Your first email decides your price. Send a photo and you get a quote for whatever is already on the shelf. Send a spec and you get a quote for the knife you actually sell. Here is one order traced from that first email to a loaded container.
Step 1: Write the spec before you ask for a price
Two line items are enough to start: an 8-Inch Stainless Steel Chef Knife in 3Cr13 stainless steel at 1,000 pieces, and a 6-Piece Kitchen Knife Block Set in rubber wood at 200 sets. Four fields per line: steel grade, handle material, quantity, target price. Skip one and the factory fills the gap with its cheapest option, then quotes you as if that were your product.
Step 2: Approve a sample, in writing
Sampling runs 3 days free. Ask for the sample built to the spec in step 1, not pulled from the catalogue. When it lands, check blade straightness, handle fit and how the weight sits in your hand. Then confirm the pre-production sample in writing and keep a copy. That sample becomes the acceptance standard for the whole order. Without it, every disagreement at final inspection is your word against the factory's.
Step 3: Confirm MOQ before you negotiate price
1,000 pieces is the real entry point for the 8-inch chef knife; the block set starts at 200 sets. Ask one question: what is the next price break, and what volume unlocks it? A 500-piece counter-offer against a 1,000-piece MOQ is not a negotiation, it is a different product. Zenttop, the factory I work for, runs three production lines in Yangjiang, and line time is what you are actually bidding for.
Step 4: Put the QC gates in the purchase order
Six QC steps, pre-production sample approval and a final inspection before shipment. Write the pass/fail line yourself: wrong steel grade, cracked handle, loose bolster, blade that does not match the approved sample. The number to hold the factory to is a defect rate under 0.3%. Inspection happens at the factory, before loading. Once the container is on the water, your leverage is gone.
Step 5: Fix terms, currency and documents
FOB or CIF, T/T or LC, quoted in USD, EUR, GBP or one of the other supported currencies. CIF only wins if you would have paid the same forwarder anyway; otherwise take FOB and book your own.
Step 6: Compare the container to the sample
Final inspection report, defect rate, packing photos, then release the balance. On-time delivery across export orders sits above 99%, but confirm the ship date in the PO, not in an email thread.
Your next step
Answer two questions before writing to any supplier: which steel grade, and how many pieces in the first order. Put both in the first line of the email. Everything after that, from sampling to MOQ to terms, has a number attached to it.