Marketing: "fall in love" with customers

The advantage of low prices made in China is gradually lost. How will Chinese suppliers seek survival and development? How to formulate effective promotion strategies? How to make orders profitable, and where is the future development direction of export enterprises? Prosperity ( Ms. Ran Lingyan, General Manager of Hong Kong) International Trade Co., Ltd., shared her insights on how to deal with changes in foreign trade at the "Zhisheng Future Export Forum" Zhongshan Station.

Ms. Ran has seven years of experience in front-line foreign trade business development and is familiar with buyers from different regions It can attract the attention of buyers in the shortest time. In 2009, I used the free platform of Global Sources to get an order of 420,000 US dollars.

Flexibility is the biggest advantage of a trading company

Ran Lingyan: Our company It was established in 2009, but our company is different from traditional factories and traditional trading companies. The company has not invested a penny in the process of growth. My slogan is "No investment, there is a return".

In fact, I have always followed this path until I invested in Global Sources for the first time in 2011. The platform of Global Sources has allowed us to change from a trading company with less fixed orders to a trading company with stable orders. Many factories Ask us, as a trading company, are the products you make very complicated? I can tell him that our company can satisfy all buyers' imaginations about products, including price, quality, and delivery time, as long as you can provide When we come out, we can do it, which is the biggest feature of our company.

Our company's biggest advantage, for buyers, our advantage is that we can meet many of his requirements; for suppliers, our The advantage is that we can provide them with different orders and stable orders, because we have stable customers, and these stable customers purchase different types of products every year across industries. We only need to cooperate with these stable customers in our hands, Orders will also be very stable.

Our flexibility lies in the fact that we have a large number of suppliers behind us, and some buyers can only find suppliers who do online sales, while some people never use Internet sales. Yes, he doesn't need to sell himself online, he doesn't do e-commerce, his cost is lower. If you just compete on price, if the factory competes with us on price, I can say that you can't win. If you find a good quality factory, we can also Provide very good quality, of course, our service is generally better than the factory, this is our advantage.

Future market: South America is a blue ocean

In the future, at least next year, we will focus on the South American market. The market is mainly in Europe, Australia, a few countries in Africa, and the United States and Canada in North America. Now South America is still a vacancy for us, so the main focus in the future will be on developing the South American market, and I believe this market is very promising Potential.

According to the feedback from overseas friends, he said that South America is a rising emerging market. Take a product as an example to tell everyone that there are some common things in life, such as induction cooker, but in South America Many countries in the US market have never seen or used it. The current policies of these countries in South America will lead to a sharp increase in the order volume of the small household appliance industry.

Like Ecuador and surrounding countries, they have banned or gradually reduced the use of gas this year. Customers who have been purchasing gas appliances in those countries will gradually focus on products that use electricity for cooking, such as rice cooker, induction cooker and so on. The future of these orders is foreseeable, because we understand the policies of these countries and the current product status of these countries, and the market in South America is so large, the demand for these products must be very large, and we will put our energy into it. On the development of the South American market. These products are already commonplace in the Asian market, European and American markets, they are basically saturated, and the competition is huge, so we put them in places with little competition.

Changes in buyers: They are more concerned about prices

These buyers from all over the world are gradually moving in one direction in the near future, including in recent years, which is a very interesting phenomenon. In our previous impression, some buyers in these regions who are very particular about quality requirements are also very concerned about price. This is what is happening to buyers all over the world.

I would like to tell you about the buyers in the three regions I am most impressed with:

First, Europe. Europe is divided into Eastern and Western Europe. Western Europe has always given us the feeling of high quality and high requirements, and of course the price will be relatively high. The loyalty of these guests is very high. However, due to the economic crisis in recent years, some old capitalist countries in Western Europe have become more and more price-sensitive. They require good quality at the same time as the price is very cheap, and they do not like to hear the word "price increase". . He has no problem if you don't raise the price for two years, but once you mention the word "price increase" to him, he will complain immediately.

One of my clients is from Spain. When I came to see me in China last year, we agreed on a price, and we have been doing it for a year now. He came to the Canton Fair again in October this year. The first thing he said when he saw me was, "You must not raise prices." I wanted to ask him, is the economic crisis in your country getting better? He said, "No, the unemployment rate in our country has reached 27% this year, and if you raise prices, I can't do it."

In our view, these traditionally rich European countries are very price-sensitive , it is no longer the same as it used to be, making us feel that it will be very profitable to do with them.

America is the same, they are very price sensitive, they are very similar to Europe, they are also very demanding on quality.

Another changing market is Dubai. When I first entered the foreign trade industry in 2006, my impression from the oil countries in the Middle East was that I was very generous and spent a lot of money. He said to make a product, I said no, to open the mold, and to pay the mold fee of 200,000. He said there was no problem, and he immediately called for 200,000. Now he wants to open the mold, not to mention 200,000, he has to think about it for 20,000 yuan. This is some of the changes in these rich oil countries in the Middle East, but these countries are a little different from the European countries. Although they ask for lower prices, they ask for good quality and lower prices than those in Europe. , so it's more difficult to do.

Another change is part of the emerging African market. In our impression, African customers are all purchasing low-priced and low-quality products, but now there are some emerging markets in Africa, such as some customers in Tanzania, South Africa, North Africa, and northern Nigeria. These buyers from Africa will never be like Indian buyers are so calculating and bargaining, but these people are very forthright, but they don't care too much about price, and they also gradually put forward some requirements for quality.

Another change is India. People may think that Indians have not changed much. When Indian buyers are mentioned, they feel that they will cut the price by 50%, so that you don't want to talk to him anymore. But Indian buyers are less loyal than in previous years, and one of the things they enjoy most is the constant search for lower prices. In the past few years, there have been relatively stable prices, and now there is basically no one. They have the bill of lading in hand and are about to start looking for a new price.

I have a friend who told me something like this, he said, "We always buy from the factory with the lowest price." That's what they said, so the change in the Indian market is their price. The requirements are lower. Some products, such as gas stoves, were sold for $22 three years ago when the exchange rate was much higher than they are now, but now they sell for $17. Why is this happening? In many cases, it comes from the big buyers in India. They keep lowering the price, and our living space is getting smaller and smaller.

There is another region where I am deeply impressed by buyers from South America. Buyers in South America usually make bulk purchases in units of some large chambers of commerce. Buyers in South America have a difference, that is, they must have a tax number, which is different from other buyers, but they tend to buy in large quantities. In the second half of this year, we have three orders from South America, and their orders all exceeded 100,000 US dollars at a time. When he talks to you about these prices, he will not be able to lower the price. He is not particularly sensitive to the price, but basically all buyers want you to have ISO9000 or 2001 certificates in terms of quantity, pre-delivery time, and factory conditions. , that is, the requirements for the audit of the factory are relatively strict, but the order is large and not sensitive to price.

In general, we are in foreign trade, dealing with global buyers, and after so many years, the most consistent change for them is that they are more and more concerned about price. Of course, each region still retains a different style. .

Marketing: "Falling in Love" with Clients

I think selling yourself is the same as selling a company. You sell yourself successfully to your client, but also to the company. Of course, I may market myself and the company differently than traditionally. Traditional means, currently all we use is to advertise, increase exposure, throw money into it, the more money you spend, the higher your exposure. But the exposure your money gives you, I think, is just cold and emotionless.

You may have overlooked a phenomenon that we spend so much money just to increase the volume of business. But how does the company and the person that we ultimately want to do business with feel about us? These can't be made with money, you have to do it yourself. When promoting myself and our company, one of the most common methods I use is not to spend high prices on advertising, but to use my own behavior to influence customers. The relationship between you and the client is like falling in love in the end. If he thinks you are a reliable person, he will choose you as his other half, and it will be his life partner.

I am very well prepared for this work. When I receive an inquiry, I will study this company and this person very carefully. I will know who the competitors of this company with the same product are, and I will make a plan based on the current situation. Of course, the ultimate goal of this plan is to maximize his benefit rate. On the surface, it seems that I am not promoting myself, nor my company, nor my products, but in fact this person already has a good impression of me. This is how I use some humanized methods to move customers and make them follow me willingly. This is a marketing method with the least cost. Do you agree?

This method is actually tried and tested, because in the end we deal with people. No matter how much money you spend on the website or on the mobile media, he can't see who is behind the advertisement. deal with. Why do I only use one Global Sources website to promote my products? Because as long as you have an inquiry, I can be sure to convert the inquiry into an order, and I don't need a lot of inquiries. There are too many inquiries, and I can't handle them. Just give me two or three inquiries a day, and I can have enough time to research these inquiries, study what's behind them, and successfully sell myself and my company.

There is a Chinese saying, "Elephant has no shape, big sound likes sound", if you can make the guest feel that you are a good person without knowing it, but you don't let him feel that you are deliberately Selling your products and deliberately saying that you are good, so that he has a good impression of you, the customer must be loyal to you, which is much stronger than general sales. This is my sales pitch.

Service is very important, and getting an order is only the first step in a long march. When you get an order, some problems will inevitably occur during the production process and sales. If you can solve the problem in time for the customer in this process, the customer's impression of you will get better and better. My guests once said clearly why they gave up Wanhe and Vantage to find me. Wanhe and Vantage are leading companies in gas appliances.

He said, because this company is very big, every time I give him some questions, he can't give us back in time, he can't give me answers, and I can lose them over time. I choose you, and the most important thing is that every day I ask you questions, you can answer all of them within an hour, and sometimes you can even call me directly to solve them. That's why I chose you, you're very efficient and make me feel like I'm very valued. Making your client feel that you value him so he stays is another way of selling yourself.

Our aim is to attach importance to every buyer, no matter whether he is big or small, no matter which region he comes from, including developed regions, developing regions, and underdeveloped regions, he will respond to his requests and answer any questions. This is how we treat our guests. Not every salesman can do it, and not every factory can do it. That's why we don't need a lot of inquiries, but our customers are very stable.

There is a saying in China that the store is bullying the customer. It often becomes a seller's market. Once it becomes a seller's market, the seller becomes very arrogant. If you feel like that, as a normal person, I just want to stay away from you and don’t want to be close to you, so give your buyer a sense of wanting to be close to you.

Not every inquiry can be converted into an order. What we can do is to do our best to increase the probability that each inquiry will be converted into an order. We can only do this, but we cannot achieve 100% conversion.

I talked about researching the information behind the buyer. You have to research the buyer. You can search for some basic information through the search engine. This is the first step. These are the usual methods. Second, call to verify. Third, look for his fax number. Regular companies generally have fax numbers. It's basic, but it's far from enough. The next step is to spend money, because there are some institutions abroad, he will record the credit records of some companies and individuals, including the social circles of some people, who he is in contact with, or which companies he has contacted and made deals with However, such information requires a certain amount of money to buy. Another point is to study his market, what is the retail price of your product in his market. And you have to be able to calculate, from the retail price to the customs, there are usually several passes through the stage. According to my experience, there are usually three passes, and each pass will add 30% of the profit. Of course, every country will be different, basically this is the rule.

If you can understand all these situations, and at the same time understand your competitors, compare horizontally, and know how much your products can achieve at the lowest price, how much the average price, and how much the high-end products can achieve among the peers, Knowing where customers generally buy from, and knowing all the information, you can make a plan for the customer. A good salesman must be a planner. These are some of the general methods I currently use.

It is very simple to take the initiative to find customers. Before we did a free platform, I found customers all by myself. You can log on to some websites, such as www.tradinglot.com. All the inquiries on this platform are free. You can find the phone number and purchasing information of the customers, and then call them one by one. Of course, telemarketing requires skill, especially for foreigners. I have a course devoted to this, and it takes three hours to teach it. All I can say is that it is the easiest way to take the initiative to find customers. The paid platform we are doing now is very helpful to us, at least customers can find us. But you have to remember that it is much more expensive to actively find customers than to find you. If you really want to take the initiative to find a customer, I remind you that you must not let this customer think that you are a person born for orders. If he feels this way, he will have a certain awareness of prevention against you.