The Poland Import Export Chamber Of Commerce Online

How To Contact A Factory


Many emails sent to factories are ignored.

This page gives you information about why and how to have a factory respond to your email.

Factories get thousands of requests for catalogs, quotations, prices lists and assistance every month.

They do not respond to all requests.

Only email that contains information that meets defined screening standards gets attention.

If your email does not meet those standards, it is ignored. It may be trashed and it may be put in an archive. But it is ignored.



About Their Standards

Factories have limited time so they focus on requests that are likely to result in them making a sale to a customer that will hopefully be a regular buyer.

They have to pick through a lot of email to find what they want.

They receive email from end users who want to buy a single piece, from small businesses that want to buy less than the factory minimums, from competitors who are interested in stealing patterns/designs and making counterfeit reproductions, from scam artists who want to buy on stolen credit cards, from people who are just starting a business and who have no understanding of how to order from a factory, from people sending the same requests to many different factories, from people who are "doing market research", from people who are trying to get free samples, from people who are "just gathering information", and occasionally from a qualified buyer.

By following their experience-based standards, it is very easy for them to pick out those that deserve attention.


How Do They Do It?

It is really quite simple. They profile.

It is easy to pick out a good prospective customer. A good customer shows legitimacy. If you want to make the first cut and be considered a good potential customer, you must show legitimacy.

Email from a good prospective customer contains the company web site address, uses the company name in the email address, gives a phone number that is answered at a company office or is identified as a mobile number of the person writing, gives some estimate of the size of the company or annual sales, gives some projection of potential size of orders.

And it does not contain something similar to any of the following:

"Not sure right now."

"The amount of the order depends on the price and quality."

"Will order a container once I get the prices."

"Will give an estimate of how much will be ordered after we get shipping time."

"I would like to know price, delivery time, payment options, and then I can advise you of quantity."

"Before I give quantity, I must visit factory to created a personal relationship and negotiate price."

"I can't reveal that information."

"I don't include a web site because they are unimportant for this matter."

What Should You Do To Get An Answer?

If you do not yet have a web site, send email from an email address that uses your business trade name. Doing this shows that you may have a legitimate business.

In short, show legitimacy! Read this page to see what that means. Show legitimacy

If you have a web site, and include the address of that web site, you can generally, but not in all cases, use a free email account under the guise of wanting to protect yourself from Spam.

Give brief information about your company. For example: "We are established distributors with our own warehouse and sales in excess of $100,000 per year."

"Our company operates a retail shop in a local mall."

"My company is in startup and plans to ……"

It is best to provide a pro-forma Request For Quotation.

But if you do not have enough data to submit a Request For Quotation, give an estimate of the potential size of your order. Just assume that the quality is what you want and the price is what you want. With those assumptions, you should be able to tell the factory that you might order $500 of each piece, $1000 total order, a 20-foot container or some other defined marker that the factory can use to make a decision.

Include a phone number. Why? Any experienced business person knows the importance of the rule, "Know your customer!" A phone conversation helps that factory representative establish its knowledge base.

And if you are afraid to talk to a factory representative, the assumption is that you are probably hiding something. So include a phone number so that you do not look like you are hiding.

If you want to save time and avoid non-productive phone calls, tell them that you would like and email first and will talk by phone later.

Be up front and honest. Don't try to puff your way into attention. It is easy to spot a phony. If it looks like you are one, you will just be ignored.


Please Note

Ignore this information at your peril. You have to look professional or you WILL get ignored.



Above all, be specific as to the design or piece that you want and include the number of such pieces or an estimated order size in dollars, euro or zloty. All requests should be in the form of requests for quotation.

If you do not have a company name, domain name or internet trade name, get one before you contact factories. Here is a video that gives you some very important tips and hints on how to do that. About Registering A Domain Name

And once again, look professional or get ignored. Here is a video on that subject. Look Professional