What Are A Sourcing Agent's Duties and Responsibilities?
A sourcing agent is useful in a wide variety of ways, and can make the buyer’s life a lot easier. The following is not an exhaustive list, nor is it expected that every sourcing agent will provide each item. Most sourcing agencies focus on one country or region, or on one industry or market, or on some minimum or maximum order volumes or complexities. For example, a sourcing agent can
• have good business skills covering a variety of markets and industries and business models and practices.
• know multiple languages, being able to work across territories and time zones to create effective and timely communication to drive activity, bridging the language barrier and guaranteeing that customer requests are correctly understood by the supplier and the same for feedback from the supplier to the customer.
• employ or partner with a network local agents that know the country well
• locate the things that you want to export from a country, such as raw materials, parts, part-finished goods, finished goods, and services, including filtering and analyzing the best suppliers for your specific case.
• examine the trading history of each supplier before selecting one for the buyer’s project. The chosen supplier should have a reliable track record of delivering high-quality goods on schedule.
• ensure that the supplier has adequate capacity to handle the order, the technology and trained personnel to deliver it, and the flexibility to make adjustments to allow for problems or changes during the process.
• help you to negotiate better terms and pricing.
• make sure that the quality required by the buyer and agreed to by the supplier is maintained during production after samples are approved, which may involve material inspections, finished goods inspections, or quality audits.
• have the ability to coordinate multiple steps in a supply chain process to keep everything on track.
• manage processes, handle paperwork and electronic registrations,
• solve problems that occur in business arrangements, in government processes, in communications and in logistics.
• save you money, time and resources.
• find contacts to help you enter a market, set up operations, invest money, create partnerships.
• consult to you on your own business and advise on how to make improvements in your existing business strategy and plans regarding sourcing.
Obviously, most projects do not need a comprehensive array of services, or can afford them. The key point is to use the agent to get an effective result for your business, where you will agree what an effective result is and how success will be measured.
At Globally Sourceable we are happy to discuss your requirements and show our capabilities within Turkey and around the world.