Indian suppliers often lose Philippine orders they should have won. The part was right and the ex-works price was competitive, but the buyer still went elsewhere. In almost every case the reason sits outside the price sheet.
Distributors buy landed cost, not ex-works price
A Manila distributor is working backwards from the shelf price a dealer will accept. By the time freight, duty, port handling, local transport and financing cost are added, an attractive ex-works number can become uncompetitive against parts already sitting in a local warehouse.
The practical fix is to quote the whole chain from the start: landed cost, distributor margin, dealer margin and selling price. It takes one extra working day to prepare and it removes the single largest reason first quotations go unanswered.
Packaging is a commercial decision, not a cost line
Parts that arrive scuffed, unlabelled or in cartons that cannot be stacked create work for the buyer's warehouse team and doubt about everything else in the container. Carton count per master box and moisture protection during a humid sea leg are worth agreeing in writing before the first shipment.
- Agree master carton dimensions and stacking limits before packing
- Fix label content and position, including part number and batch reference
- Specify desiccant and liner requirements for the sea leg
- Photograph the packed pallets before dispatch and share the images
Replenishment rhythm beats a single large container
Buyers entering a new supplier relationship rarely want their working capital locked in a full container of untested part numbers. A smaller, predictable replenishment cycle on fast-moving service parts builds confidence faster and generates the sales data that justifies larger orders later.
What we do about it
For Philippine enquiries we prepare the four-band pricing view, agree packaging specifications in writing, run batch sampling and a packaging audit before dispatch, and share the inspection photographs with the buyer. If a part family is not competitive at landed cost, we say so rather than shipping a container that will not reorder.
Working on something similar this quarter?
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