Experience with sourcing agents

[mike_white]

I have hired a couple of sourcing agents now via fiverr and the like and have been a bit disappointed in their service.

I'm looking for a brassware manufacturer that has PVD coating equipment and a spectrophotometer on site. So fairly specific requirements.

The first one had a few good reviews and was cheap enough, charged about £100 to contact factories direct. But wasn't really able to complete the assignment. She had tried though, the factories she contacted didn't know what PVD was. I paid her anyway and chalked it up to buy cheap buy twice.

The second was £200, was fiverr recommended and had over 100 positive reviews.

I clarified before hand exactly what I was looking for, said that it would take him a week to find something suitable but he has a few factories in mind.

Then sent me a random spreadsheet with a nappy manufacturer, and 3 other well known Alibaba brassware manufacturers. But no full address, no confirmed contact just a list of factory names with a price per unit...of what, we haven't agreed on the product! Mould creation, pre production QC, size of the first run etc etc.

Refuses to answer specifics of whether he had confirmed PVD or not.

I do find it frustrating, a lot of the time I get 3 word responses to fairly long questions. But then I am using Fiverr to find these guys which is amatuer behaviour.

I think I am going to just constantly have this issue over the internet, I'm wondering if I would have more luck flying to china with a mould and example product and hiring a translater,

Guangdong seems like a good fit for what I'm after.

For people who have specific product designs they have developed, how do you get your foot in the door with a Chinese manufacturer on the basis you're not looking for bargain basement, but high quality goods to a clear spec at a reasonable price for both parties.

 

[EnterprisePro]

Right. Where were those people you had hired located? If you really need to hire people from Fiverr or Upwork, don't pay anything upfront. Pay per expected outcome. The 3-word responses you're getting are most likely because they're pretend-working from a mobile device and not taking your requirement seriously enough. File a complaint with Fiverr and try to get your money back. Sorry if it sounds brute, but I don't think you should be pushed over like that. (I am a PITA like that). The maximum that will happen is they'll say its difficult, but you should try. Escalate as far as you can.

I personally think you're the best person to carry out the sourcing yourself. You know what you want, and you'll be able to make decisions quicker. Try Alibaba and some of the others (ask Gemini or your favourite LLM as well). You can evaluate suppliers based on their certifications (ISO etc.) and reviews, longevity etc. I'm only vaguely familiar with your product based on a quick search online, so I think if the products are as large as I think they are, its worth making some arrangements with those companies and going to pay a visit. Depending on the company, they'll probably come and get you from the airport and even offer to show you around.

I'm certain you'll love it there. China is a bit like my second home now, and I know my way around most of the tier 1 cities, but I remember how incredibly fascinated I was on my first visit.

Ask Gemini (or your favourite AI/LLM) about any exhibitions/fairs. There's always something going on over there, and Guangdong is a hot spot for those exhibitions. You'll no doubt come across some incredible companies.

 

[Frank the Insurance guy]

If you're looking for anything from China - worth a chat with our forum member @MOIC

 

[DavidReed]

I’ve had similar experiences with cheap sourcing agents — lots of spreadsheets, very little actual verification. For something this specific, I’d skip Fiverr and look for someone based in Guangdong who can physically visit factories and confirm the equipment on site. Paying more for proper due diligence usually saves money later.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

OK - first of all a couple of things that may come across as negative, but I don't want them to be. Just some ideas in terms of your reach-out from someone who's been on the other side.

- Fiverr... I haven't ever really heard of people using that for sourcing agents, if I'm honest. Maybe that's something that's bypassed me but it wouldn't be the first place I'd look.
- How are you presenting yourself as a business, in terms of what you're looking for, and your potential volumes?

• Do you already have completed designs, drawings and specifications, or are you expecting the manufacturer to develop these?
• Is the total volume something actually worth them tooling and producing?
• Are you prepared to cover tooling, prototyping and development costs?
• What finishes, approvals, target pricing and timescales are required?
• Is there a company website, profile or other background information you can provide?

And the reason I ask all of the above - to a degree, suppliers will be assessing the viability of you as a customer as much as you're assessing them. I can tell you SO many examples where I get approached by people wanting our products private label. They email me from a Gmail address, with no business name, and no background. Then typically one of two things happens;

- They want something that they've invented in their head, or at best is an unproven concept or change to an existing product design
- They want and expect me to fund any of these changes, and to finance their whole order
- They want bespoke packaging/branding on the product
- They want all of this on a completely impractical volume. Our product lines range from literally 20 cents up to $100+. But quite often it might be for example microfibre cleaning products, which we can sell to you in your own packaging and a bespoke colour, and they might be $0.40 each... but the MOQ to run that is 3000 pcs, which is still very low. They want us to run 500 and can't understand why we can't do all of the above for a $200 (value, not margin!) order.

As I say - I hope this doesn't come across patronising or negative, but when you're on the other end of these kind of enquiries it can become exhausting and you learn to quite quickly shut down ones that aren't showing any potential.

Moving on from that, I would suggest that yes, getting yourself out there is the best bet and budget for 2 trips if you're serious. First of all to visit Canton Fair (phase 2) armed with a translator/assistant as you say and have conversations with potential suppliers. Then you have the next job.... weeding out the genuine ones from the ones that tell you what you want to hear (i.e. "we have PVD coating on site"... and then finding out they don't) as well as the ones who are simply agents, telling you they are factories. That's where I'd suggest your second visit comes in to go and see if these factories they are telling you about (and showing you pictures of!) actually exist.

When you do visit the factories, look keenly on what name is on the factory entrance and walls, and how it's displayed - if their name isn't there, or it is there or it's on suspiciously temporary looking signs... it's often a clue they're telling you it's THEIR factory when it isn't.

That said - there is nothing necessarily wrong with using a third party agent or sourcing company, or even a factory outsourcing some components/manufacturing, but the number one thing for me is honesty. We work with some factories who I know for an absolute fact outsource some component manufacturing that others would do in-house. As long as I know this, and can also audit their supplier factories and ensure they have adequate inbound QC processes on the outsourced components, it's not necessarily a problem. Where it becomes a problem is where they insist that they do everythign themselves... then when their supplier f*cks up or changes something, it all begins to unravel as they're powerless to do anything about it.

And finally... a moderate sales pitch. We may be able to help with this. We are UK based but with a sourcing office in Dongguan. Our bread & butter products are in automotive but we also get involved in all sorts of home & leisure products from kitchen appliances to outdoor furniture. We supply local & national distributors through to international supermarkets & retail stores. We can work one of two ways;

- We supply & source. You essentially deal with us, we invoice you, but we handle all the China side of things including development, QC with our own in-house QC teams, marketing support etc. This still works on a very open relationship (i.e. we will take you to the factory if you like!) but it's accepted that we make a margin for taking the headache out of things for you
- Sourcing support. This is a different side of the business to the one I work on so I know less about it, but essentially we can help you visit China & find suppliers. So Canton fair for example we can help arrange your trip, visas, book hotels, and then provide a translator and transport to and from the show for however many days you are there. It can then either be left there and off you go, or we can offer ongoing support where we help with translations, further factory discussions etc and ultimately placing your orders. In this case it works on a monthly retainer basis and commission on orders - but it's more that you are dealing directly with the factory, your contract is with them, payments with them should anything go wrong etc. We're there more for admin and translation purposes and to avoid any blurred communications.

I should also add that we do get involved in all sorts of products but we also know when something doesn't fit our knowledge or expertise, and we'll quite happily say "sorry, this isn't for us, you need a specialist in x/y". We don't take something on just because we can and put ourselves out of our comfort zone, if that makes sense.

Hope some of this helps, feel free to PM me if you want to discuss anything further.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I have hired a couple of sourcing agents now via fiverr and the like and have been a bit disappointed in their service.

I think you answered your own question as to why you got those results!

As mentioned, get someone with a real track record and independant recomendaions/testimonials from the platform you are getting them from.

 

[xiazhi56]

Only by becoming an expert at sourcing goods can you secure long‑term success.

 

[TCH]

what about the China Chamber of Commerce, in London

they will seize the opportunity to demonstrate, to Chinese companies, that they have useful British contacts

 

[PowerForwarding]

Imex Sourcing Services are good, i've dealt with Ash for a long time now.