Having basic knowledge and literacy is only the foundation for becoming an excellent cross-border e-commerce B2B salesperson. How to communicate effectively with customers through various channels and then obtain more orders is the main content of the work of cross-border e-commerce B2B salesperson. In cross-border e-commerce B2B business, the carrier for communicating with customers is foreign trade inquiries. In foreign trade, the so-called inquiry (also called inquiry) is an inquiry made by the buyer or seller to the other party about the goods to be purchased or sold. Foreign trade negotiations often go through the links of “inquiry, offer, counter-offer, and acceptance” to finally reach a deal.
In cross-border e-commerce B2B companies with clear division of labor, inquiries are usually obtained through the preliminary work of operators, and the specific inquiry communication is the responsibility of the salesperson. A qualified salesperson must not only know how to check and reply to these inquiries, but also understand the rules for sending and receiving inquiries on the platform, judge the competitiveness of the inquiring sellers, and then determine the counter-offer principles. There are many cross-border e-commerce B2B platforms in the world. In China, Alibaba International Station, Made-in-China.com and Global Sources.com are well-known, while abroad there are TradeIndia, Tradekey, etc. The design of the inquiry system of different B2B platforms is different, but there are also many similarities. This chapter first summarizes the commonalities and characteristics of the world’s mainstream cross-border e-commerce B2B inquiry systems, and summarizes the characteristics of general inquiry systems. Then, taking the inquiry system of Alibaba International Station as an example, it describes the functions and operating essentials of its related sections. Since the inquiry system of Alibaba International Station is well-designed and fully functional, it is at the leading level among the global cross-border e-commerce B2B platforms. Therefore, once you have mastered the inquiry system of Alibaba International Station, it will be relatively simple to operate the inquiry systems of other platforms.