Stop 2 of 8 · Weekly
Sourcing and comparison
Six offers in six formats turned into one table, with the landed cost columns left empty for you and one question list per supplier.
Six offers, six shapes
Monday brings a PDF from Ningbo, a photographed price sheet on WhatsApp from Istanbul, a price list in the body of an email from Delhi, and an Excel from a trading agent in Guangzhou. One quotes per carton, two per piece. Two are FOB, one is CIF Alexandria, one does not say. Minimum quantities range from 200 to a full container. Two do not mention lead time at all.
Comparing them today means Sherif rebuilding the same table by hand, and the version he builds when he is tired is the version he prices from.
One table, one shape
Upload all of them together, photographs included, and ask for one table. The columns that matter are the ones that make two offers actually comparable.
| Column | Why it is in the table |
|---|---|
| Unit price, currency, price basis | A per carton price and a per piece price are not two prices |
| Incoterm and named port | FOB Ningbo and CIF Alexandria are different questions |
| Minimum order and carton quantity | Decides whether the cheap one is even orderable |
| Lead time from purchase order | The number that moves the delivery date in stop 3 |
| Payment terms and offer validity | Half the offers expire before the customer decides |
The rule that saves the table is the blank one. Where an offer says nothing, the cell reads not stated. A supplier who did not mention lead time has not offered a lead time, and the moment Claude fills that in with something reasonable the table stops being evidence.
The columns that are yours
Freight to Alexandria this week, insurance, the duty rate, clearance and handling, inland trucking to the warehouse, the bank charges on the letter of credit, and the exchange rate Sherif will actually get. Claude knows none of them. It should not guess at any of them.
Ask for those as empty columns with the arithmetic already written, so the moment Sherif pastes his own numbers the landed cost per piece appears. The duty rate goes in only after the broker confirms it, which is stop 4.
[upload every offer for this product: PDFs, photos of price sheets, emails, Excel files] These are offers for the same product from different suppliers. Build one comparison table: supplier, country, product as quoted, unit price with currency and price basis, minimum order, carton quantity, incoterm and named port, lead time from purchase order, payment terms, packing, certificates, offer validity. Convert every price to per piece and show the carton quantity you divided by. Where an offer does not state something, write not stated. Do not estimate anything.
From that table, build a landed cost sheet per supplier for a quantity of 2000 pieces. Columns for me to fill: sea freight, insurance, duty rate, clearance and handling, inland trucking, bank charges, exchange rate. Leave every one of them blank. Show the formula for landed cost per piece next to the row so it calculates once I paste my numbers. Do not put a figure in any column I am meant to fill.
From the not stated cells, write one short English email per supplier asking only for what is missing from their own offer. Numbered questions, no more than five, no pleasantries beyond one line. Then give me a three sentence summary in Arabic of where the four offers stand, for my brother in the warehouse.
That last summary stays inside the company, so it goes out as it is. The moment a line of it is quoted back to a supplier it becomes a document that leaves, and Sherif reads the Arabic against the English first.