Perhaps in order to further strengthen the feeling of Albert and others, after letting everyone visit the experimental workshop, Yuzhong actually organized a technical seminar, and invited the technical experts brought by Albert to criticize the design and process of Yuzhong compressors, and the Yuzhong design team headed by Jiang Yan was responsible for answering the questions raised by the experts. Several sales directors sat at the end of the venue, listening to the company's experts and Yuzhong's engineers discussing passionately, and they felt good in their hearts, but they couldn't say it on this occasion.

At the end of the day's discussion, Albert and the others declined the banquet arranged by the organizer Yu Zhong and returned to the hotel. After a quick dinner, the three of them got together and began to discuss what they had seen today.

"I talked to Tabel that the Chinese started developing a 20-megawatt compressor five years ago, and before that, they had only made a 5-megawatt compressor, and it was done in 1978, and then they abandoned the product until this time it was brought up again. Albert told the two companions about what he had inquired about.

Albert and Tarbel had some personal acquaintances, and during the day, Albert seized the opportunity to have a deep chat with Tarbel for a while and got a lot of information. Tarbel is getting older and more like a child, and he tells Albert everything he can and can't say, which involves a lot of internal information. Of course, arranging for Tabel to meet with Albert and others was also carefully considered by Feng Xiaochen, although they knew that there was a little possibility of leaking, but Tabel's words were undoubtedly more authentic for Albert and others, and if a Chinese went to leak secrets to them, would they dare to believe it?

Hearing Albert's introduction, Maxwin couldn't help but sigh: "Five years ago, that is, they were ready to develop their own compressors from the beginning, and it was only because their technology was not mature that they chose to purchase from us. ”

"That's true," Albert said. Tarbell said that their compressors are much worse than the three of us in terms of trouble-free operating time, which is why Chinese officials want to use imported compressors. After all, the West-East Gas Transmission Project is a big project that has a bearing on the overall situation, and they cannot tolerate frequent gas shutdowns for maintenance due to equipment quality problems. ”

"But if our offer is beyond what they can afford to afford, they'd rather go with a domestic compressor, right?" Schleier asked.

"They do have this idea," Albert said. However, Tabel also told me that Yuzhong's production capacity is not enough to support such a large demand, and if they can't buy enough compressors from us, then Yuzhong's own production alone will not be able to meet the needs of the project. ”

"Great, it's their bottleneck, and we can use that to blackmail them. Maxwin said unabashedly.

Albert glanced at him and said lightly, "But there's bad news." Tabel told me that three months ago, their superiors had sent someone to inspect and asked Yuzhong to quadruple its production capacity. Yuzhong's factory developed a plan that included building new workshops, adding equipment and recruiting a group of excellent technicians from other companies. Tarbell said he thinks the expansion plan is feasible and that in fact, once the product design is finalized, it will not be difficult to expand production capacity. ”

"In other words, they were ready to tear their faces with us completely at that time. Maxwin said. He remembered a letter sent to the three companies by the Planning Commission a few months ago, which clearly stated that if the three companies were unwilling to lower their quotations below 80 million yuan, the Chinese side would no longer consider purchasing equipment from them, but would choose other procurement channels. At the time, they thought it was just a threat from the Chinese side, but now it seems that the Chinese side is actually making preparations.

Schleier was silent for a while and said: "Just now I also discussed with the technicians of our company, and they believe that the technology mastered by the Chinese is very comprehensive, which can prove that the compressor we saw in the experimental workshop was indeed designed and manufactured by the Chinese themselves, not by Marbury Company." This means that the Chinese have indeed mastered the manufacturing technology of long-distance natural gas compressors, and they may throw us away. ”

"It's true that if we stick to the 140 million offer, they're going to throw us off completely. You know, if they use that money to buy equipment, they can easily quadruple their production capacity, so they don't need us. Maxwin said.

"Yes, when they have their own manufacturing capabilities, they will be well aware of the cost of the compressor. It would be a humiliation for them to insist on the price of 140 million each. Chinese care a lot about face, and when they feel humiliated, they may behave irrationally. Schleier said.

Albert sneered in his heart, obviously the behavior of the Chinese is rational, and the behavior of Schleyer's sky-high asking price is irrational, but this American is still talking nonsense with his eyes open. However, now is not the time to raise the bar with Schleyer, and Albert sinks and says, "So, you two, do you think our strategy should change?"

"There really needs to be a change, we can't afford to maintain the price of 140 million anymore. Maxwin said.

"I agree to lower some of the offers. Schleier also said.

"So, what should we offer?" Albert continued.

Schleier said: "As you suggested, drop it by 10 percent." We can offer it so that the Chinese will feel that they have won face. ”

"10%down?" Albert looked at Schleyer, his eyes already showed some sympathy, MDZZ, the Chinese have already shown us their cards, you are still dreaming of only 10% price reduction, is this treating the other party as a fool? As you yourself said, the Chinese care about face very much, you don't give face to others, are you really not afraid that people will directly knock you out?

Maxwin also realized that a 10% price reduction alone is unlikely to satisfy the Chinese side, saying: "Mr. Schleyer, from the current situation, I think the price reduction that the Chinese expect should be much higher than 10%. They have previously put forward a request that it cannot exceed 80 million yuan, and although we cannot do what they ask, we should at least move closer to this level. I think we can consider reducing the price by about 30% and being able to sell for $100 million, which is already a good result for us. ”

"I'm against it. Schleier said that seeing that the eyes of the two colleagues were a little wrong, he quickly took a step back and said: "I mean, we can't make a 30% price reduction all at once, we can first promise a 10% price reduction, if the other party can't accept it, we will take a little back and agree to a 15% reduction." In short, we should leave some room for bargaining. ”

"Okay. Albert and Maxwin gave in, and they still had a little hope in their hearts, thinking that the Chinese might not be so resolute, and if they agreed to cut the price by 15 percent, or 20 percent, maybe the Chinese would accept it, so that they could make tens of millions of dollars more profit. As for what to do if the Chinese do not accept it, then continue to reduce the price, isn't this the case for negotiations, and the words that are said can be swallowed back, and no one cares.

The next day, Albert took the initiative to find Wang Zhenbin, claiming that he had finally come to China, and simply took this opportunity to discuss the procurement of compressors with the China Development and Planning Commission. Wang Zhenbin's face just showed a little embarrassment, Albert immediately said that the three of them have discussed it, considering that China is undergoing modernization, as an enterprise in a developed country, they have the obligation to make some contributions to the construction of developing countries, so the price of the compressor can have some room for negotiation.

Wang Zhenbin hesitated and said: "We invited all of you to come to Yubei to ask you to point out Yuzhong's compressor technology, and my leader did not authorize me to discuss the price with you." In addition, today's agenda is to arrange for you to visit the famous places around Yubei, 50 kilometers north of Yubei there is an ancient tomb of the Liao Dynasty, which is very archaeological ......"

Albert hurriedly interrupted Wang Zhenbin's words and hurriedly said: "I think we can arrange for those technical experts from our company to go on a tour, and Mr. Maxwin and Mr. Schleier and I will not go." The matter of providing compressors for China's West-East Gas Transmission Project is a very important matter for all three of our companies, and we need to arrange resources in advance according to your country's procurement intentions, so it is in the best interest of both parties to determine this matter as soon as possible. ”

"Is that so?" Wang Zhenbin seemed to be persuaded by Albert, he thought for a while, and said, "Then let's do it, I'll call the capital and ask the leader for instructions." If the leaders agree, I can have preliminary negotiations with Mr. Feng Xiaochen, the general manager of the State Equipment Company, and I will have to ask you to go to the capital for formal negotiations. ”

The so-called request for instructions from the leaders is, of course, only a step that Wang Zhenbin has found for himself, and Albert and others are anxious to negotiate with the Chinese side, which is also in the advance estimate of the leaders of the Development and Planning Commission. Companies like Seamanz dare to quote outrageously high prices because they believe that China can only buy this equipment from them, and find no other source of purchase. Now China has come up with the same equipment on its own, if not perfect, enough for them to feel threatened. At this time, they asked for a resumption of negotiations and declared in advance that they were willing to make concessions on the price, which was also a wise choice.

Yuzhong sent a large car to take the group of foreign technicians who came to make soy sauce to visit the ancient tomb of the Liao Dynasty, and Albert, Maxwin and Schleier stayed. After Wang Zhenbin pretended to contact the capital, he asked Qi Ruicang to help find a conference room in the Yubei Municipal Government Office Building and began to negotiate with Albert and others. Sitting in the middle of the conference table with Wang Zhenbin was Feng Xiaochen. Wang Zhenbin knew that if he wanted to squeeze the most oil and water out of foreigners, Feng Xiaochen was far better at it than him.