#8 Not Being There
If what you are outsourcing is important at all to your business, then you need to physically go to China to visit the factory. Relationships are more important in Chinese business than in the US, and building relationships is best done, at least initially, in person.
It's best to be there during vendor selection/qualification, negotiation stages, for quality assurance, and for relationship maintenance. A firm like OPSA can be your physical presence in most of these situations, but the best service firms are open to clients visiting the factories that are making their products.
Many "broker" firms (those that just find factories but do not offer other services like quality inspections) will not disclose the identity of their factories, will not let clients visit, or will allow a visit but make it appear they own the factory. Brokers can be useful if you are just importing commodities. If you have custom products, avoid brokers and go with a full-service firm like OPSA.
We welcome and encourage our clients to visit our offices in China and the factories we use for their products. Even though we do lots of in-person work with factories, we encourage our clients to visit at least once. If you work directly with factories in China it is even more important to visit.
After a physical visit, technology like Internet phone and video services, can help with relationship building, quality assurance, negotiation, etc. However, it starts with a visit.
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