In cross-border e-commerce B2B business, due to various reasons, customers may ignore the replies of salespersons. In this case, the instinctive reaction of many salespersons is to “follow up”. However, before following up with customers, salespersons should first analyze “Why did the customer not contact me?” and conduct targeted follow-up. If you blindly follow up without analyzing the reasons, you may not achieve the expected results. Customers’ non-reply can be divided into three situations: no reply before quotation, no reply after quotation, and no reply after transaction. Each situation may have several different reasons.
(i) No reply before quotation
In this case, after a customer sends an inquiry to a salesperson, the salesperson communicates with the customer, but before the quotation, the customer suddenly does not reply. At this time, the reasons for the customer’s non-reply may be as follows.
(1) The customer is busy at work and has no time to take care of this matter.
(2) The customer is on vacation.
(3) The customer is just asking a simple question, in case of follow-up needs.
(4) Other companies have taken the lead.
(II) No reply after quotation
This situation is that after the salesperson quotes the customer, the customer no longer replies. There may be four reasons why the customer does not reply at this time.
(1) The customer thinks the price is high and is thinking.
(2) The customer thinks the price is high and gives up the deal
(3) The customer is comparing suppliers.
(4) The customer submitted the quotation to the superior and is waiting for approval
(III) No reply after the transaction
Maintaining a good relationship with old customers is often the top priority of a company, especially a company that produces repeatable and consumable products. Therefore, tracking old customers is very important. For the purpose of after-sales service or promoting the transaction of new orders, salespeople need to track old customers in a timely manner. The reasons why old customers do not reply after the transaction may be as follows.
(1) The customer no longer needs similar products for a long time
(2) The customer does not recognize the quality of the company’s products.