Confessions of a Salesman

Chapter 911 Negotiations in progress

Until I saw them off, I really thought they were just visiting my "old" friend.

After getting on the bus, Shufen said to me: "Eddie is the CEO of Offutt Company!"

I first said in surprise: "Really? You really don't look like a person, you don't see it at all! Then?"

Shufen shrugged, meaning let me think for myself.

I just smiled lightly and said: "If you have time, welcome to come and play anytime!"

Soon, news from the boss came back saying that the president of Offutt Company strongly requested my presence during the second negotiation.

The city government found me again. It was Xiao Liu, the monitor's secretary, who called me very politely: "Mr. Chen, I am..."

I hurriedly took the call and said, "Secret Liu, I have your phone number!"

Secretary Liu called and said happily: "That's good, Mr. Chen, you also know about Offutt's affairs, right? When we negotiated with them, we reached a deadlock. Offutt has always asked you to represent us China is negotiating with them, and the final decision of our city government is to send you as a representative of the Chinese side, take a look, is there any difficulty?"

I asked with a oh: "It's nothing difficult? It's just... I want to know, what does your boss mean? I have to do what he wants?"

Secretary Liu sighed and said: "I can't figure out what the leader means, but I think there must be a reason for him to keep you out of it at that time, but now it is the foreign party's repeated request, which is different Now, you are serving our city government, contributing to our city government and every Zhuhai people, what do you think?"

I hurriedly said: "I understand, then I will resolutely implement the opinions of the leaders of the city government!"

The third negotiation started, and I attended as the chief representative of the Chinese side. The person sitting behind me was the head of the Foreign Economic and Economic Committee. I also saw Hua Xin's father, who was sitting on the third chair next to me.

Eddie is the chief representative of Offutt. After meeting, he greeted me very kindly: "Chen, can you sell me a few more bottles of that day's wine?"

I didn't expect that Eddie would say such words directly on such a formal occasion, which made me a little speechless for a while. I looked at a group of bigwigs behind me and replied hastily: "After the negotiation is successful, I will send you One box!"

The negotiation officially started, and the two sides kept entangled with several issues: "First, after ten years, the ownership of the car? According to the life of the car designed by Offert, the car can run for 30 years, or the upper limit 180 million kilometers. According to our daily bus route, we run about 10 hours a day, about 50 kilometers per hour, and 18 kilometers in a year, which is exactly ten years of life. Then after 10 years, the car If it is scrapped, who should this car belong to? The ZH city government only leased the car, but did not buy it. Then, after ten years, these cars should be returned to Offutt. But here comes the problem. If these scrapped cars The cost of transporting it back to Offutt's head office may be more expensive than buying a batch of new cars, let alone garbage, but they are unwilling to give it to the bus company for free. What if the life of the car is more than ten years? ? They are not very sure, then they are not at a loss?"

Regarding this question, I made it very clear: "Since it is something that you don't want, what is the ownership right? If you want it, you can take it back. If you don't want it, we don't want it either. Just throw it in the parking lot. Just charge the parking fee every year. Of course, you can also take it directly to our car scrapping yard to scrap it, and you can also get a partial compensation! We don’t need this money, but you have to pay the handling fee yourself!”

Eddie thought for a while, shook his head and said: "In this case, we can't recover the cost at all, which means that we have produced cars and served you for ten years!"

I hummed and said: "It's a service, not a free service! Your rent is not cheap! Our ten-year rent can buy a lot of cars! Besides, we don't know that the car will develop in the next ten years. What is it like? This means that we have invested ten years of rent in advance for you in the next ten years, ensuring that you can develop on this piece of land in China in the next ten years!"

Eddie looked at his subordinates, and the people below nodded in agreement with what I said.

Eddie thought for a while and said, "We can make concessions on this issue. We can give all the retired cars to you for free after ten years. You have to pay the cost. If it is scrapped, we don't need it. But we're extending the contract for another ten years!"

I smiled and said: "You can sign for another 20 years, but the premise is that you have to use your most advanced technology models for us! We want to be your first experimental field in China!"

Eddie nodded in satisfaction: "As you wish!"

The next second point of contradiction is the issue of rent payment. After signing a ten-year lease contract, Offutt demanded a one-time payment of ten-year rent, and also required a deposit, a guarantee deposit for the contract. This is not a small sum. As for the cost, the Chinese side’s opinion is that the deposit and security deposit can be paid, but the rent can only be paid once a year.

Eddie expressed strong dissatisfaction with the yearly payment conditions: "How is this possible? You can't rent a house every day, right? We have crushed so many cars at once. Here you , if you don’t use it for the next year, what should we do? We might not even be able to recover the transportation cost!”

I explained: "We are still in the trial operation stage. No one can guarantee that the car will run without failure. Once we pay your rent, how do we know whether you will guarantee the maintenance of our car as in the contract?" Service, if the car breaks down, how do we know, will you deal with it in the first time? 10 out of 8 are broken, so we still rent a ghost? This is a bus, once the public If the car is paralyzed, then there will be big problems in our city's traffic! We haven't charged you a deposit yet!"

Both sides had a heated discussion on this issue, but no final result was reached. No one was willing to give in, so they had to rest for an hour and come back to discuss it after an hour.

I walked out of the meeting room, walked outside the door, took out the cigarette case, took out a cigarette, just about to take back the case, a big hand snatched the case, I looked back and saw Stephen, Stephen took out a cigarette, put it in He asked me for a lighter in his mouth, and I helped him light it up helplessly, then lit it for myself, took a deep breath, exhaled smoke rings, and looked ahead blankly.

Stephen said, "You are difficult!"

I said with a oh: "Really? I think what I said is quite reasonable! I didn't mess around!"

Stephen hummed and said: "I know, but the company has a bottom line, it's almost enough! Anyway, you are taking advantage of it. If we weren't in a hurry to enter the Chinese market, we wouldn't have sat down with you at all. So much time to negotiate!"

I smiled and said, "There's a saying in Guangdong that goes, take advantage of your illness, hello to your life!"

Stephen looked at me blankly, I smiled again and said, "It's nothing, it's just a Chinese proverb! Let's go, let's go in, I hope we can cooperate successfully!"

After going in again, the two sides were still arguing, and it seemed that no one had any intention of giving in, and the quarrel entered the day-to-day stage.

Hua Hin's father was behind me, patted me and asked me to go out and talk to him.

Hua Xin's father told me very straightforwardly: "Our leader means that we can make appropriate concessions. In fact, we will have to pay the one-year rent and 1-year rent sooner or later. There is no need to entangle in this issue. clear!"

I frowned and said, "Why is this entangled? Do you know how much the 10-year rent is? How much is the 10-year interest? Besides, who will pay the 10-year rent? Can the city government approve the bus company? If it can be an interest-free loan, then I have no problem!"

Hua Xin's father said earnestly: "Ah Fei, why don't you understand? No matter who pays the money, it's not you! As long as you negotiate this project, you've done a great job! What the leaders want is the result. As for the intermediate process, it’s not important! I’m also doing it for your own good. You don’t need to be so serious about many issues. What we want is merit, do you understand?”

I said loudly: "Understood, it doesn't matter whether you lose more or less, and it doesn't matter what difficulties you encounter in the later stage of operation! The important thing is that our city government has publicized it with such fanfare. If this cooperation fails, everyone It’s all a slap in the face, right? As long as it’s done, it doesn’t matter whether you suffer a loss or be fooled, it’s all political achievement, right?”

Hua Xin's father frowned and said, "If you think that way, I can't help it. I'm just reminding you for your own good. If things get stiff, it's not good for everyone!"

I shook my head in disappointment and said, "I thought you had a problem with your life style, but now it seems that you also have a problem with your work attitude! Director Hua!" After finishing speaking, I left him and walked in alone.

In the end, both parties made concessions. We paid 5 years of rent and a security deposit, but Offutt had to send someone over every year to overhaul it twice a year. Come over and repair it for us, otherwise, we will directly impound the car, or even change the ownership of the car.

Offutt is obviously very confident in the quality of its cars, so it readily accepted our condition.

The third point is about the training of the use of the car. It was a very simple matter, that is, their company sent two professional technicians to come with the car and train our drivers.But the leaders next to me suddenly proposed to go to the headquarters of Offutt to study, and to organize a huge learning team, and the expenses would be paid by Offutt.

Foreigners, they don’t understand these ways of the world. They take our study very seriously. They think that with such a large number of people studying, what if we can’t do well?They don't have a professional translator, all the drawings and manuals are in English, and their technicians are not qualified to teach. They discussed for a long time, but they didn't care about the cost at all.

I thought it was funny, the Chinese side is concerned about the foreigners, whether they can agree to the fee, and they have repeatedly emphasized to me that if the foreigners do not agree, we can pay half of the fee.But what they don't know is that foreigners are more concerned about whether they can teach these Chinese students well?
I said plainly to the leader next to me: "The issue they are discussing now is that one teacher wants to teach us a few students, and whether there are enough people!"

The leader snorted and said, "Tell them that one teacher is enough, we learn quickly!"

I sighed, feeling very angry and funny, and said to Stephen on the opposite side: "Don't worry about it, they will definitely learn it when they go, and you can ask your current driving master to demonstrate it for us! China Man, very smart!"

Stephen said in disbelief: "How is it possible? Driving is only the smallest technical knowledge of our cars. Repairs, maintenance, and car structures are the most difficult problems!"

I explained: "You think too much, even if you teach them, they won't learn! Now they want to confirm that it's a matter of cost, are you willing to pay!"

Stephen nodded: "Of course, this is what we have to do!"

The matter was resolved smoothly, everyone is happy, only I find it ridiculous!
The meeting ended smoothly in this way, and the next day is the details of the contract. I think the Chinese people have already thought that the contract is finalized, and they are waiting for the signature tomorrow. They have already started to celebrate the successful cooperation, and they are kindly invited to the evening Taste Chinese delicacies.This task fell on my head again.

As soon as he heard that he was going to eat at my restaurant again, Stephen was the first to jump up, jumping for joy, as if he had returned to his own home, and he had already started bragging to his companions that the food there was the best in the world, and they all enjoyed it in this life. Impossible good things to eat, our wine is simply a fine wine, all antiques!Show off your chopsticks and use them so superbly.

The first wave of people had already driven to the restaurant, and the director of the Foreign Economic and Economic Committee was the last to leave. He must take the same car with me when he left.

Seeing that he was going to have a long talk with me, he got into the car and said kindly: "Xiao Chen, we have known each other for 7 or 8 years, right?"

My memory has always been good. In my impression, we have basically never been in touch except for a few meeting meetings of the Ministry of Industry. How did we know each other for 7 or 8 years?

But still nodded and said: "Yes, the first time I saw you was at the groundbreaking ceremony for the establishment of Zhongjing Guangzhou Base, right?"

(End of this chapter)