Chapter 473 – Good Cop Bad Cop
Feng Yu returned to the Machinery Company and chatted with Li Mingde for a while. After the New year, Songjiang Motors vehicles started airing their advertisements on CCTV. At the same time, printed advertisements were published in many provinces’ newspaper.
As Songjiang Motors had appeared on CCTV and Bing City had made a bulk purchase, people started to take note of Songjiang Motor vehicles. But the sales did not increase. The Machinery Company was still stocking up on the cars.
Feng Yu and the rest were prepared for this. Their vehicles were expensive and regular families could not afford. Also, Songjiang brand was not well known. Even with the aggressive marketing efforts, their sales could not increase immediately.
Luckily Kirilenko had bought their cars. Feng Yu believed that his warehouse would not be pack with unsold cars by Winter this year. He could still recover part of his investments. Feng Yu looked at the sales figures and noticed that the Olympic model was the bestselling model. Red Star and Off-Roads were not selling well.
Feng Yu was wondering if the Red Star model was introduced into the market too early. Do the people now do not like this type of business cars? Business cars’ exterior design was not as rugged as the Off-Roads and not as beautiful as the smaller saloon cars. But this model was efficient and comfortable.
Fu Guangzheng had also conducted a market survey about this model in the Southern region. He felt that there should be a market for this model. When the branch factory in Guangdong was ready, this model should be manufactured there. Southeast provinces were the first to become prosperous. There were many wealthy businessmen there. The sales of this model should be better there.
The other branch factory should manufacture Songjiang Off-Roads. They should focus on producing the diesel engine model more. The petrol engine Off-Road model could still not win J2020. Jeep J2020 was too cheap.
Li Mingde also agreed. They should manufacture more of the better selling models. The Machinery Company was also short of funds. Those unsold vehicles had locked up most of their funds. Feng Yu still insist on not lessening the R&D investments. Although the Machinery Company’s production had increased, their profits had decreased.
The profits from vehicles were much lesser than Agriculture machines and motorcycles. Also, the City had given the Machinery Company tax exemption, Feng Yu could not let Tai Hua Trading be the primary distributor or use the funds from Tai Hua Trading. The City had only given the Machinery Company tax exemption but not Tai Hua Trading!
3 days later, Feng Yu received a call from Hao Haitao asking him to go to the Aviation Factory to talk about the military deal.
If it weren’t because General Gan was a higher rank than Hou Haitao, he would never make this call. Why can’t the talks be at the Machinery Company? Why must they pick the Aviation factory?
This time, Hao Haitao will never allow the negotiations to be in his office. If both of you wants to talk, go to the meeting room!
……
Feng Yu and Li Mingde arrived at the Aviation Factory’s meeting room. When they entered the room, they were almost blinded by the shiny medals!
Damn. This was only the talks about the details of the contract. Was there a need to mobilize 6 generals? Other than General Gan, the other 5 were all Major General!
Hao Haitao greeted the generals and left. He was not interested in being present at this meeting.
“Good morning, Manager Feng.” A Major General stretched out his hand towards Li Mingde.
Li Mingde looked at Feng Yu embarrassed and turned towards the Major General: “I am Li Mingde. This is our Machinery Company’s main shareholder, Feng Yu, Manager Feng.”
That Major General looked at Feng Yu and then General Gan. He saw General Gan nodded to him. This young man was the major shareholder of the Machinery Company?
Feng Yu asked loudly: “General Gan, have you all decided? Are we signing the contract today?” Feng Yu pretended not to see that Major General’s outstretched hand.
I am a petty person, what can you do?
“Cough…… Manager Feng, we can’t sign the contract immediately. We still have not decided whether to buy your cars.” General Gan replied and stared at that Major General.
“Huh? You received better offers than us?” Feng Yu asked.
Since the military had sent so many generals here for the talks, they will definitely buy Songjiang Motors vehicles. They only want to press the prices down and get better conditions.
Feng Yu does not care about all these people. Although he was not a good negotiator, and Li Mingde was also not much better, but he was confident that he was better than these people from the military. In his previous life, the military had made several purchases at higher prices. This was because these generals do not know how to negotiate.
“Of course. Beijing Jeep. We had bought their Jeeps more than once. Their vehicles were really well built.” It was still that Major General who replied.
Feng Yu glanced at him. There were 5 Major General and 1 Lieutenant General in this room. Why was this guy so talkative? Feng Yu does not know that this procurement of vehicles had been handled by this Major General. He had been buying Beijing Jeep for the military. The boss of Beijing Jeep and he were relatives.
“Oh, then why didn’t you continue to buy from Beijing Jeep? I don’t want to flaunt, but our vehicle can still be driven after banging into 5 Beijing Jeep J2020!” Feng Yu said proudly.
The military generals were dumbfounded. This was the first time they heard of such comparisons.
“Manager Feng, we shall not speak about other things. Your Songjiang Off-Roads specifications are outstanding. We are interested in purchasing your cars. But the prices are too high.” General Gan said.
“Is it costly? I shall still say the same thing. You get what you paid. The Russian Army had placed orders with us. This shows that our vehicles are of good quality. Also, the prices for the Russians are much higher than what I offered to you. I had already offered you a free car for every 10 vehicles you purchase. Can Beijing Jeep give you such an attractive offer?”
“The amount used to buy 10 cars from you, is enough to buy more than 20 Jeeps. Is there still a need for free gifts?” it was the same Major General.
“Then why don’t you go to Beijing Jeep?” Feng Yu asked him back.
“Manager Feng, we are very sincere to work with you. Also, we are representing the military, the country.”
Feng Yu glanced at General Gan: “The country can take advantage of us commoners? If it weren’t for the sake of the military protecting our country, I would not even offer you buy 10 free 1!”
General Gan almost vomit blood. Who wants to take advantage of you? We want to buy things from you and shouldn’t we haggle on the prices?! He had wanted to make use of the country and military to press the prices down. But Feng Yu used the same reason to prevent them from doing so.
“From our estimation, your cost per unit is not more than 170,000 RMB. Yet you want to sell us at 200,000 RMB per unit? This rate is not considered high?” A bespectacled Major General said.
Feng Yu lifted one finger and asked: “Where did you get this 170,000 RMB? Do you know our Machinery Company’s workers are getting at least 20% more wages than other factories? Do you know our workers are getting month rewards every month? Do you know how much we spent on the production lines and factories? Do you know how much we invested in those technologies? You do not know about these and how can you determine our cost? Did you estimate the cost of our vehicles by weight?”
Cost? You are not the who determine how much cost per vehicle. We are the ones who decide the value of the car. Your military personnel can come and check our Machinery Company’s accounts? Even Bing City Government will not agree to you checking on our accounts!
We shall see who will win from this negotiation.