In fact, dealing with foreigners is not difficult. In the author’s eyes, keep three key words in mind: meticulous, diligent, and innovative. These three are probably clichés. However, have you done it to the extreme? Is it 2:1 or 3:0 to compete with your opponent? I hope everyone can do the latter.
I have been engaged in foreign trade marketing of non-woven fabrics for more than a year. Through the analysis of some customers I have done so far, I have summarized the following experiences and lessons for each link in the foreign trade process:
1. Customer classification, adopt different follow-up methods
After receiving the customer’s inquiry, conduct preliminary customer classification according to all the information that can be collected, such as the content of the inquiry, the region, the other party’s company information, etc. As for how to classify the customer, the target customer should focus on follow-up, and the reply should be timely, effective and targeted. Strong, and customer follow-up must be patient. I once had a short enquiry from a Spanish customer: we are looking for 800 tons of non woven fabric for agricultural cover, its 20 GSM and the width is 150 cm. we need FOB price.
It seems like a simple inquiry. In fact, it has already explained in detail the product specifications, uses and other information that the customer wants. Then we checked the relevant information of the customer company, and they are indeed an end user who needs such products. Therefore, according to the needs of the guests, we responded to the inquiry as soon as possible, and gave the guests more professional suggestions. The guest responded quickly, thanked us for the suggestion, and agreed to use the suggested product.
This established a good initial connection, but the subsequent follow-up was not so smooth. After we made an offer, the guest never responded. Based on my years of experience in following up with Spanish customers, considering that this is an end-user customer, I did not give up on this. I changed several different mailboxes, and sent follow-up emails to the guests at intervals of three, five, and seven days. It started by asking the guests whether they received the quotation and the comments on the quotation. Later, they kept sending emails to the guests for some industry news.
After following up like this for about a month, the guest finally replied, apologized for the lack of news before, and explained that he was too busy for not replying in time. Then the good news came, the customer began to discuss with us the details such as price, transportation, payment method, etc. After all the details were settled, the customer placed an order for 3 cabinets for us as a trial order at a time, and signed a long-term cooperation intention Contracts.
2. Production of quotations: professional, comprehensive and clear
No matter what product we make, when our quotation is displayed in front of the customer, it also determines the customer’s overall impression of the company. A professional quotation will undoubtedly leave a good impression on the guests. In addition, the customer’s time is very precious, and there is no time to ask for details one by one, so we try to fully reflect all the product-related information to be presented to the customer on the quotation, and the priority is clear, so that the customer can see at a glance.
P.S.: Remember to leave your company’s contact information on the quotation.
Our company’s quotation list is quite good, and many customers are full of praise after reading it. An Italian client said to us: “You are not the first company to reply to my inquiry, but your quotation is the most professional, so I chose to come to your company and finally cooperate with you.”
3. Combining the two methods of email and telephone, follow up and pick a good time
When email communication cannot be resolved, or it is more urgent, remember to communicate by phone in time. However, for important matters such as price confirmation, please remember to fill in an email in time after communicating with the guests by phone.
In addition, when doing foreign trade, there will inevitably be time differences. Not only do you need to pay attention to the customer’s commute time when calling, but if you also pay attention to this when sending emails, you will also receive unexpected results. For example, an American customer has the opposite time to ours. If we send emails after working hours, not to mention that our emails are already at the bottom of the guest mailboxes when the guest goes to work, then we can only go to one 24 hours a day. Two emails back. On the other hand, if we reply or follow up emails in time before going to bed at night or early in the morning, the guests may still be in the office and will reply to us in time, which greatly increases the number of times we communicate with guests.
4. Be careful when sending samples
Regarding sending samples, I believe that many people are struggling with some questions: Should we charge sample fees? Should we charge courier fees? Customers do not agree to pay reasonable sample fees and courier fees. Should we still send them? Do you want to send all the good, medium and poor quality samples, or only the best quality samples? There are so many products, do you choose to send samples of each key product, or only send the products that customers are interested in?
These many questions are really unclear. We are making non-woven products, the sample value is relatively low, and we can provide samples for free. However, there are not a lot of express fees abroad. Under normal circumstances, the customer will be asked if he can provide the express account number. If the guest does not agree to pay the express fee and is the target customer, he will choose to pay the express fee by himself. If it is an ordinary customer and does not need samples urgently, we will choose to send samples to customers by ordinary parcels or even letters.
But when the customer has no exact intention of which product they want, should they send samples of different qualities to the customer for reference, or should they send samples selectively according to the region?
We had an Indian customer asking for a sample before. Everyone knows that Indian customers are very good at saying “your price is very high”. Not surprisingly, we also received such a classic reply. We emphasized to the customer that the quotation is “for good quality”. The customer asked to see samples of different quality, so we sent the products with the corresponding quality and the products with lower quality than the quoted price for reference. After the customer receives the sample and asks for the price of poor quality, we also report it truthfully.
The final result is: customers use our poor quality price to lower the price, ask us to do a good job of quality products, and completely ignore our cost problem. I really felt like shooting myself in the foot. In the end, the customer’s order was not negotiated, because the price difference between the two parties was too far, and we did not want to make a one-time order with the customer with a shoddy charge.
Therefore, everyone must carefully consider before sending samples, and adopt different sample sending strategies for different customers.
5. Factory Audit: Active communication and full preparation
We all know that if a customer proposes a factory inspection, he actually wants to know more about us and facilitate the early completion of the order, which is good news. Therefore, we must actively cooperate and actively communicate with the customer to clearly understand the purpose, standard and specificity of the customer’s factory inspection. procedures, and prepare some basic work in advance, so as not to fight unprepared battles.
6. The last thing I want to share with you is: meticulousness, diligence and innovation
Maybe people today are too impetuous, or they pursue efficiency too much. Often, an email is sent out in a hurry before it is finished. As a result, there are many errors in the email. Before we send an email, we must carefully check the font, punctuation and other details to ensure that your email is as perfect and accurate as possible. Show your best every time you have the opportunity to show us to a client. Some people may think that this is a trivial matter, not worth mentioning at all. But when most people ignore these little details, you do, then you stand out.
A concrete manifestation of diligence is jet lag. As a foreign trade business, you must always maintain communication with customers. Therefore, if you expect to work only eight hours, it is difficult to become an excellent foreign trade salesman. For any valid inquiry, customers will ask more than three suppliers. Your competitors are not only in China, but also global suppliers. If we don’t respond to our guests in a timely manner, we give our competitors a chance.
Another meaning of diligence refers to not being able to wait and see. The salesmen who are waiting for the foreign trade manager to assign B2B platform inquiries are just getting started. Salespeople who know how to actively use the platform to find customers and actively send emails are just graduated. Salespeople who know how to use the company’s large customer database, manage customer data well, and actively and effectively conduct regular tracking according to customer categories are masters.
When it comes to innovation, many people think it is product innovation. In fact, this understanding is one-sided. I believe that every salesman has sent a development letter. If you can make slight changes to the development letter of your predecessors, add pictures, and change the color, this is an innovation of your own work content. We have to constantly change our working methods and constantly adjust our thinking.
Foreign trade business is a process of constantly accumulating experience. There is no right or wrong in each link of foreign trade follow-up. We are all looking for better methods in continuous practice. We hope that we can go better and better on the road of foreign trade.
By Shirley Fu
Post time: Apr-25-2022
