How to break through the export bottleneck

The financial tsunami originating in the United States has turned into a global financial crisis. In this storm raging around the world, no export-oriented economy can survive alone. For China, whose exports account for 40% of GDP, the impact is particularly severe.

Affected by the economic crisis, overseas consumers have tightened their wallets one after another. This has forced domestic export companies to face the problems of declining orders, insufficient work, and prolonged foreign exchange collection periods. Many small and medium-sized enterprises have even faced the test of life and death. Data from China's General Administration of Customs shows that in the first half of this year, my country's exports fell by 21.8% year-on-year. The financial crisis, described by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as "the worst in nearly a century", has thrown Chinese exporters into difficult times.

How do Chinese exporters respond to the crisis and seek new opportunities? In order to answer this question, this magazine, together with BMW Brilliance, and Global Sources, which has played the role of international trade export consultant since its establishment, launched 12 forums. At the forum, experts, government officials, representatives of international buyers and exporters gathered to discuss countermeasures. This publication has compiled the contents of the first two forums with the theme of "Industrial Transformation - Breaking the Export Bottleneck", hoping to help export-oriented enterprises in confusion.

Three ways to deal with a shrinking market

"The market is shrinking!" This is a question that almost every exporter participating in the forum will ask. Mr. Pei Kewei, chief operating officer of Global Sources and publisher of "CEConline", analyzed that: During the economic crisis, the consumption habits of developed countries have undergone fundamental changes. For example, consumers may not hesitate to go to the most luxurious shopping Place consumption, but now have to shop around, always looking for more favorable promotions. The easy purchase behavior in the past has also turned into a repeated consideration now, and consumers will repeatedly ask themselves: Do I really need to buy this product? The original easy swiping card has also become a cash payment. In terms of entertainment, golf used to be popular, but now it is popular to stay at home and play video games.

The market is indeed shrinking, "but these changes do not mean that there are no opportunities," Pei Kewei also said. Are there still opportunities in a shrinking market in developed countries? Are there broader new markets beyond developed markets? The answers to these two questions derived two directions for opening the market during the financial crisis: consolidating the original developed markets and strengthening sales; actively looking for emerging markets and striving to develop them. Consolidating the original market For export-oriented enterprises, the importance of sales is self-evident. According to He Qingsong, general manager of Xiamen Jintang Rubber & Plastic Co., Ltd., the biggest cost of a company is that it does not do a good job in training the sales force. During the financial crisis, Jintang made great efforts in sales. First of all, it strengthened the sales force, strengthened the training of sales staff, changed the sales work to be handled by the general manager in person, and formulated the "nine sales gold rules" for sales staff. ” to standardize its behavior.

Xiamen Yaoming Ribbon Jewelry Co., Ltd. has also strengthened its sales efforts. In addition to formulating a new assessment and incentive system for sales staff, it also focuses on tapping the potential productivity and creativity of sales staff. Yao Ming, chairman of Yao Ming Ribbon, believes that for many reasons, foreign trade sales personnel are prone to fall into "the vicious circle of working for customers" and are busy with operational work all day, while ignoring the core task of sales personnel: "understanding customers and serving customers" , guide customers, and ultimately master customers.” So the company encourages salespeople to shift their focus from practical work to more creative work and use their brains to work smarter with customers.

This more creative job is to provide better service to enhance the customer's buying experience. "Customers' purchasing behavior is a long process, and many aspects of this process will affect the customer's experience and affect the customer's final decision. Now the competition has gone from point to point, and companies are comparing their comprehensive strength. It is about who can think more for customers and let customers do less. We are adhering to this concept and constantly combing our existing processes and systems. We are instilling this concept: First, customer service It is not a matter of one or two departments, but the core of the work of all employees in the company, from design to production, from sales to transportation, and the efforts of all departments and personnel. Second, customer service is not something that happens after sales are completed. From the moment customers see our company's information for the first time, we must consider how to make customers have a more pleasant buying experience." Yao Ming said.

Yao Ming Ribbon has also begun to take the initiative. This year, he has begun to prepare to establish a sales company and distribution center in the United States, and go directly to the terminal, changing from passive to active, so that we can master channels, customers, and bargaining power.

Explore emerging markets Beyond developed markets, emerging markets have long caught the attention of exporters. In the past, Guangzhou Minshi Digital Technology Co., Ltd. mainly exported its products to the European and American markets, but now it has also included some emerging markets in its customer list, such as Russia, India and Brazil, and actively participated in local exhibitions. Shi Ximin, general manager of the company, said: "Our website was only in English before, but now we have added German, and we will add more languages in the next step. We have also increased foreign trade personnel with small languages, and try to make every foreign trade staff understand it. Two foreign languages."

Because emerging markets are sensitive to price, Sensitive Digital will produce some simplified products for them, which can reduce costs and prices accordingly. Some products that are about to be phased out in developed markets may be gaining popularity in emerging markets. Guangzhou Jingtuo Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. has diversified its product structure, including not only products in the research and development period, introduction period, and mature period, but also products that are about to be eliminated. Li Pingshan, the general manager of this company, believes: "The product itself has no market, it mainly depends on which market you sell it in. We will sell products that are about to be eliminated in developed countries to emerging markets, which is equivalent to prolonging the product's market. Life cycle.”

Guangdong Snowlight Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. not only conducts trade in emerging markets, but also invests and builds factories in cooperation with Vietnam and Iran. Zhao Yong, general manager of the company, believes that this can transform the general trade method into an output method to seize more markets.

Increase Product Personality During the financial crisis, the mindset of consumers changed, and they became more discerning than ever due to their desire to buy good products at a lower price. However, unique and individual products will still be welcome. Peike gave an example: a Chinese entrepreneur in California founded Maria Yee, a furniture company, which relies entirely on personalized positioning to win - all products do not use metal nails. Its overall furniture collection is made of bamboo, with no metal in every link. The product has also passed the highest environmental certification. Maria Yee is not very large, but it has already made a good impact in the American furniture market.

For domestic export companies, in order to deal with critical customers, in addition to quality assurance, they must also strive to create product personality like Maria Yee.

Two strategies for dealing with flexible orders

"Slow orders become urgent orders, long orders become short orders, and large orders become small orders." Yao Ming, chairman of Yao Ming Ribbon, summed up the situation of overseas orders during the financial crisis. Variety. As buyers are more cautious than before, the requirements for delivery time and quality have become more stringent, and they have become more sensitive to prices, which has put forward new requirements for the production, sales and services of domestic export enterprises. However, smart domestic companies still have ways to cope.

Flexible production When customers place "urgent orders, short orders, and small orders", how to ensure the delivery time is a very important issue. The secret weapon of Xiamen Jintang Rubber & Plastic Co., Ltd. is "flexible production".

“The opposite of flexible production is rigidity. A production line can only produce one product, but we are not.” said He Qingsong, general manager of Jintang.

"Flexibility lies in the fact that the quantity can be large or small, and the time can be loose or tight. Because I can disassemble several production processes, for example, make the rubber in advance, and when the order comes, I can take a part out and shape it at any time. ."

Flexible production is not just a matter for the workers who work in the assembly line on the production line, but also requires the cooperation of various departments. "The production management department should make plans in advance, and other departments should do a good job in all aspects of statistics, and timely feedback this figure to the production department. At the same time, we have many assessment indicators for the production department, and we require that the cost does not increase much. It can also guarantee the production of such orders with very small quantities and many batches."

The flexible production method of Jintang was not adopted after the financial crisis, as early as when the company proposed the concept of lean production. , this method of production emerged. "After all, the customer will not place a large order at the beginning. At the beginning, it may be a small order for you to try and see how well you do. Gradually, we paid more attention to this aspect, and this kind of production was formed. Ways."

In response to the situation that many export enterprises are unwilling to make small orders, Pei Kewei said: "Small orders are lower risks for enterprises, but they mean more investment in research and development, and are not conducive to product customization. And the requirements for refinement are also higher, but companies must do so if they want to export, even if it is a meager profit or even no profit. And all of this is for the success of tomorrow."

Guangzhou Jingtuo General Manager Li Pingshan expressed the need Consider the problem from the customer's standpoint: "We will treat the customer as ourselves and as a part of the enterprise, which allows us to stand from his point of view and help him avoid risks. For example, in 2009, the customer placed an order Less, but it requires more varieties and faster delivery. We adjust the production line so that one production line can produce 3-5 products of different standards and specifications at the same time. At the same time, we must build a team for the product line, the market is not good At this time, many customers will definitely want to get new products, because new products can help them create more profitable products, and it is also very good to be able to properly sell new products to old customers at this time.”

Appropriate amount of inventory is frequently used In the case of small orders, moderate inventory is also a good way. Guangzhou Jingtuo will make some inventory preparations for customers with good credit, so that when customers want to place an order, it may take 5 or 6 days for delivery before, but now it can be delivered in 2 or 3 days.

Inventory sales have also always been a feature of Yao Ming's webbing. According to Yao Ming, chairman of the company, sufficient inventory means that customers can "get it right away". During this financial crisis, this advantage of Yao Ming's webbing has been brought into full play. Small packaging and boutique packaging in many large supermarkets in the United States and Europe Almost all webbing products are produced by this company.

A secret for coping with rising costs

During the financial crisis, many companies had increased labor costs due to tight capital chains, which led to rising corporate costs. At this time, saving has become a secret to dealing with rising costs.

Xiamen Jintang has made adjustments in management and proposed the "Three-One Campaign", that is, one person can save one dollar a day. This requires all employees, including production lines, offices and senior executives, to think about saving every moment of every day, and to spend small money to do big things.

“We also often organize our executives to reflect on how we have improved during this process. In fact, we also had review meetings before, but it was not so urgent. Now the orders from old customers are reduced and the staff has surplus labor, then What should I do? There may be many companies that won't go to review when they are prosperous, thinking that I can't finish the order, why should I do the service, and his profit is already high, so he won't go Focus on cost savings." He Qingsong was deeply touched by this.

Guangzhou Jingtuo has strengthened its quality management, requiring each production worker to make a good product at one time. Because if a product needs to be reworked, it will lead to an increase in cost, but if you can control the finished product and ensure the quality, it will save costs.

At the forum, many exporter representatives had wonderful remarks. Zhao Yong, general manager of Shettlee, said: "What we are worried about is not the collapse in the cold winter, but whether the company has the strength to stand when the spring is really blooming. When you get up, do you still have the ability to run faster?” And Yao Ming, chairman of Yao Ming Ribbon, summed up his feelings about the crisis in a poem: “A thousand sails pass by the side of a sinking boat, and a thousand trees spring in front of a sick tree.” Various signs indicate that , the coldest days are over, as long as they practice their internal skills, domestic export enterprises can wait until the arrival of spring.

To learn more about ways to deal with shrinking markets and tap into emerging markets, enter ceconline.com/mag/105.

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