Here's the deal. I have an excellent source for products (Hard Goods) for one of my niches.. It's a niche market and the products are imported in China. The product I sell is a higher quality one, but the product also has some cheaper versions that are sold through mass-merchants. People that I don't really consider my competition. Recently the factory has reached out to other sites like mine in the space, they ARE my competitors. That's ok by me because these guys produce stuff at such a volume that I can't fill their factory time...nor is the product design mine in the first place. It's their specs. No problem there.
Am I Being A Jerk? Or Just Shrewd?
12
Here's the deal. I have an excellent source for products (Hard Goods) for one of my niches.. It's a niche market and the products are imported in China. The product I sell is a higher quality one, but the product also has some cheaper versions that are sold through mass-merchants. People that I don't really consider my competition.
Recently the factory has reached out to other sites like mine in the space, they ARE my competitors. That's ok by me because these guys produce stuff at such a volume that I can't fill their factory time...nor is the product design mine in the first place. It's their specs. No problem there.
The struggle that I'm having is that when I first started doing this, I was given some references to unrelated businesses this factory had worked with. This helped establish some trust, but still....this reference couldn't tell me anything about the product I was buying. I saw a sample, but you never know if they'll use cheaper materials than what is advertised.
Anyways, long story short, I got an email from one of my competitors asking me questions about the Factory, sales guy we deal with, AND the product itself. At first, I was pissed with the factory for using my name. Later, I realized that I told him he could use me as a reference if one requested one, but I assumed he meant for unrelated companies! My bad.
The reason I don't want to answer the emails is this. When I started buying from this dude, I was taking a risk. Both on him and the products that he'd deliver. I kinda feel like by giving this guy a pass on the risk aspect of the deal. He'll get the products, like em, and make more money on them. That builds his war chest to go up against me. If he doesn't get a reference from me, he'll be unsure and probably NOT want to pull the trigger on what would be a $40-50K gamble. (Entire container of products).
On the one hand, I'm sure he's a nice guy just looking for some information. On the other hand, I'm thinking "Screw him, we're competitors!" And this is NOT like the IM niche where your competitors work together. It's me or him...there are no joint ventures.
Thoughts?
Recently the factory has reached out to other sites like mine in the space, they ARE my competitors. That's ok by me because these guys produce stuff at such a volume that I can't fill their factory time...nor is the product design mine in the first place. It's their specs. No problem there.
The struggle that I'm having is that when I first started doing this, I was given some references to unrelated businesses this factory had worked with. This helped establish some trust, but still....this reference couldn't tell me anything about the product I was buying. I saw a sample, but you never know if they'll use cheaper materials than what is advertised.
Anyways, long story short, I got an email from one of my competitors asking me questions about the Factory, sales guy we deal with, AND the product itself. At first, I was pissed with the factory for using my name. Later, I realized that I told him he could use me as a reference if one requested one, but I assumed he meant for unrelated companies! My bad.
The reason I don't want to answer the emails is this. When I started buying from this dude, I was taking a risk. Both on him and the products that he'd deliver. I kinda feel like by giving this guy a pass on the risk aspect of the deal. He'll get the products, like em, and make more money on them. That builds his war chest to go up against me. If he doesn't get a reference from me, he'll be unsure and probably NOT want to pull the trigger on what would be a $40-50K gamble. (Entire container of products).
On the one hand, I'm sure he's a nice guy just looking for some information. On the other hand, I'm thinking "Screw him, we're competitors!" And this is NOT like the IM niche where your competitors work together. It's me or him...there are no joint ventures.
Thoughts?
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