Small experience, big wealth

Chapter 5 (1)
7.losing money
Shi Yuzhu, the founder and chairman of Giant Network, said: "If a company is not profitable, it is harming the society, which is the greatest immorality." Many of my friends are in business, and we often brag, chat, and talk about big mountains together. Talking about such a topic: Why do the purchasing personnel of many enterprises not like customers with low quotations?

My friend Xiao He is such a guy. He is used to competing with price advantages when he quotes to foreign companies.When we were chatting together he once said:

"The quotation was low several times, and the job was snatched up, so I lost money." I didn't understand: "What do you mean by this job?" "The price is not low and you can't get the job." Are you stupid?" Xiao He said: "It's not that I'm stupid, it's that everyone is too smart. A few years ago, it was okay to use this method to compete, but now the price is low and it's not easy to work. Several times, it was me. The price was the lowest, and I didn’t succeed in the end.” “How do you know that your quotation is the lowest?” “We have only a few people who do the transmission equipment, and we all know each other. Everyone competes for a job, and finally the price has become transparent.” I looked at Xiao He and said, "It's not easy to do business that loses money. The other party must be dissatisfied, and you are also not satisfied." Can I do a good job for him? It’s enough to fool the past.” I said: “It’s hard to please, so if you use this primitive price competition method now, it won’t work.

"Besides, many construction projects and commissioned processing contracts have an 'unforeseeable fee', which means that unforeseen circumstances and events may occur at any time when contracting a project or a commissioned processing product or providing a service. You must set aside this expense in advance, and you cannot make the budget too small for the sake of competition. In this way, you will definitely suffer losses. If the project is not done well, you will not be able to make money yourself. Your opponent also hates you, and even your employees don’t want to work with you. If you can’t make money, the treatment of employees must not keep up. Who wants to work with you?” Xiao He nodded: “I understand now, Let everyone have a little room for maneuver, or I will be a crap stick.” Now the formal bidding manual stipulates the selection of the bid opening: “The bids that can meet the substantive requirements of the bidding documents and have been reviewed The price is the lowest; except that the bidding price is lower than the cost.” Many times, the purchasers do not pay too much attention to the price, but the quality. No matter how much money is paid, once the quality is guaranteed, the purchaser has something to say, so that he can explain to his superiors On the contrary, no matter how low the price is, it is not his own money to save, but he has to take care of it if there is a quality problem. If it affects the production, it is absolutely impossible, and the responsibility of the purchasing staff is even greater.Everyone pursues the maximization of their own interests, and when there is an unsuitable choice between price and quality, the purchaser must choose the quality factor that is beneficial to him.

In addition, the large price space also creates conditions for purchasers to seek rent.The purchasers in many large companies are also employees, and the boss cannot do everything himself. In fact, it is not the purchase that cares most about the price issue, but the boss. Only the boss really cares about the price. All other employees who are not the boss think about their own interests the most.There are basically no fools who only consider the interests of the company and not personal interests. Under the premise of protecting their own jobs, every part-time worker thinks most about their own pockets. Who doesn’t want to get extra income as long as they have the opportunity? , You set the price too low, is there any room for the purchasing staff to ask for a kickback?It is strange that he is willing to sign a contract with you!Business experience:

When you are not dealing with the boss himself, but with an entrusted agent, it is best not to fight a price war, and do not expect to impress the other party with a price advantage, that will not work.

Isn't there such a saying: Kung fu is outside poetry.To borrow a bit here: profits are outside of money.

8. Think like a consumer. During the 2007th Golden Week in [-], I accompanied my wife to Guangzhou to buy goods. At that time, I had just jumped from a government agency to a commercial sea. My wife’s partners didn’t know me. When my wife introduced me to the other party, The other party always added this sentence: "The third brother is also in the sea, so he is not in the office anymore?" My wife quickly explained: "I think the office is not free, it is full of intrigues and other crap, I want to exercise in the business world." The other party said I said: "That's right. Don't let the third brother suffer there. There is a saying in Guangzhou, which goes like this: 'Smart people go to sea, fools become officials, and cross-path two go to work.' The third brother is so shrewd, it should have been Do business in the sea, don’t waste your time with those sidewalks.” In fact, the other party doesn’t know, and I know a little about business, but it’s all theoretical, and I lack practical experience. Traveling with my wife is out of safety considerations. The second is to gain some practical experience.The ways of doing business like me now are all learned later in the shopping malls.

Guangzhou is too far away, so most of the time we rely on fax inquiries and quotations, and there are few opportunities to understand the market.That time I accompanied my wife to Nanhai City, Guangdong Province, and purchased more than 80 yuan of goods at once.During the accompanying process, I discovered a secret. My wife would not buy that brand of product that the other party recommended.

When I went out, I went to a place where no one was around, and I asked my wife, "Why didn't you buy something that was recommended by the other party?" "You are such a nerd, and you still study economics. I'm also in business, and I don't know their little things. Which one they recommend means that it makes the most money. It's impossible for him to recommend to me the one that makes the least money. Do you understand? Anyone who sells things like this, I also Selling like this.” Many people will say this when they buy things: “Which one is better, I don’t know much about it, you can introduce it to me!” “Is your melon sweet?” “Why is your computer brand more expensive than a compatible one?” So many?" So the merchant introduced it with spit and stars, and for a while, the hype was flying, and the sand was flying.The customer was dizzy, and the customer bought the product according to the merchant's deception.

My wife said: "Many customers make this mistake. Smart consumers never listen to salesmen, because the products recommended by merchants are not the best, but the ones that make the most money." I said, "Then you just sell The most profitable item is incredible, so what are you doing with so many varieties?” “You are more of an amateur, this is called welcoming thousands of customers with a thousand products. Can the customers’ consumption habits, consumption psychology, consumption ability, and aesthetic views be the same? For example, Yellow paint is the most profitable, can you only sell yellow paint? For another example, for the same hammer, the cheapest domestic one is only 8 yuan each, and the Stanley brand hammer imported from the United States costs more than 100 yuan each. Selling a Stanley can make a profit Come to two or three cheap hammers, but there are a few big-headed guys who want your hammer for more than 100 yuan, what kind of hammer is not a nail?" Business classics:

You have to learn reverse thinking, consumers have to learn to think like operators, and operators have to learn to think like consumers.

From Nanjing to Beijing, what I bought was not as good as what I sold.

Everyone is selfish, and Wang Po must sell melons and boast about herself.She said her melons were not sweet, who would she sell them to?

9.White striped chicken is not easy. My friend opened a trading company that specializes in supplying enterprises. Among the customers are American companies, Korean companies, Japanese companies... There are also state-owned companies. After staying with him for a long time, I discovered a Rules: Foreign-funded enterprises are very active in payment. If you don’t withdraw the money on the stipulated date, you won’t be able to do so. The other party will urge you again and again. If the money cannot be withdrawn, the other party will postpone it again and again.

I have always been ignorant, and by chance, I finally understood the tricks.

Once, I accompanied this friend to deliver goods to a state-owned enterprise. I glanced at his delivery list casually. The price was so high that I was so scared that I jumped out of the sunroof of the car:

He sells a 100W incandescent light bulb for 5 yuan; he sells a broken shovel for 45 yuan; he sells a piece of broken sandpaper for 3 yuan; Right?" He said: "You don't know, it's their business leaders who are too black, not me, I was originally white, and the blackness on my body was purely dyed by them. They were purely forcing the good into prostitution. At first I It costs two yuan to give them a light bulb, but when I got the money back, I calculated it carefully, and I lost money! Why did I lose money? Fuck, their company stipulates that every purchase must have a purchaser, user, and user The leader, accounting supervisor, and general manager signed the document, and there is no maximum time limit for signing the document, so a sum of money travels in the hands of everyone indefinitely, and even the payment list can be handed out to you. , Sometimes you don’t know who owns the final form, so fill out a new form and travel again, but you won’t sign it.

Everyone does not manage until you cannot get the payment for the goods. Obviously, these management costs will be calculated in the price of the product in the end, and the wool comes from the sheep.The more people who sign the document, the more outrageous the price of the item.Later I understood, they are plucking the wild goose, what should I do?If they want to pluck my hair, I need to grow more hair, or else I won't be plucked into a white chicken?I just add up according to their head, for example, a light bulb, the original delivery price was two yuan each when there was no rebate.Now it's 5 yuan, each person's rebate is 10%, 5 people total 50%, I have the other 50%, which is 2.5 yuan left, they account for half of the purchase price, and then go to 17 % tax is 8 cents and 5 cents, the actual payment for the last light bulb is 1 yuan 6 cents and 5 cents, and the purchase cost of 1 yuan is removed, and the final profit is 6 cents and 5 cents, which is 13% This does not include the shipping fee, office fee, and financial fee for delivery. If these expenses are subtracted, the profit is less than 10%. Do you think that the price of a light bulb at 5 yuan is still high? "a I'm speechless, I didn't expect there are so many unknown tricks in a light bulb?
It seems that white striped chicken is not easy.

Why do foreign-funded enterprises have to pay suppliers on the specified days?I thought about it for some days based on the case that the white striped chicken told me, and I understood.

Of course, foreign-funded enterprises also need the signatures of relevant personnel when making payments, but they set a maximum time limit for signing documents. They must sign the documents within the specified time, and whoever delays them will be held accountable.The purpose of doing this is to deprive the signatories of the document of their rent-seeking power, the power to extort bribes, and the power to pluck hair.There are fewer rent-seekers, less bribe-seekers, and less hair-plucking, and the prices of commodities will naturally drop.

It can be seen that the cost of supervision and restriction is very high, and the price is very high.

For example, in order to supervise and restrict the corruption and bribery of officials, we have set up a total of six departments, namely the Disciplinary Inspection Commission, the Supervision Bureau, the Audit Bureau, the National Corruption Prevention Bureau, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the Procuratorate. In other words, these institutions are like state-owned enterprises, which can only increase the cost of supervision. The harder it is for corrupt officials to commit corruption, the higher the cost of corruption. Therefore, their motivation for corruption will inevitably be greater, because if there is less corruption and it is not enough to manage, in the end The money is still footed by taxpayers.

Haven't we been in the WTO for a long time? Why can't we learn the tricks of foreigners?

We have to think the same way, not only to prevent corruption, but also to reduce the cost of monitoring corruption.It seems that it is not a good way to use people to supervise people. People are alive, and living people can be suffocated to death by urine?As many people as you supervise, corrupt officials will prepare as many red envelopes.The Beijing procuratorate disclosed that since the mid-90s, nearly 2 corrupt officials have fled abroad, carrying 8 billion yuan.Why are there not many such things in other countries, but so many in our country?Moreover, we also have the largest number of supervisory agencies, which shows that there are still loopholes in the design of the system.

Business experience:
(End of this chapter)