America Trade Site
Where Business Success Begins
To screen potential buyers and streamline the process, the sellers will need the following information filled out. Upon completion, send to The America Trade Site staff for review at americatradesite@gmail.com or rickjohnson4@gmail.com. It will then be sent to the principals to initiate direct contact. Please note, all information will be held in strictest confidence. After you read the following description of the deal, there are the terms and conditions of the supplier. If you have a
cheaper price, I'll buy from you. I have a great supplier for
JP54 and the price is very good; $33/36 per barrel CIF, ASWP.
The commission on 20 million barrels per month is $15,000,000
to you and your associates. Do you think you can find a way to
make everyone happy? Please try. I make the same and the
mandates take the rest. They are very fair and honest. The
supplier does not allow your buyer to go around us; They send
all buyers and circumventing brokers back to us and then we
know how they do business. So, please advise them not to try
this
The Secure ProcedureThe broker should learn from the dog The dog makes you respect him, by demanding a contract He won't run, unless you really throw the stick The ICPO is the work contract and the broker should not chase the 'stick' until the buyer gives him a work contract, in the form of an irrevocable corporate purchase order Buyers don't want to make this commitment, because they want the seller's information for free The industry would be nice and simple, if all you have are buyers, who want free services and brokers who just want to get a commission and don't want to learn any new skills or follow any procedure You hear many people complaining that the commodity business is full of crooks and incompetent people and this procedure is an attempt to eliminate incompetence Professionalism is badly needed and brokers should study and master a procedure, but buyers are also guilty of attempting to circumvent brokers, so they can buy cheaper If any broker gets to the finish line and learns that the buyer can't get an L/C, it's the broker's fault This is incompetence and the solution is a well thought out procedure We come to the bargaining table to make a deal The commissions are rarely small and so we want to do our best, always When the commissions are huge, we want to be the very best in the world You practice on little deals, so that you are prepared, when a big deal comes along Often, the buyer is not real or the seller is not real So, you must be meticulous, in your process and carry out the procedure with the utmost care A mistake can cost you millions of dollars so you have to learn, quickly; Please study this page Second chances are rare, so it has to be right, the first time Blood in the water brings out the sharks There are many kinds of sharks Some brokers are sharks and some buyers are ten times worse You already know the 'sea' I write about Sharks are big fish; They devour little fish In the commodities business, the 'sharks have no shame' Little fish have to swim very carefully Sharks ask for an LOI and amateur brokers gladly send it The inexperienced broker dreams of getting rich, easily They have no idea why a broker can't reveal the buyer's contact information to the seller's side The LOI has all the buyer's contact information on it and the shark knows it The amateur apparently doesn't know it or can't imagine anyone going around him for a few million dollars Huge commissions are often not made because an inexperienced broker gave contact information He foolishly forwarded an LOI to a shark and the shark made a meal out of him If you release your buyer's contact information to a shark, he will take your buyer away from you The 'shark' will do it, without hesitation or internal conflict! If you want to get paid, read on There is a procedure to learn I'm going to share some ideas with you See if you agree Putting a deal together requires an understanding of the process and sticking to the procedure Print this page and refer to it, often, using the checkboxes so you get the sequence down When you are out of sequence, you will learn why you don't want to go out of sequence Lessons are expensive, so cut your loss and learn the procedure, now There are two sides at the bargaining table; Buyer and Seller You come with one or the other and few have both, so we have to cooperate If you bring buyer, with money, you have to present what you have You don't get a seat at the bargaining table, without something to bargain with At times, it is necessary to be patient and learn about the seller Nobody has time to waste and some will depart and you won't be able to coax them back The only way to avoid losing someone who is impatient is to be prepared to present what you have The checklist, above, will allow you to organize your thoughts and make a powerful presentation For example:Broker Objectives 1. To provide buyer and seller with the most professional service 2. To protect the commission of the brokers If this procedure is the most highly developed method, then we follow it, closely If it need changes, we modify it I have a buyer for urea 46% nitrogen He's bought this product from me, before The current order is for 25,000 mt/month, for 12 months My buyer has completed his shopping and has found suppliers The best prices quoted to him are $312/mt, $300/mt and $150/mt He doesn't believe in the seller at $150/mt, but the others are OK He gave me the phone numbers of the other two suppliers I have talked to both and they seem very sincere I've asked for the name and phone number to their performance bond insurer and I might have it soon My buyer gave me an LOI It's made out to me and has product specifications, quantity, shipment size, bank information and a target price of $200/mt Do you feel we can do business?This is a very good introduction, but the buyer has not been quoted a price below $300/mt from a credible seller and now he wants us to give him product $100/mt cheaper than this A broker should not entertain a target price, without some substance and in the above example, the buyer shopped around, received price quotes from credible sellers and the broker has demonstrated skill in presentation and the handling of a client The broker did not volunteer the buyer's contact information and therefore, still has control over the order He implied that a price of $299/mt would beat any other price quote and the deal is very interesting, because we have real product, the buyer bought before and is not fooled by those who offer a very low price and likely do not have product It won't be easy to sell this buyer; He is a veteran and knows what he's doing His rejection of the low ball price quote was probably not based on price, alone We must make our debut with him and convince him that we have real product to sell and a price better than any he has had so far Even if you are not good at collecting and organizing information, you can still work this checklist The questions are easy and you can have it in front of you, every time you negotiate a deal Be friendly and ask questions! It's your right to make the buyer prove that he can pay It's your duty to get a committment from the buyer in writing You'll be more valuable, if you do and you'll always have a seat at the bargaining table The verbal agreement is first What good does it do to take a buyer and an entourage of brokers to the finish line and then have the buyer tell you he didn't agree to that price or didn't know you were making so much commission? When brokers don't agree, deals don't close Ask each broker what he has agreed to Don't let anyone speak for the others Have each sign off with an IMFPA If everyone does not accept the terms of the purchase, then you don't have a purchase You have to finalize negotiations, before you prepare and sign documents and reveal your source You do not want to divulge your source to anyone, before you have an NCNDA1 signed My supplier informs me that every buyer and every broker we have dealt with, so far, has attempted to go around us Wednesday, May 13, 2009 Here is an email I sent to a client who wanted to send me an LOI, instead of an ICPO: Thanks Anthony, Recently, I turned in an ICPO for JP54 and it was swiftly rejected by the supplier They said the buyer is known to them and the seller feels that this is not a serious buyer They recommended that we ignore the ICPO document and forget the order request It was indeed, an embarrassment to me, because we could have discovered the same and never sent this ICPO off for rejection by my seller I have devised a checklist of steps that all of us believe in, but in our haste, we failed to use that checklist for the purpose for which it was created The seller has trained me in their procedures and they are a large refinery Their procedures have developed over thousands of transactions and it seems that everyone, who wished to buy or broker a deal with them, wants to change the procedures of this giant company I have been warned, repeatedly that this won't happen; To give up that idea and just stick to their procedures, but when I'm pressured by brokers, I cave in and act, without relying on my own devised procedures If we had followed my own checklist of procedures, part of which was given to me, by the supplier and contrived and incorporated into our own device by me and my associates, we would not have been embarrassed by the results of this presentation Frankly, the LOI is not a work order and you should not think it's going to help you close any deal Buyers can use an LOI to obtain the name, address and phone number of my supplier and then the buyers and brokers can back out of the deal We get nothing and they get my source It's a very good move for all of them and very bad for those who want to get paid for doing meaningful work So far, all buyers have taken us to the finish line and then backed out They are very hungry to do the deal, until we give them the vital information about my seller and then they back out, as if they lost their appetite If you want to get paid, you have to have an irrevocable order and that means an ICPO If you want to get paid, someone has to call the bank and ask if the buyer can obtain an L/C to pay for this product; Let that person be the one who is taking the most commission Without these two things, it's not very likely, based on our recent experience, that any buyer will complete any purchase We can learn from our mistakes or we can just repeat those mistakes, indefinitely We are like the dog who chases the stick which wasn't thrown I want to be the type of broker, who learns quickly from my own mistakes, because I'm not smart enough to learn from the mistakes of others Most brokers in your position will not be able to learn from hearing about our mistakes You will just have to make your own mistakes and learn from them |
Brokers love to chase deals and it reminds me of a dog, who loves to chase a stick
You can pretend to throw a stick and the dog will start running
A buyer can set a broker in motion just as easily
He pretends to 'throw a stick' and the broker is set into motion
An inexperienced broker will 'chase the stick', every time!
On the second round of faking the throw of the stick, the dog learns; You can't fool him
That's were the broker and the dog are different
The broker will continue to 'chase the stick', but the dog learns, after being fooled, just once
So, the dog is much smarter than the broker, who never learns
When a buyer says, I want to buy, the stupid broker chases the 'stick'
He's fooled again and again and never learns
The dog's look says, 'No! I'm not chasing fake sticks....I want a contract'
The contract requires that you
<blockquote>
1. have a real stick and
2. actually throw the stick