99% of foreign trade newcomers are following the “Order Death Book”

Foreign trade seems simple, but in fact it is extremely complicated. It is not as easy as some new people think.

In other words, you can string up the whole foreign trade process with a few simple paragraphs or a hand drawing to form the overall framework of the foreign trade business, but you can hardly finish or learn all the details of all links in very little time, and each link in foreign trade is very important, closely linked and linked.

Just like some people ask me: how does lingying ( linkedin ) play? How does Google develop its customers? Believe me, it’s really not that I don’t want to spend a few minutes telling you, but that I don’t have so much free time to explain to you one by one, because your problems will go on endlessly, one by one.

For example, I told you LinkedIn is one of the SNS battlefields. You need to improve information, add contacts, publish daily updates, publish articles, publish company pages, publish product pages and other ways to actively or passively promote products, companies or create personal IP to realize independent business.

See, this is part of the big framework, and after I’ve said this, you still look stupid and don’t know what to do, because every part is very complicated and has operation skills. Take the perfect data as an example, the water is deep.

The big framework is easy to say, but the details are difficult to explain or teach you in a few words. If you don’t talk about it for half a day or a day, you can get started. That’s just wishful thinking.

Many disciples read Mike’s LinkedIn course and said that they had heard other people’s LinkedIn course before. It was very simple. Now they feel very complicated and difficult after listening to the teacher’s LinkedIn course. However, the effect is very remarkable after it is earnestly implemented. “Why, because details determine success or failure” (Vicky’s 40 million list is from LinkedIn); The writing is too simple, the detailed description or the difference of your understanding may lead to “deviation” of your work, and the error of details is enough to make you miss the order.
The writing is too complicated, you look dizzy and complain hard to understand.

So most of the time, even when Mike was giving lectures in VIP classes, every detail was explained with case studies. I even uploaded a large number of cases in QQ group files and wrote my own Chinese analysis and English assist emails.

In my opinion, theoretical and practical cases are much easier for learners to understand.
Apart from foreign trade, most of the time, when we look at a thing too simply, it is actually very difficult to get to the details comprehensively and accurately. Unexpected things often occur and we are caught off guard.

As mentioned above, Mike is also very difficult to show all the details of foreign trade in one or two articles. So today, Mike will mention some relatively high probability and common problems for foreign trade newcomers to avoid mistakes:

01. No deposit received, stock up first Many companies do not pay attention to this point, and the newcomers are inexperienced. As soon as the customers rush, they panic and rush to ask the factory to schedule production, which results in the customers disappearing or canceling the orders and overstocking the warehouse.

For example, customers (both new and old customers) often request to schedule production, and the deposit will be called back to you in the next few days. Besides, the actual production schedule is subject to the payment of the goods. Do you still remember the hidden scam behind the payment slip Mike shared earlier? This is a trick commonly used by swindlers to cheat Xiao Bai. Foreign trade newcomers and foreign trade veterans have been cheated.

At this time, your attitude towards the customer should be: it is no use worrying any more, you will not scatter eagles until you see rabbits.

If you are a new customer, you can directly show your attitude.

If it is an old customer, try to be tactful, such as casually saying:

We have already made arrangements and will produce the goods for you as soon as possible. We also hope that you can call back the deposit as soon as possible so that we and the finance department can implement this order.

What’s more, if the goods are ordered, what should you do? I’m afraid I can only sell it at a low price at a stall. Of course, if there are other retailer customers who don’t care about customization or brand, finding such a next home is also the solution.

Perhaps some children’s shoes will think, the letter of credit also did not receive the deposit, why did they arrange the production? The normal letter of credit that we generally accept is an irrevocable 100% sight letter of credit. When a customer opens a letter of credit, he needs to put the amount of the payment into the account and cannot unilaterally request to cancel the letter of credit. The most important thing is that the L/C is bank credit (bank and bank), not commercial credit (merchant and merchant). As long as the documents are in conformity with each other, the issuing bank will certainly release the loan on time and there is no risk.

Apart from customer credit, in reality the risks of letters of credit mainly lie in the bank credit and the seller’s review of the review period of the draft letter of credit, so as to avoid the occurrence of discrepancies and become a means for customers to refuse goods, maliciously threaten to reduce prices, and even wait for the local customs to auction to take advantage.

02. Due to inertia, I did not know the so-called accessories, linked or logged on some websites.

Look at the topic everyone can understand, this is fishing mail. Mike has also done targeted sharing before. DHL official notification scam | scam in the name of DHL official notification and phishing email scam phishing email scam talk about this issue. If you don’t understand children’s shoes, please read these two articles carefully. Because many people (including the old business of foreign trade) have made such fatal mistakes, resulting in customers to deposit money into cheater’s account, and some even the balance of goods, being demanded compensation by the boss.

As a small staff member, I don’t think anyone wants to take such risks and responsibilities.

Once there was a salesman who was cheated twice by a swindler on a list to collect the customer’s payment.

The first time I was caught fishing, the swindler landed in his account, wrote a letter to the customer saying that he had changed the collection account number, then reissued the invoice (including the swindler’s collection account), asked the customer to make money, and then hacked the customer’s mailbox in the salesman’s mailbox, thus receiving no feedback from the customer. As a result, the first payment was easily taken away by the swindler.

After a long time, I found that the customer did not receive any news and called the customer. The customer said that the payment for goods had already been transferred to the designated account according to the requirements. At that time, I went back to the mailbox and found that I had been blacklisted. After three explanations, the customer finally believed them and agreed to pay the loan for the second time. As a result, the swindler came again and provided a second collection account (the swindler’s) in the same way. Therefore, by the time the same operation was carried out, the loan had once again entered the swindler’s pocket.

How to avoid this problem?

1. Don’t be too busy. If you encounter links or attachments, you should pay attention not only to the mail but also to the links and attachments received on many instant messaging apps.

2. Don’t use your corporate email to land things everywhere.

3. Change the mailbox password regularly and use complex password forms, such as: Zq3,%9Xc? kW 5 4. The computer is installed with antivirus software. Once you download the virus files, most of them will be prompted and deleted directly.

03. Pursue the number of customers blindly without paying attention to follow-up The question I like to ask when I see new people is how to develop customers. Where to develop customers? Few can smell the idea. Where are the ideas? How to follow up customers, how to negotiate customers, how to maintain customers.

Many people (including some old businesses) blindly pursue the number of customers. They search here and there every day and find a lot of potential customers. After two sentences, they can’t talk about it. Either they don’t follow up, or the customers don’t reply, or they fall apart.

Let me solemnly tell you that no one can win a customer with only one or two emails. If there is, it is your luck and the customer is too big. Mike once shared similar things, such as the strange circle of customers: in the wind and rain, I am waiting for you here. for example, when customers say No to you, don’t give up don’t quit when you customer say no.

Remember this sentence, 80% of the customers come from follow-up. if you have more target customers, there is no point in not placing orders.

So, first of all, your focus is to maintain old customers, second is to follow up on talking about customers, and last is to search for new customers.

Why do you want to search for new customers? Mike said earlier that in order to make up for the loss of old customers, this is an essential job, because no matter how well you do it, there will be a loss of customers.

04. Talk about price and nothing else Most foreign trade newcomers are busy searching for the secrets of customers on the internet, the unique skills of searching customers, and the messy things of customers such as sunflower treasures. They never want to learn product knowledge and know the industry situation first. This is a common fault of foreign trade people and must be cured.

If you don’t know the product, how can you negotiate with the customer? Do you discuss the price from beginning to end? In the truth behind the previously shared separation from products, empty talk about prices, deathless and unreliable price differentials, Mike mentioned that prices are not the only way for you to take orders. thinking of winning competitors, customers and orders by price war alone is not a long-term solution. Mike also made it clear what we can do besides price war. he hoped that these people would take a closer look, learn the key points and eradicate their own shortcomings.

Some people say that the customer is always talking about price, if nothing else, what should we do? Again, don’t be a robot. You can talk to customers as they say, and do what the boss tells you to do. You must have your own thinking ability, learn to think and ask questions independently, and learn to guide in negotiations. For example, how to get rid of the price entanglement of customers? Win In Price Negotiation specifically elaborated how to avoid this deadlock.

Of course, in such a return, the response rate jumped by 50% and the quotation was too light to die. What was wrong was also mentioned. In the early stage of negotiations, preparations should be made so as to avoid the deadlock of price talks and the embarrassment of the disappearance of customers.

05. Too cowardly, willing to be enslaved Many foreign trade people lack guidance and professionalism in the negotiation. They can’t talk about anything except price. When they meet with problems, they find the boss. When customers get angry, they “I’m sorry,” “Eldest Brother, I’m wrong, I’ll change later” or it’s the fault of the express company/freight forwarder, etc.

In fact, the more you do this, the more angry your customers become and the more they despise you. In the previous negotiation of sharing fear and trembling, the muddled negotiation in fear and order missing in fusion mentioned that one should not be like a chicken that sees an eagle in the negotiation, shaking, supercilious and talking with facts.

Just like in negotiations, it is not said that you are blindly courting. Many problems are not caused by you at all. Don’t panic and don’t turn problems that are not problems or problems of others into your own problems. Also do not blindly shirk responsibility, but to make targeted proposals to help customers solve the immediate problem. Only in this way can we communicate effectively and continuously and deliver value.

Why?

Mike teaches everyone a psychological knowledge today. When you communicate with others, the best way to win their approval is to change your mind and become him. Imagine what you want most at this time, and you will be suddenly enlightened.

In case of a problem, what the other party wants is not an excuse, not your Sorry or we are having a meeting to discuss, but to come up with a substantive solution to solve the problem. You just say that Bibi is saying sorry for one day. I was wrong. Is it meaningful to me who cannot solve the problem?
06. Details shall be strictly marked Many business personnel do not have the habit of marking the validity period of quotation when making quotation to foreign customers through simple email or sending detailed documents, thus resulting in quite a lot of risks in the later period.

Before, in the things you must do before placing an order, you also said in the deals that due to your own mistakes, the order was finalized in time, and changes in small details at a later stage may lead to loss or failure in this order.

In particular, domestic environmental protection problems and the recent instability of exchange rate will affect our quotation and the operating cost of later orders, so we must set aside some operating space. (For example, the validity period of the quotation, the delivery date and the exchange rate when calculating the price, etc.) In addition to the validity period of the quotation, the deviation and floating space of the specifications should also be marked. For example, the color difference of the fabric, you must mark the floating range, otherwise there is really a problem. When faced with a claim, you are really “dumb eating rhizoma coptidis, and you cannot say how bitter you are”.

Some salesmen think that the deviation of some products is a common problem in this industry, and it is not necessary to bring it up or mark it out at all. They finally delivered the goods and were bitten by the customers, but they can only pay for it, and this is all done by themselves!

Details should be thoroughly understood and strict checks should be made. Otherwise, if you accept the order, you may suffer losses.

07. Blind quotation, no investigation, no plan Many business personnel did not think about and investigate after receiving inquiries from foreign customers, and replied with the same template, resulting in customers disappearing after receiving the replies. Before, when the price was quoted, it was said that if you don’t know where and why you are wrong, you may be passed by the customer in the first step and lose the entry ticket for negotiation.

Different types of customers have different cost-benefit chains and face different customer groups and product application fields. If you don’t know these, you’ll have to make a hasty quotation, which is really a chance.

Especially when customers are especially familiar with and specialized in this industry, then you are basically out of business.

This is also why Mike listed customer investigation and analysis as a series of courses separately, and repeatedly stressed to the trainees that background investigation and analysis must be conducted for each customer, because knowing the enemy and know yourself is better than those unprepared novice businesses.

In business negotiations, only when you put your words right and get to the point can you push forward the business instead of dragging it down.