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Patience is the most important thing in doing foreign trade

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mmmaweiyuan
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Patience is the most important thing in doing foreign trade

Post by mmmaweiyuan » Wed, 10 Apr 2019 5:40 pm

I am most afraid of impatience in doing foreign trade. Recently, my experience has made me deeply realize this point.

In June, I received an inquiry from a customer who said that he was very interested in our products. This is a Mexican customer. I've heard people say that Latin American customers are procrastinating. This time I met, but at first I didn't care. To facilitate communication, I added the Skype of that customer. Because of jet lag, I usually wake up in the morning and chat with each other on skype.

At first, he asked me what the price was, and I quoted him the price. He was not satisfied with the price and asked for a reduction. I thought that if the order is large, we might as well offer more discounts. I asked him how much he would like to buy. He said that only one hundred. No way, it's hard for me to give him a big discount for such a small quantity. I only agree to reduce the price by 0.5%. Who knows, he never responded to me since then. I leave messages to him on Skype every day, and I never get a reply.

I guessed that either my price scared him off or Latin American clients were procrastinating, as rumored. Half a month later, I almost decided to give up. Who knows that customer suddenly sent an e-mail saying that he had gone on business for half a month before and forgot to reply to me on Skype for a moment, hoping I could understand. Unexpectedly, this customer would also send me a special email to explain the situation. I was very touched at that time, thinking that such a close customer must not miss. I responded to an email asking him what he thought about my offer and the client said he wanted to lower it a little more. I think since the other side is so sincere, and the manager discussed, decided to reduce by another 0.5%. This time the customer readily promised to close the deal!

Sometimes, when you are about to despair, hope quietly comes to you. Therefore, we should be patient in doing foreign trade and not give up easily. Like my experience, the customer did not respond to me in time. I waited for half a month and wanted to give up. Fortunately, the customer contacted me on his own initiative. But not all customers will be so good, not every time can be so good luck, more often, you have to take the initiative to follow up customers regularly.

mmmaweiyuan
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Joined: Thu, 21 Mar 2019 3:16 pm

Re: Patience is the most important thing in doing foreign trade

Post by mmmaweiyuan » Thu, 11 Apr 2019 6:04 pm

A few years ago, I had a Taiwanese friend who owned a shoe factory; a Mexican customer ordered him a 40-tin cabinet, calf leather PLAIN PUMP (plain high heels); because the Mexican guest had told him before that he would also buy some other leather shoes. He was asked to send some samples of leather for customers to choose, then confirm the material before proofing; the guests did not say to hide the samples in containers; my friend cut a large piece of raw materials and the effect of polishing, such as CRAZY HORSE, ACTION LEATHER, SHEEPSKIN, BUCKSKIN, COWHIDE and so on, and put them in a paper. In the case, the name of the company and the name of the guest are also written on the outside case. After going out with the container, the guest was told that the box was at the end of the container. The 40 blow cabinet guest paid a 30% deposit beforehand. When we arrived in West Brother, the guest suddenly called to say that something terrible happened, and just found out to the Customs, we had to deal with the Customs before we went to the bank to redeem the bill; the guest complained that he had to send a few pieces of leather samples and why he had to get so many containers.. When my friend was in such a hurry, the guest called again and said that it would cost $5000 to fix it, otherwise the Customs would find that they were smuggling animal skins. Anti-Animal Protection Act and so on. Not only will the guest company be revoked by the Mexican government, but also my friend's company will be blacklisted and so on. The guest said, "For the sake of our future business, I really want this batch of goods. I'll help you out with a thousand dollars. You can remit $4000 to the bank as soon as possible, and I'll pay the bill again." In fact, I should be alert at this time. But my friend didn't think so much about it, and said that if the guest didn't pay for him, he would remit pay $5000, and thanked the guest very much for inviting him to do it anyway. I didn't go to the bank to pay the bill.



As a matter of fact, the guests had been well with the Mexican Customs officers. When the loan cabinet arrived in Mexico, the others did not look at it, so they checked the case of leather. Then the Customs decided that it was smuggling animal fur and forfeited it and auctioned it. The Mexican guest and my friend remitted $4,000 to buy the cabinet from the customs. That's what happened. Don't tell me if you want to, but consider yourself unlucky. Maybe this guest just started to do business with you and didn't want to cheat your money at all, but because you created a "discrepancy" in the actual operation process, giving him the opportunity to cheat money, let him knock you - pen.

mmmaweiyuan
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Joined: Thu, 21 Mar 2019 3:16 pm

Re: Patience is the most important thing in doing foreign trade

Post by mmmaweiyuan » Thu, 16 May 2019 4:25 pm

1) Salesman phase

This stage is usually the first few years of graduation, that is, the first few years of entering the foreign trade industry.

Almost all successful foreign traders start from salesmen. They can hardly become successful foreign traders without the stage of foreign trade salesmen and the most basic level of exploration and experience.

In the salesman stage, I think the most critical strategy is: through continuous learning, improve their business skills, and explore the corresponding industries, confirm whether the industry is suitable for long-term engagement (including later self-employment), and test whether they are suitable for the foreign trade industry, and how much performance they can create.

To put it bluntly, it's 1) learning to improve oneself, 2) groping for an industry suitable for one's long-term career, 3) testing whether one can become a successful foreign trader.

In the salesman stage, learning to improve oneself is very important, because many aspects of oneself are not stereotyped (including personality, way of thinking). Of course, this stage is to recommend that you learn rice lessons, which is the only correct way of learning (unfortunately, when I graduated, there was no rice lessons).

It is also very important to explore the industry suitable for your long-term career. Many people are engaged in an industry for many years, and then re-choose a new industry, in fact, this wastes a lot of time and resources. It's better to choose the industry that you want to be engaged in all your life at the salesman stage, so that the accumulation of resources is very efficient.

I just graduated from the furniture industry, but did 4-5 years to find bottlenecks, and then changed to the automotive supplies industry, which wasted 4-5 years, and in the salesman stage to find the opposite direction of the people, it is 4-5 years more than I accumulated in the industry.

In the salesman stage, if you encounter inappropriate industries, you must resolutely change lines, do not entanglement. Lest sunk costs get higher and higher.

Of course, the last point is to test whether you are suitable for foreign trade.

If you have worked for several years and your performance is still at the bottom of the company, you should ask yourself if you are really a foreign trade talent. If not, it's also a success to find a gifted job as soon as possible.

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