Are you feeling stuck in product research? Are you afraid of talking to the suppliers? Which one should you CONQUER first?
Listen to this episode and discover the ‘SECRET’ answer that is PRICELESS to your business.
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Full Transcript:
Welcome to the Sourcing Warrior podcast. I’m Yuping. We make sourcing easy, fun, and profitable for you. This episode was originally aired as a video on my YouTube channel, youtube.com/goodlifewarrior. As always, high-quality professional sourcing content delivered to you with passion and my unique Chinese accent. Enjoy.
I know you are working hard trying to push this Amazon FBA business forward. Now, let me ask you a question, just to see if you are thinking like a smart investor. Between the two most critical parts of your business, product research and sourcing, which one do you think will give you the most return?
Welcome to Goodlife Warrior channel. This is the place where you find the most powerful sourcing knowledge and a positive attitude to life. I’m Yuping. Be sure to subscribe, so you stay empowered to do great things. Now, back to our investor’s question, which critical part of your business is going to give you the most return, product research or sourcing? To answer this question like a smart investor, we must know how to tell the difference between a technician versus a business person. Whether you’re learning to cook your own food, brew your own beer, write software code, or learning to do product research, you are training yourself to become a technician.
But, when you start to do sourcing, everything you learn in doing sourcing, you’re training yourself to become a stronger and smarter business person. Since I have been doing sourcing for so many years, I’m going to reveal three secret benefits in doing sourcing that nobody is going to tell you, but it’s priceless for you to build a great business.
Priceless benefit number one, you become a great relationship builder. Here is the thing. No matter how good you are at the product research, mining the data, analyzing the data, the skill you’ll learn is a technical skill. The job you are working on is a technician’s job. That’s why so many Amazon FBA sellers eventually contract product research to the VA’s. Here are the criteria, get me the data. But, when you start to do sourcing, you start to talk to a real person in a different culture, whether it’s a challenge, whether it’s stress, whether it’s friendship, you become super alert on what I’m saying and what you are saying. In between this collaboration, you are learning to build a great relationship.
That’s why, after you work on sourcing, you become a better and greater relationship builder. I have worked in sourcing for almost 20 years. If I have not worked in this job, I don’t think I could become a good relationship builder, like I am right now. In the e-commerce business model like Amazon FBA, sourcing is the only part in this business model, where you can use it like a training ground to practice your relationship-building skills. If you are a shy or introverted person, it’s even better, because you are going to learn even more.
The best part, before you release your first purchase order, this whole training is free. Just use your suppliers. As you can see, the relationship-building skill is a bit business owner skill. It’s not something that someone can replace it, once you learn it.
Priceless benefit number two, you become a great negotiator. Whether you like, dislike, or hate negotiation, if you’re working on sourcing your product, dealing with your suppliers, you are going to negotiate. Maybe yesterday you sent 10 RFQ requests to quote to 10 suppliers. Today, maybe you got three or five suppliers’ responses. Now, you see the price is different. I hate negotiation, but I have to negotiate now. I have never met a great business person who’s not a great negotiator.
This negotiation skill, once learned you’ll learn how to create leverage and how to use the leverage. That’s why this skill is so priceless for a business owner. Sourcing, no matter what business model you are in, sourcing is the only part of the business that can give you the practice ground for you to learn to become a great negotiator.
If you don’t think is a great relationship builder or a great negotiator matters that much, I think you’re going to appreciate the priceless benefit number three. In sourcing, you become a great profit finder. In the Amazon FBA business model, the money you spend in sourcing is the biggest chunk. You are going to spend thousands of dollars buying your product, and there are many hands in your thousands of dollars. Your supplier factory, the sourcing agent, the middleman, the shipping agent. Everybody is working in these thousands of dollars. In a way, you are sponsoring everybody’s job. So, you have to learn how to find savings in your thousands of dollars.
In Sourcing Warrior’s Mastermind, I do teach people how to find profits. Perhaps it’s in the exchange rate, perhaps it’s in tooling. Being a profit finder is a learned skill. This skill is so priceless for the business owner. Once you learn this, you’re not only looking at your business from a top-line perspective, just looking at the sales. You’ll always have the discipline to look at your cost and your profit. So, try to think outside of the technician’s mindset. Try not to be too stuck at the product research and falling into the analysis paralysis trap, and never start sourcing.
Number two, try to learn these lifetime skills for free. Before you cut your purchase order and send money to your supplier, everything you are learning through sourcing is free. If you need help, check out Sourcing Warrior’s courses. The Quote Master is affordable for everyone. You can use the templates and start to talk to your supplier, practice your negotiation and relationship-building skills right away.
I hope you enjoy the video. Regardless, I wish you to become a great relationship builder, a great negotiator, and a great profit finder. Have yourself a remarkable day. I’ll see you in the next video.
