Recently updated on October 8th, 2017 at 07:27 pm
You will not get the best results if meeting and talking to the wrong people even though the rest of your Canton Fair plans are close to perfect.
Contacting the companies you previously contacted in your country should be a quite easy task as you should have the contact number of your contact person and know whether the company is attending the 114th Canton Fair or not.
Unluckily, not every person in the booth is the person you would have further contacts with. If you don’t know who they are and whether they can make decisions, grabbing name cards on the tables certainly would not help at all.
It is essential to exchange business cards during Canton Fair but it is less formal as time is money and the next visitors are waiting to be seated. As a result, make your Canton Fair visits at the suppliers’ booths efficient and professional. Small talk is something which you and the suppliers do not have time for.
About Trading Companies
There are lots of trading companies attending Canton Fair and sometimes it is not easy to tell them apart in a short period of time. Before deciding to make deals with them, make clear of the pros and cons of doing business with trading companies.
Pros
* Good communication. The staffs in trading companies are usually more professional in English, which makes communication and negotiations easier.
* Experienced in dealing with customers coming from all over the world.
* Usually they have a good showroom with many samples for customers to choose from.
Cons
* The price is much higher because they add their own profits basing on factory price.
* They are not able to develop the latest products because they don’t have a products developing team and they do not want to take the risk of being first.
* They will try to direct you to their factory partners. Sometimes it might be had to solve claims with their help because of their “guanxi” with the factories.
Finding Manufacturers
Sometimes you have to make deals with trading companies because the factories do not have any export license and are not willing to invest in overseas marketing personnel.
If you want to save costs and buy products directly from Chinese suppliers, then you have to find him out. Probably he is in the booth but shielded from the professional sales person who can speak English, or maybe he does not have a presence at the Canton Fair.
For example, sometimes you might see an unobtrusive short man in the back. He is so plain that seldom do any people notice him, and he can’t even speak a word of English. Most people would be attracted by the smart and professional sales people standing in the front of the booths with fluent English.
Indeed, the short middle-aged man in the back is the real show-master, operating the business and above all he is the decision maker.
Talking to him is definitely more important than chatting with the professional sales person. However, you can’t talk to him if you can’t speak Chinese. It is better to get an experienced Canton Fair interpreter with you as interpreters sometimes can create wonders for negotiations and languages barriers.
As you can see, talking to the right person can really be time-saving and hassles-free. It can really make a great difference.
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