Distributor? Verify First, Then We Send the Catalogue

A European distributor writes in: bonded warehouse, settlement as goods are sold, and a request for the catalogue, unit prices, MOQ and factory audit documents. Everything is asked for — except the part numbers. No product line, no OE numbers, no first order in mind. A catalogue sent at that point is a phone book, not a quotation: hundreds of pages, none of them matched to what the distributor will actually sell. So the catalogue does not go first. Verification does.

Three things, and then the matching catalogue follows:

1. Company name and website. Who is buying, and where do they sell. A distributor relationship starts with knowing the business, not with a price list. A name and a website take a minute to send and save days of back-and-forth later.
2. First product lines, with part numbers. Which models and which hoses, seals or fittings the distributor wants to carry first. The catalogue we send is the one that matches those lines — not the whole range at once, and not a generic list that fits nobody.
3. Warehouse location and settlement method. Where the stock will sit, and how settlement works. That decides packing, shipment and the terms on the quotation, so it has to be known before the terms are written.

When all three are in, the matching catalogue, the prices and the terms follow. Until then, prices and catalogues stay with us — not because the information is secret, but because a price without a part number is a number without a product, and a catalogue without a product line is paper nobody reads.

On factory documents, the position is simple: our production is certified to IATF 16949, ISO 9001 and ISO 45001. Those are the certificates we hold, and copies go with the quotation once the three items above are in. Send the three items, and the reply is a catalogue that fits the business — not a price list that fits nobody, and not a set of documents that has to be chased twice.