read auch a article:one European big buyer when they inquiried quotations from a Chinese supplier, the supplier changes five tims for their prices from the afternoon to the next morning. And this arose a hot discussion concerned for quotation from China. But most of the comments are negative.
According to my expereinces, you should treat those guys differently. Normally speaking, most of buyers from European countries, United States even Southern-east Asian countries don't like to bargin. If they think your price looks good or attractive products, they will continue to talk with you. Otherwise they will give up. But it will be a different occasion when you talk with Indian buyers, Middle-east buyers, they are used to bargin more.
Actually I think it's no meaning to play a price game any more in such a transparent information era like today. Professional guys know how much you need to make for. And in some occasions the price you quoted means how professional you are.
In the other hand, if a buyer begin to bargin with you in first contacting and non-sample evaluation, I think those buyers are not valuable at all. That may mean they only want to talk with you for prices things, or at business beginning.
So my stage is to quote honestly, No matter how much you have marked up.The most important thing just you need to make sure he/she is a real buyer, a serious account.
Hope others share more opinions with us.
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very nice suggestion~~~~~~``
