To change from passive to active, first of all, the salesperson must be familiar with his own products and his own factory. When quoting, do not mechanically convey the intention of the superior manager and easily say “no” to the customer. When doing “guidance”, pay attention to the following points:
1. “Low price” is OK, but it is mostly tied to “large quantity”, “large advance payment”, “timely and safe balance”, “long delivery period” and other conditions. Note, why is “long delivery period” a convenient condition? Because it can be arranged calmly to fill the production gap. In addition, you can choose to deliver when the freight is lower, or combine the goods on the way, which greatly saves costs.
2. Take the initiative to give suggestions to customers, such as the adjustment suggestions for parts and processing steps mentioned above. Many times, customers are most concerned about price. On the premise that the quality can be accepted by the customer’s market, if the salesperson can take the initiative to provide process alternatives to reduce prices, customers are often very welcome.
3. Communicate more with customers to understand their true thoughts. For example, when the customer’s counter-offer is too low, find out the reason from the side, whether the customer does not understand the market and does not know how to calculate, or your competitors maliciously reduce prices to disrupt the market. So as to deal with it in a targeted manner.
4. Communicate more with the factory’s production department to explore the possibility of alternative adjustments in terms of process according to different quality requirements. Find more spare parts supply channels and strive to reduce costs. Try to understand the factory’s production and financial status as much as possible, which not only cooperates with production and financial management, but also promotes the possibility of closing deals with low-price customers.
The difference is obvious at a glance: novices simply pass on messages, while good salesmen use their brains to design solutions for reference by customers and factories to promote transactions.
Finally, the more business intelligence is collected, the better. There was a failed case: a well-known big buyer inquired, but the novice salesman did not know who the other party was. The superior manager did not pay enough attention to the details because he did not know the details and treated it as an ordinary customer inquiry. As a result, he missed the opportunity to enter the supply system of this big buyer because he was greedy for a little profit. It should be noted that it is very valuable to be able to enter the supplier system of international big buyers. Once you have a good transaction record with them, the future will be much smoother. And these big buyers do not easily change suppliers. Many times, they only send out inquiries occasionally when they are in a hurry to replenish stocks. In this sense, if you encounter such a good opportunity, you must do it even if it is at a break-even point, sacrificing a little profit, just as “paying the way”.
In short, the skills of foreign trade quotation are the same as fishing: you can neither just throw bait in vain nor throw an empty hook coldly.
Once the price is confirmed, the next step is to organize the source of goods for transportation. The procurement or production of the source of goods is no different from ordinary domestic trade. Just pay attention that the product must comply with the legal and regulatory requirements and industry standards of the importing market. For products that have never been exported, it is best to let the customer confirm the sample. If necessary, issue an inspection report signed by both parties as a quality basis for future large-scale shipments.
As we said before, foreign trade is a documentary transaction. In this sense, accurately preparing documents is even more important than the goods themselves, and is often the key factor in whether the payment can be successfully recovered.
There are many types of foreign trade documents, some of which are prepared by traders themselves, and some are issued by government agencies and third-party social institutions or service providers. Preparing documents requires meticulousness and patience, and more importantly, familiarity with international trade practices and industry knowledge. Therefore, the foreign trade industry has also specially derived the position of document clerk. But first of all, it should be the basic skills of a salesperson.