Field notes
Briefing buyers before an origin trip for household goods
Origin trips fail quietly when buyers arrive with price targets but without a shared picture of how the category already enters Vietnam.
A useful briefing fits six pages: current origin mix, seasonal volume shape, two alternate origins with realistic lead times, and three questions every factory visit should answer. Charts stay small; the questions stay specific.
Include one slide on labelling and packaging constraints that have already caused delays for similar household goods. Factories respond faster when buyers can point to a concrete Vietnamese retail requirement rather than a general request for 'export readiness'.
End the briefing with a decision rule for the trip: what evidence would justify adding a second origin this quarter, and what evidence would keep the current mix. Without that rule, trip notes become souvenirs.