Novel Bin Chapter 95: Business Negotiation
On the third day, Liu Man and Yu Zhan arrived at Hong Kong Westland — It was on the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th floors in an office building in the central ring of the city.
On their way there, John gave them a simple introduction to the company.
Liu Man had always assumed Manager Huang was just a sales manager, and John was very astonished at her misunderstanding. He told Liu Man that Huang Shiting was their company’s boss. To be exact, Liu Man should call Huang Shiting “General Manager”.
This was an agency dedicated to dealing out pet products overseas. The Westland company not only dealt out all of Cats’ Garden Pet Food’s products, but they also surrogated another pet food company along with a veterinary company, both were from New Zealand.
John directly sent Liu Man and Yu Zhan to the general manager’s office on the 24th floor. Huang Shiting was already waiting for them there. The trio sat face to face, and John left after serving them tea.
After their greetings, they started to enter a formal phrase since they were here for business purposes today. Huang Shiting proposed four questions to Liu Man:
Number one, custom tax. Who would be paying the tax when the cat food passed Mainland customs;
Number two, transportation. Were they going to send batches of cat food to Liu Man for Liu Man to distribute them? Would Liu Man give the company the orders so the companies would directly send the products to the buyers from Hong Kong?
Number three, pickup price. For example, the twelve-pounds package of Cats’ Garden cat food costs 690 HKD in Hong Kong per bag. Usually, Hong Kong dealers would get the products from Westland with 570 HKD. Liu Man, in the call, told Manager Huang she was willing to increase 10 percent of the pickup price, which would be 627 HKD in total. Huang Shiting requested for her to increase it by 15 percent, which would be close to 665 HKD in total. On this, Huang Shiting had made it clear she could not negotiate the price because the other executives in the company thought this 15 percent was the price Liu Man had to pay to become an official Mainland Network Cat Food Dealer for their company. This meant that Liu Man would be paying to become a dealer. The other executives would never agree to a lower price.
After the entire process, Liu Man would only be able to make 35 HKD as the profit for each bag she sells.
Since Huang Shiting had asked a question regarding custom tax, and it was also the first one he had asked, it was clear he wanted Liu Man to pay this fee herself. If Liu Man also had to pay the customs tax, the money Liu Man had to pay would probably be more expensive than just 690 HKD!
Number four, the money. Would Liu Man pay for the money before the company sends out the products or vise versa? Would she pay the money every week or every month? When would she pay it?
Huang Shiting knew he was asking for a lot from Liu Man. He took a step back, “No matter which way you choose, our company will be paying for the transportation fee for the first three months.”
Liu Man had been thinking for the entire time about how she would negotiate.
Yu Zhan did not give any advice or opinion. This was Liu Man’s business, and he did not want to interfere with her decisions.
Huang Shiting had made his conditions very strict, which meant that Liu Man could only negotiate on the two areas of transportation fee and the payment. She told Huang Shiting, “I don’t have storage right now, so I have nowhere to store the products. I’ll be sending you the orders and the addresses of the buyers so you can directly send them the cat food.”
Huang Shiting agreed with this.
“I don’t have any cash right now, so I cannot pay you beforehand. I can only wait for you to send me the product first. I’ll be transferring the money to you after I receive it from the buyers. The payment will be at the end of every month, and the time will be on the 28th. Do you agree with this?”
Huang Shiting said, “Us businessmen are most scared of meeting someone like you. You want the product first before you pay, and some people refuse to pay after they get the cat food.”
Liu Man hurriedly promised, “I’m not someone of that kind. I want to make this business long-termed, so why would I not give you the payment?”
Huang Shiting glanced at Yu Zhan. If this person wasn’t vouching for her, he would never agree with Liu Man’s conditions.
Liu Man promised again, “Trust my morality, I plead you.”
“Haha, I’ll believe you for now,” Huang Shiting laughed, “The 29th and the 30th are the days when our company’s financing department will be summing up payments. Your payment must arrive before the 28th, or you will have to pay for your violation of the contract. For every day of you delaying your payment, you’ll be paying us 0.1 percent of the profit we lose. Do you understand?”
Since Huang Shiting was mentioning the penalty for violation of contract, Liu Man knew he was agreeing to her paying after they send her the cat food.She said, “Of course, I understand and agree to the penalty for violation of the contract.”
“Okay, then we are now on the same page,” Huang Shiting called John using the office phone, “Tell the legal department to quickly draw up a contract for network dealing and a vouch contract. Have our lawyer glance over them before you hand them to me.”
“Okay, boss.”
Liu Man asked him after he hung up on the call, “Can we sign the contracts today?”
Huang Shiting gave a surprised smile, “Miss Liu, you seem to be urgent. The contract will be done by, the quickest, tomorrow, or the day after that.”
“Then, we shall stay for one more day. We’ll leave after we sign the contracts,” Yu Zhan, who didn’t speak at all, suddenly said.
Huang Shiting was implying he would be dragging the process, and they would not be done even after two days.
Yu Zhan’s words were conspicuously telling Huang Shiting they had to be signing the contract tomorrow.
Huang Shiting gave Yu Zhan face, “Okay, by the latest of tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be able to sign the contracts.”
Huang Shiting paid for Liu Man and Yu Zhan’s lunch. He took them to a cha chaan teng located in the central ring of the city for an orthodox Hong-Kong-style lunch. As they ate, Huang Shiting told Liu Man knowledge about pet food and made Liu Man learn a lot.
TL’s Note: Cha chaan teng is something like tea restaurants that originated from Hong Kong. If you directly translate it.
Liu Man also learned Huang Shiting was a Cantonese born in New Zealand, and he spent his entire childhood there. He, like Yu Zhan, really liked animals starting from an early age, but he didn’t choose to become a vet. After he graduated from college, he came to Cats’ Garden’s headquarters to join the R&D department.
After he had enough funds, he returned to Hong Kong and established Westland. He took advantage of his social connections at Cats’ Garden and in New Zealand to become a dealer of Cats’ Garden products.
After they had lunch, Huang Shiting made John send the pair back to their hotel. He then called the person who was responsible for making him give Yu Zhan four bags of cat food — Song Junzhe.
“Young master Song, today I made a new business partner, and I need to thank you.”
Song Junzhe felt it was sudden, “Why do you need to thank me?”
Huang Shiting naturally thought Song Junzhe was aware of Yu Zhan coming to Hong Kong when he made this call. But Song Junzhe’s tone seemed as if he had no idea. Huang Shiting, tentatively, asked, “Don’t you know Mr. Yu is here in Hong Kong?”
Credits: Sydney & Puppxteer/Yutong