1. Looking for customers
1. Exhibitions
Canton Fair, China Fair, Japan Exhibition, Hong Kong Exhibition, Indonesia Exhibition, etc. Exhibitions are a time when foreign trade traffic is highly concentrated. Generally, people attending the exhibition are peers, or customers who have demand for related types of products or have purchase intentions. For your peers, you can learn from their methods and experiences in selling products; for your customers, you can take the opportunity to sell your products to them. Therefore, participating in exhibitions is a two-fold benefit for foreign traders. But we must also learn to identify ourselves. We do not have to participate in all types of exhibitions, we only need to participate in exhibitions that are similar to our product types.
Participating in exhibitions is also a technical job. If you do it well, you can gain both fame and fortune. If you do it poorly, you will fall short. Therefore, we still need to find the right way to obtain our target customers. So what can we do to maximize the role and effect of exhibitions?
①Before participating in the exhibition
Before participating in the exhibition, we should design our exhibition booth, including space design and booth placement. A sufficiently creative design can attract more visitors. Many customers come to consult. When the flow of people is large enough, then there are no target customers to worry about ~
Before participating in the exhibition, we can also send exhibition invitations to our potential customers or old customers and invite them to participate. exhibition. In this way, we can maintain good contact with our customers and promote our products, so why not do it.
② During the exhibition
During the exhibition, you must be very energetic to face the customers who come to consult. Your enthusiastic and full attitude will always be more infective to customers. For customers participating in the exhibition, when the products are concentrated enough, whoever has a good service attitude may place an order at that store, so the service attitude is also the magic weapon for us to win customers.
Of course, when customers come to inquire about our products, good product descriptions are also essential if we want to fully display our products.
③After participating in the exhibition
After participating in the exhibition, we also need to follow up with customers, conduct return visits in a planned manner, and ask customers about their purchase intentions, or you can also ask customers about this. Opinions and suggestions on products to be exhibited at the exhibition, etc.
2. Social software
Such as Facebook, Skype, Linkedin, etc. Mainly through the search function, you can find your target customers. You can search the company name with Google to find the person, or you can directly search the product name to find the person in charge of the relevant company, and you can browse his resume and other detailed information.
Take Facebook as an example, find customers through Facebook:
Just like Chinese people play WeChat, foreigners also play Facebook, and many trading companies are also looking for foreigners on it; for factory foreign trade business For employees, it is very effective to use it to find customers.
Development methods: Combine keyword searches, join groups, and skillfully send product promotion information; observe and screen, add people to the group, interact and chat, and discuss cooperation.
If you want to use Facebook to develop customers:
First of all, you have to understand its rules. It is recommended not to add friends too frequently and not send in-site messages too frequently, otherwise your account will be blocked easily. Secondly, you must learn to maintain your own account, and post more news related to your products, interspersed with photos of your own factories, the material advantages of your products, etc. Just like Weibo operations, if customers take the initiative to visit you, you will win.
Twitter and LinkedIn can also be used to find foreign customers. The methods are similar. There are many related tutorial articles and videos on the Internet, which you can study in depth.
3. Search engine
Take Google as an example:
For foreign traders, Google search, which accounts for the largest share of the world’s search engine, is undoubtedly The best customer search software, so how do we search for our target customers on it? Searching through key words is the most convenient way for us to find potential customers.
There are several ways to search for key words
①Specific product/model/subcategory keywords
Searches for such words are easy to find Highly targeted potential customers, it can be said that the content searched for this word is either your customers or your competitors.
②Industry/Application/Major Category Keywords
Starting with industry words to search, it is easy to expand the search scope, which is a good choice for foreign traders with too few customer resources. Choose, as long as this customer makes your related products, you may develop them into your customers.
③ Product feature keywords
Starting with product features and searching for keywords, it is easy to open up customer features, such as "low price + product words", and the customer resources searched are For those who are interested in low prices, this kind of obvious characteristics are very useful for the development work of foreign trade people.
④Multi-lingual keywords
Don’t necessarily use English just because you search on Google. In fact, there are more potential customers in other languages. For such customers It is difficult to search for them in English, but they are a resource that cannot be underestimated in the customer group.
4. Other sources
① Find through SEO: Let your products rank high on the web page, thereby attracting users.
② Find from B2B websites: Register on as many B2B platforms as possible, preferably foreign local websites, so that the traffic from abroad will be large. All of the above can register for free and publish product information. The most important thing is that most of them are foreign trade websites and are highly targeted.
③Find on the foreign trade forum: Recommended forums: Alibaba Foreign Trade Circle, Global Foreign Trade Forum, FOB Foreign Trade Forum, Bangyue Knowledge Service Platform, 91fob Foreign Trade Forum...
④Find from platforms: such as Alibaba, Global Sources, Amazon and other platforms. Whether it is a paid platform or a free platform, register and publish as many product information as possible!
⑤Find from the Yellow Pages: Instead of looking for customers aimlessly, novice salesmen should calm down and look for customers in the Yellow Pages.
⑥ Get referrals from friends and relatives: Whether it is relatives, friends or colleagues, as long as you have a useful relationship, then ask them for help and tell them that you are now a freight forwarder. If anyone has relatives or friends If you need to find a freight forwarder for foreign trade, please help recommend one. It is possible to find several relatively stable customer sources through people you know, and the freight forwarders introduced through relationships will make foreign trade companies feel more at ease.
⑦ From exhibitors in various countries: There are many well-known foreign exhibitions with related homepages, such as IFMA, eurobike, etc. The homepages will have exhibitors’ products and contact information. These exhibitors are sellers and may also be the largest import customers. Factory salesmen can use their factory advantages to contact and follow up.
Foreign Trade Network: Enter product keywords in the search box to search, and many foreign buyers of the product will appear. After registering and logging in, you can see the buyer’s contact name, contact information, transaction details, etc., every day You can watch some for free. You can select a time period to view buyers in the last year.
United Nations Customs Data Network: Use the first 6 digits of the customs code to query, and you can also query some foreign buyers. The website is purely in English and requires careful study.
⑨ Find it from a freight forwarder: Freight forwarders can not only provide services to the factory, but also provide customers for the factory. They have long-term dealings with foreign trade companies and have some long-term cooperative trading companies. These trading companies are also customers. , and it is still an easy customer to win. Therefore, if you meet a freight forwarder in the future, don’t beat him to death, but leave your contact information.
2. Maintain customers
1. Communicate proactively, do not consult passively
As a trading company, as an importer, many times customers will not just operate a single business For one product, that will limit its development. Customers will generally make the same type of product as the manufacturer. As a manufacturer, you have room to play. You don’t have to wait for customers to inquire one by one and take the initiative to introduce you. The products you can make increase the trust between you and your customers, and at the same time stimulate their desire to place an order.
2. Be patient enough when consulting with customers
Have you ever encountered someone who repeatedly asked for proofs? Many businesses will find it annoying when they encounter customers who repeatedly modify and proofing. If they are in a bad mood, they will leave the customer in the cold, and in this way you will lose a customer. In fact, if you think about it carefully, why do customers repeatedly ask for modifications to proofing? That's because he is very attentive in developing new products for cooperation, which shows that the other party is very sincere in cooperating. But because you were not patient enough, you lost such a customer who was very likely to place an order. Don't you think it is a waste?
3. Maintain contact with customers
In the entire ordering cooperation, as well as in daily life, as a business we must communicate with customers frequently. During the cooperation process, maintaining regular contact with customers is very helpful for letting customers know the production status, shipment status, and logistics situation of their goods. This allows customers to maintain sufficient control over their goods and also generates trust in you. .
In daily life, frequent contact with customers will better increase the relationship between you, making it easier for customers to consider your relationship when they have needs.
4. It is best to have an interview if possible
It is better to meet once than to email a thousand times. In the salesman industry, it is rare to meet with customers, but it does not mean that we do not need to Meeting with customers, on the contrary, is an effective way to develop business. Compared with long-term email conversations across the Internet, meeting each other adds a foundation of trust. Make your customers more impressed with you.
5. Occasionally disclose product costs
In fact, part of the reason why customers can find us for cooperation in the domestic market is because they are interested in our costs. Our cost-effectiveness is high, so they will cooperate with us. We cooperate, but many times the customer does not dislike you making his money. On the contrary, no matter what you say, the customer will think you are making money, and he will not refuse to cooperate with you because you make his money. Sometimes if you can occasionally disclose the costs to customers, you can gain a lot of points in the customers' minds.
6. Have an efficient customer management method
Our energy is limited. When there are too many customers, it will become confusing. Many times, the attitude towards customers will be favorable to others. How to take care of customers' feelings to the greatest extent requires a scientific and effective management method. This is based on personal experience.
Now that foreign countries are infected with the new coronavirus, the prospects for foreign trade this year should not be very good.
How to do a good job in foreign trade, the first thing is to choose the products. Now many products have little profit and there are no orders yet. I can give you some advice that I hope will help.
1. How to choose products
First, search from the resources around you, such as factories. Many factories do not have import and export rights, but they are very powerful and can Achieve international leading product advantages.
Find the English name of the product, go to Alibaba to find the number of related products and suppliers, as well as the sales volume, and make statistics.
Use Google Trends to find keyword popularity, Google Keyword Tool to find international search popularity, and whether anyone is looking for relevant information about this product.
Some information can be queried through free customs data.
To put it all together, make an evaluation, what price can be achieved, how much profit is there, how many target customer groups are there, etc.
2. Promotion channels
No matter which channel is used, some are effective and some are not effective. You must get real data before making up your mind whether to do it or not.
Offline exhibitions: Nowadays, many foreign trade companies regard exhibitions as an opportunity to meet offline. They contact customers online and make appointments to meet at exhibitions if they have strong intentions. Negotiations can be made with pure strangers. The probability is low. A lot of information can be collected, including industry development, foreign trade customers and other information.
Alibaba
Alibaba International Station, after you have the basic version, you must add P4P. You have the final say on the cost. For specific effects, you can refer to the online display data and peers.
Made in China
The situation is basically the same as above
Google is the world’s largest traffic distribution platform, and there are many foreign trade products that are very effective. Well, through SEO, adwords, etc., first analyze the data through Google's professional tools to see if anyone is actually searching for the product you want to make on Google. Do not blindly place it.
Any promotion channel must be taken seriously, and all facts must be spoken, and do not be blind.
3. Transaction time
Good products, good promotion channels, good business personnel, good supply chain, according to the feedback from different friends, the fastest is 1 -3 months time. The current form of foreign trade is not as good as before, so you have to endure loneliness.
In the past, we only selected orders, but now we need to cultivate customers, develop and grow with them, and give them time to let their customers grow into their big customers.
Recommend several efficient customer acquisition channels:
1. Search engine
They say they don’t even know how to use Google, and they say they are doing foreign trade? Today, when the Internet is highly developed, search engines can be said to have attracted a large number of customers.
You can use keywords, such as: industry or product keywords + importer, industry or product keywords + buyer, industry or product keywords + email suffix..., and then use Google Advanced Use the search command to filter out Chinese regions, Chinese suppliers or other commercial websites to find your corresponding target customers.
However, manual search is slow and inefficient, and many people are not familiar with Google search instructions and search principles, so they often spend a lot of time and fail to find the desired target customers.
In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of searching for customers, you can use foreign trade software to help you quickly lock in precise global customers in batches, and dig deep into the phone numbers of key decision-makers such as bosses, procurement, and CEOs. , email, and social accounts to easily access massive business opportunities around the world.
2. Customs data
Customs data comes from real shipping bill of lading information. The data content is authoritative and complete, including the companies of the shipper and the consignee, as well as specific commodity information and Quantity, price.
Customs data can help you find buyers with purchasing behavior, customers in the same industry, and customers of customers. It can also help you analyze customers’ purchasing habits, purchasing frequency, purchasing quantity, psychological price, etc., which is helpful. Enterprises can quickly find target customers and convert them into orders efficiently!
However, the customs data itself does not have contact information. In order to better help you develop foreign customers, you must choose customs data that truly has key purchasers. For example, Suwei Search can mine the contact information of key decision-makers such as bosses, procurement, and senior executives with one click, allowing you to quickly and directly reach customers in multiple dimensions, greatly improving customer acquisition efficiency.
3. Social Media
In China, social media such as WeChat, Douyin, and Weibo occupy a lot of our time, while overseas Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. are changing the way overseas users social habits.
LinkedIn is the world's largest professional social networking platform, with over 630 million users. Currently, 30 million companies around the world have joined LinkedIn, of which 40 million LinkedIn users are at the decision-making level.
Facebook is the world's largest social media network. As of the end of 2019, Facebook had 2.45 billion monthly active users, and the number of searches on Facebook every day reached 1.5 billion.
Therefore, using social media to develop customers has become a battleground for foreign trade companies.
Now, through foreign trade software, you can dig into customer mailboxes without adding friends. It can also help you break the restrictions of your network and gain more network permissions that cannot be matched by accounts of the same level or even high-level accounts. This provides foreign trade professionals with Social media development customers help increase the investment.
4. Map to find customers
There are many small buyers around the world, such as shops, stores, etc. These customers do not go to exhibitions, rarely go to B2B platforms, and do not even have websites. , it is difficult for search engines to find them, but there is one place where their information is definitely available, and that is the map.
Using foreign trade software, you can accurately search for global customers by country, city, and business district. Whether you are looking for a larger wholesaler or a scattered retailer on the street, we can help you accurately locate them. Really realize carpet development.
The three-dimensional real-life display can also help you further judge the quality and scale of buyers and lock in super-high-quality customers!
5. Brand Finds Customers
Trademark is the unique identity of an enterprise. In countries where intellectual property rights developed earlier, most companies have their own trademarks.
If you have a prospective customer who knows the trademark but cannot contact you, you can quickly find the corresponding contact person through foreign trade software.
Of course, you can also use product keywords to quickly find a large number of high-quality customers who have their own independent trademarks.
6. Yellow Pages to find customers
The Yellow Pages are equivalent to the household register of industrial and commercial enterprises in a city/region. They are found in almost every city in the world. They record business information in different industries.
As long as we find the right yellow pages of foreign companies, we can quickly obtain a large number of target customer resources, so as to explore and develop the market of a certain country.
It is recommended that foreign trade people who are actively developing must make use of the tools. After all, human energy is limited, and time is especially precious. Don’t spend too much time on mechanical work such as searching for customers. Instead, find ways to use it to analyze customers, follow up with customers, and facilitate transactions. In this way, customer development can achieve twice the result with half the effort. .
1. B2B platform promotion
Comprehensive B2B: Alibaba International Station, Globalsources, Made in China, EC21, Tradevv, Tradekey, ECVV, Ecplaza.
Local B2B: such as India, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, etc. Invest in one or two paid comprehensive B2B platforms, and sign up for more free B2B platforms. Explore tips for posting information as a free member, allowing buyers to search for information, win inquiries and orders, and post freely in some forums.
2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
I divide it into two parts: one part is how to make the website open quickly. In addition to the basic content, how to make customers browse the website Feel comfortable and satisfied. Part of it is to ask a professional website optimization company to do some programmatic work on the website to make the website more in line with the preferences of search engines and easier to be searched. That is search engine optimization (SEO), Google multi-keyword optimization, search engine optimization (SEO) will be relatively slow, generally taking 4 to 6 months.
3. Search engine bidding advertising (SEM)
Paying for shopping is a foreign trade promotion model chosen by many companies. The traffic and keywords that SEO itself can bring are limited. Using paid advertising to expand traffic is a great complement to SEO. Quick results, high target coverage, strong pertinence, wide range of product promotion, flexible form, controllable costs, and high return on investment.
4. Email promotion (EDM)
Research the interests and hobbies of customers, and then push each email well based on the collected data and information, so as not to become spam. Try not to send group messages. If you are not worried about time, quietly suggest giving them a one-on-one date. The topic and content should be purposeful, the topic should be to the point, and the content should be concise and to the point.
5. Social media promotion (SNS)
The traffic of mobile devices is increasing day by day, and the development potential is huge. Although it may be less than PC, it is the fastest growing traffic source for e-commerce websites.
Data shows that traffic from iPads to e-commerce sites accounts for 30% of total traffic, iPhones account for 35%, and the rest of the traffic is distributed across dozens of different Android smartphones and tablets. So when we start optimizing traffic from mobile devices to e-commerce websites, we can give priority to the Apple iOS system.
1. Facebook: This is an online social networking service website in the United States. Data shows that Facebook has 1.65 billion monthly active users, and the number of messages sent every day is as high as 12 billion.
2. Twitter: It is an American online social networking service and Weibo service website. Twitter has 410 million monthly active users and posts more than 500 million Weibo posts every day. Twitter’s influence is so great that even U.S. President Trump doesn’t have a tweet. However, there are not many people in China, so we should make good use of these social networking sites according to the habits of customers.
3.linkedIn: This is a professional social networking website in the United States. LinkedIn has more than 400 million users in more than 200 countries and regions. This website does not require circumvention. The Chinese use it a lot. They can go directly to the person in charge and see the other person’s position and experience. A little trick is to set your homepage language to English. Use keywords well, such as "#steel", then people on Linkedin will be able to see your post when they search for "steel".
4. Pinterest: It is the world’s largest picture social sharing website. Pinterest allows users to create and manage collections of images on topics such as events, interests, and hobbies. This website is one of the few in the country, but if you use it well, the results will be great.
5.YouTuBe: It is currently the largest video website in the world. For SNS promotion, the YouTube platform is a big gold mine. YouTube has 14 billion video views every week. Videos are five times more effective than pictures. In the 5G era, the importance of video will become even more important, and the spread of video will also experience exponential growth. Making short videos to promote your company and products is a good choice.
Drain traffic from the platform to the independent station: The platform’s traffic is directed to the independent station through customer service guidance, customer search keywords, delivery cards, etc. This is crucial for small and medium-sized foreign trade companies to create private domain traffic.
To do a good job in foreign trade, you must first have a thorough understanding of product knowledge. Then there is the need to be fluent in foreign languages, at least to be able to communicate with foreigners, such as making phone calls and writing emails without any obstacles, and to understand the international trade process, and then how to find target customers more efficiently.
Finding customers is more important. Finding interested customers is half the battle. The rest is how to persuade customers to place orders. How to find customers, you must first search online, use online platforms, such as Alibaba, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, etc. to discover potential customers, and then conduct preliminary communication. After the target is locked, samples can be sent first to allow customers to have a more intuitive understanding of product performance and quality. After the customer expresses interest, he or she can go on-site to show sincerity. Of course, the customer can also be invited to visit the factory, etc. After two visits, the communication was in place and the order was basically completed. The only thing left is to prepare the goods and ship them step by step or leave it to the follow-up order processing.
There are two main channels for obtaining foreign trade orders, within the industry or outside the industry. For example, more professional equipment or products such as machinery and equipment generally go through industry exhibitions. In addition to domestic industry international exhibitions, you can also participate in overseas exhibitions. Mainly participating in overseas exhibitions are subsidized by the national "Small and Medium Enterprises Overseas Expansion Fund". In coastal areas, local fiscal expenditures are not less than 50% of the booth fee and not more than 18,000 yuan. Shanghai also has district fiscal subsidies. The central and western regions and poor areas have no less than 70% of the national fiscal expenditure. As for some low-end products such as hardware, clothing, etc., they can only go to comprehensive exhibitions such as the Canton Fair. Of course, online sales are also possible, and Alibaba’s overseas version is viewed by many people abroad, but large transactions are generally done offline.
The foreign trade industry requires accumulation, so it is important to enter a promising company, maintain a studious attitude, and meet a group of good colleagues and leaders. However, instead of talking about external factors today, let’s talk about internal factors. After all, it is difficult for us to control external factors, but we can do our best.
There are mainly the following channels for obtaining orders:
1. Foreign trade independent station:
Traditional foreign trade factories like to publish product information on B2B platforms so as to Looking for customers, but there are more and more platform rules, and the control of traffic is also very strict. At this time, we need to build our own independent foreign trade station and receive foreign trade orders through Google SEO optimization.
2. SEM advertising:
By cooperating with SEO, we formulate corresponding SEM advertising plans. In this way, we can quickly obtain foreign trade orders, but we must also have a certain amount of funds and make a good investment plan.
3. Advertising Alliance:
If you feel that SEM advertising costs are too high, you can use some other advertising channels. For example, if you go to well-known blogs and forums in the industry, the cost of these advertising positions is relatively low, and the conversion rate is not bad.
4. Offline exhibitions:
Every year at home and abroad, there are a large number of various information exhibitions, building materials exhibitions, etc. We can selectively select and participate in some good quality exhibitions . For the exhibition, it is not only a good time to receive foreign trade orders, but also an opportunity to promote the brand.
5. Use free customs data:
6. Through social networks:
Foreigners often use social networking sites, and many trading companies are also looking for foreigners on them. ;For factory foreign trade salesmen, it is very effective to use it to find customers. Methods: Search with keywords, join the group, and send product promotion information skillfully; observe and screen, add people to the group, interact and chat, and discuss cooperation.
7. Introduce orders from customers (friends)
Introduce the surrounding resource circle through friends, and find out which of the surrounding friends are doing trade-related work. Through them, you can ask for advice humbly, and you can get to know each other. If you really don’t have friends in related industries, go to some foreign trade forums to make some trading friends, answer some professional questions with your own ability, and let more people know you.
8. B2B websites
B2B websites, after you enter the industry, you will naturally hear about big platforms such as Xili, a full-category B2B platform, and BuildMost. A vertical field platform focusing on the export of home building materials.
One advantage of the B2B platform is that it brings together all corporate users, so if you are good at digging, you will not be short of inquiries and customer information. If you don’t have a budget, try to spend time exploring free platforms. If you have a budget, please understand it before investing. After all, wasting money often happens to unprepared people.
When doing foreign trade, having a good product and good suppliers is more important than how to develop foreign customers!
Why do you say that? There are several reasons
So what should be done?
Nowadays, foreign trade exports have slowed down overall, and the export volume of most industries has not grown much. But there are still a few industries that are growing.
The industry you want to choose should be still growing, and the foreign trade success rate in this industry is higher
So how to search?
(1) Look at the data.
You can go to the National Bureau of Statistics to look at the data, or you can check various Baidu data. Alibaba's sales data for the past six months can also be used as a reference.
(2) Ask colleagues to ask
< /p>
Good suppliers can provide product pictures for free, and even provide Alibaba international platform for free
If you do it all by yourself, it will still be very troublesome. The annual platform fee is 29,800, so it is very reliable to meet a good supplier.
Not all products are easy to make. Some products have a gross profit of more than 0.7, and some only have a gross profit of 0.2. < /p>
The prices of some products are very transparent. For some raw materials, unless there is an absolute price advantage, it will be difficult to receive orders.
Some products are very personalized, such as toys. , the uniqueness of each toy's style is very obvious. If the customer likes it, they can quote a high price because there is no place to compare prices. Such products are easier to make
< p> After the above preparations are completed, you need to find a good platform to develop customers.
Many people say that there are many channels for developing customers, such as Alibaba, Global Sources, FB, LinkedIn, Google, customs data... What I want to say is you They are all talked about in general terms, because your resources are limited and your energy is limited, so you can only focus on one or two channels, and the chance of doing it well is higher
p>
Let me summarize for you which channels are less reliable for development
For foreign trade, search engines (SEM) are a trap , you need to be cautious. If you have to do it, it is better to bid on the foreign trade platform. In this way, the traffic undergoes two screenings (once from the search engine to the foreign trade platform, and once from the takeout platform bidding), which is more accurate and has high intention. The search engine Optimization (SEO), SEO for foreign trade platforms, can be done if you have the resources, but it is best not to do it if you don’t have the time and energy.
Later I will share the methods to get more inquiries
Seeing your question, how to get foreign trade quickly? Order? To tell you the truth, in the foreign trade industry, you must learn to persist, be patient, and endure loneliness. If you want to make money quickly, the foreign trade industry is no longer an industry for making quick money.
Let’s talk about some suggestions
1. If you want to do foreign trade, you must first have good products. Whether you are doing traditional B2B foreign trade or the more popular cross-border e-commerce, good products are the first step for you to do a good job in foreign trade. If you are a factory, then the second thing is to make the factory's own products. The product selection is for trading companies and SOHO. Make products you are interested in and familiar with.
2. Familiar with developing customer channels. The main channels for developing foreign trade customers are exhibitions and paid B2B websites, Alibaba, Made in China, Global Trade, etc. Personally, I suggest that if you want to build a B2B website, you should go with Alibaba. Although the effect is not good, it is still better than others. Then there is free Google search. If you have the ability, participate in foreign exhibitions or set up business representative offices abroad. However, these are high costs and low returns for start-up trading companies and SOHOs.