I froze every time a supplier sent a counter-offer. So I started tracking what I was missing.

Last year I noticed something embarrassing about myself.

On a supplier call, I could navigate objections just fine.

But over email?

I'd get a counter offer like: "We can only offer this price with 500 MOQ."

And I'd sit there for 20 minutes not knowing if I should:

-> Push back

-> Accept

-> Ask a question

-> Walk away

Not because I lacked confidence. Because I had no system for reading what the email actually meant.

So I started logging every supplier negotiation I did.

What I found after 40+ deals:

-> In most "budget" pushbacks, the real issue was risk, not cost

-> Suppliers who respond fast to counter-offers almost always have room to move

-> Vague terms in emails ("flexible pricing", "depending on volume") are almost always leverage signals I was ignoring

I started building a small tool to help me read these signals instead of guessing.

Still rough. But it's already changing how I approach supplier conversations.

Dropshippers here: what's the hardest part of negotiating over email?

-> Reading if the objection is real or tactical?

-> Knowing when you have leverage?

-> Not sounding desperate when you need the deal?

(Depending on what you're struggling with, I might be able to share the signal framework I built.)