Foreign trade salesmen will contact with all kinds of customers every day. There are many different things in the world.
Customers from all over the world are different.
Some customers are of high quality, while others make people speechless.
What I want to share today is very sad, because I proposed that the freight of the sample should be paid by the customer, which led the customer to attack me personally.
Such a thing is really impolite.
Although doing foreign trade for many years, there are very few customers who openly carry out personal attacks and at most secretly scold them in their hearts. . .
In particular, a few hundred dollars of sample freight can reflect such a strong reaction, which is quite speechless.
Listen to me slowly.
Samples will be requested immediately after the first reply.
It can be said that this customer has the typical characteristic of an insincere customer: in the first letter of reply, he directly asked for samples.
The day after I sent the letter, I received a reply from customer j:
We are very interested. If you want to test your product, can you provide the price and samples?
Please send samples to the following address: xxx For this kind of customers who don’t know anything and ask for samples directly without communication, I often don’t promise directly.
In order to test the sincerity of the customer, I decided to delay first and arouse more interest of the customer.
Therefore, the reply email told the customer that there are only regular sizes at present, and the size he wants is not available. At the same time, the display materials of the products will be sent to the customers.
The customer’s immediate reply was also quite normal. I can see that it was not entirely for collecting samples, but at last I still repeated the sample paragraph of the previous email:
What is the compressive strength of the product? We need to test the thickest product you have, the size must be complete, not small samples. Please send samples to the following address: xxx
By the end of this letter, I think it is time to put forward the sample fee.
The cost of small samples is low, there is no need to charge, but the whole product must be charged normally and the freight should be paid by oneself.
So I wrote to explain this principle, accounting for freight and product costs, totaling about $900.
The customer did give up immediately: please provide the small sample of the largest size you have, even if it is 20cm*20cm.
I will continue to elaborate: small samples can be provided free of charge and the freight will be paid for. Please provide the paid account number or you can pay us in advance, totaling $64.
I can anticipate the following conflicts and the usual rhetoric of such clients.
Conflict Sure enough, the customer gave the most repugnant reason:
It is inconceivable for us to pay you 64 dollars. Usually, all companies that want to do business with us will send us samples from all over the world free of charge.
The wonderful thing is:
Then, the customer has been sending a word from the superior C who has been sending a copy, without title or title. Although it was sent to J, the customer wrote my email in the recipient column, copying J:
Please do not waste time with this supplier.
In this way, it is very annoying.
It seems that this C thinks that I should rush to send the sample as soon as I receive the email for the first time, instead of confirming it back and forth for so many times. Even if he asked for the whole product for the first time.
I also not to be outdone:
I am surprised to hear that you think we are wasting time. I hope this is a misunderstanding.
Yes, we are suppliers and are very happy to cooperate with you. Therefore, we agree to provide free samples, only you need to pay the courier fee in advance, but we will deduct the fee from the order, although this is the fee charged by the courier company, not us. This is our sincerity to cooperate.
Because we believe that it is worthwhile to pay some for a new business opportunity and cooperation. I believe your thoughts are the same, right?
You are also a supplier. We believe you know that the cost of producing samples is higher than that of large sizes, because we need a lot of time and workers to cut them into small pieces.
This is our usual practice for real customers. For our other customers, they take the initiative to pay for samples and express delivery.
What do you think of such sincerity?
Customer J replied and directly requested to send samples to save time and expense, and once again gave the objectionable reason:
Please send the samples to us according to my previous mail request, which can save a lot of express delivery costs! Usually, all companies send us samples free of charge from all over the world, hoping to do business with us.
At this time I really don’t want to take a reason him anymore.
However, this customer is the first batch of customers that I met at the beginning of my business to ask for samples. I am also idle, so it is better to try again.
In this reply, I lowered my profile as a salesman and patiently explained:
We are expanding the international market. We send samples 2-3 times a day. This is a relatively large cost for us.
Considering our sincere communication, I have applied to the company for free samples and to deduct the express fee from our first order. As I told you before, other customers have to pay for these two items.
My boss agreed, because you are a real customer. Now I need your help to solve this problem.
Customer C sent a very impolite email and wrote it to J in South African, again placing me in the receiving column instead of the cc column:
These people are wasting your time with me. Ignore him!
I suspect that he is an agent rather than a manufacturer, so he has no money to send samples. Please focus on more important suppliers. Maybe he understands South African …
Ha ha da. . .
Then, exotic flower J sent an e-mail immediately, believing that the cost was not high. We sent it to save money and ordered us to send samples:
Please mail the samples to save the express fee. The mailing cost is almost zero and the sample package is very small.
Please POST the samples to save on courier cost ！ Posting will cost next to nothing and the sample package are small.
Then send an email again, continue to command:
We are one of the largest companies in South Africa, selling 20 containers every year!
If you want to become so unprofessional, it is your problem. Simply send us the samples and save all the expenses! !
I don’t need to be lectured by you! !
I hope someone in your company can be more professional.
We are one of the leading companies in the sales and distribution in South Africa .
Annually we use/sell over 20 containers！
If you want to be so unprofessional it is your problem by simply just posting the samples to us not sending them by courier and saving all the cost! !
I don’t need to be lectured by you ! ! !
Hopefully there is someone at your company that would be more professional.
What? ?
Where did he get the confidence to take it for granted that we should provide him with samples free of charge? I begged him to cooperate? No one wants my product, rotten street?
Also, it is strange that he imports so much every year. How do you think I don’t want money to send it directly to him?
The more he is so impolite, the more I have to charge!
Therefore, my reply is equally impolite, but it is not very offensive either:
As I said, sending the sample to you requires 64 dollars, which is the cost of TNT Express, not our company. We have a good cooperative relationship with them and they give us a good discount.
But the samples we provide are free. It’s just that you should pay for express delivery, just like all our other customers. This is a normal requirement, what do you think?
ou can check your local TNT express or DHL express. If the price is cheaper, you can book the express and ask their Chinese agents to take samples from our address.
Therefore, mailing or express delivery is not free. Is there any misunderstanding?
You are one of the major sales and distribution companies. We are the main manufacturer. This will be a good opportunity for cooperation.
As you said, “I don’t need to be lectured by you! ！” So do we.
You can check our e-mail, I just ask you to pay for the express delivery, then you say we are wasting time, we have no money, we are not a manufacturer, and so on, we will not explain.
Trust is mutual, cooperation is mutual, right?
We show our sincerity and hope you can show yours.
If you agree, we hope that all the misunderstanding in the past.
I have decided that this is the last time to speak well. if you still persist in your obstinacy and if that Mr c continues to make rude remarks, I will definitely scold you back!
Customer compromise and follow-up After this email, the customer also seemed to realize his rudeness and sent a compromise email, arranging the courier he found to pick up the item and requesting the address information.
Please send you address in China where we can collect the samples.
Confirm the Sample size.
We want enough samples for a proper test.
After further communication, we sent the past 10 samples.
A few days later, the samples were received, and then the routine: disappear, disappear again, continue to disappear, disappear all the time. . .
After receiving the samples, I followed up several times and the customer did not reply a word until about one day after three months, telling me that the products are not suitable for their market at present:
Your product is not going to work for us at this stage. I will be contact with you if there is a need in future.
I knew that such customers care about this freight because they have no sincerity or interest.
If he is sincere and really interested, how can he put forward such harsh requirements?
Later, after the customer said this sentence, he never replied to emails or WhatsApp messages.
ou have no idea why he refused the product or why he wanted the sample so urgently, but he abandoned it after receiving it.
Even the self-paid samples are not taken seriously. If I send the $900 products free of charge in the first place, I estimate that customer C will say:
Oh, look, his products must be very rubbish, otherwise why can’t you wait to send such expensive things for free? ?
And will certainly use South African language, deliberately let me see!
Now meet this kind of customer, basically when customer c first appeared, I just ignored it directly, and I didn’t have time and energy to spend on unworthy customers.
Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think?
How do you analyze this customer’s psychology?
hat’s it.
If you have a new promotion in your foreign trade work because of my articles, remember to come back and share the good news with me ~ ~ Welcome to leave a message, I will reply in time.
Finally, I wish you, who want to do foreign trade, the fastest speed to win your first bucket of gold in foreign trade!
Original Artical，Author：China Trade Agent，if repost，please give references ：https://offers-bg.com/customer-attacked-me-personally/
