General

A friend asked, "What should we pay attention to when signing a foreign trade order with a customer?"?

Don't think it's simple. If you don't have a systematic methodology, it's easy to cause various accidents during the execution of foreign trade orders, such as a series of accidents after a link is not completed, or the product is "delivered with defects", which affects customers' trust in you and the professional image of the company, and affects customer returns.

As the saying goes, "After the order is signed and the customer has paid, everything has just begun.".

Today, we will systematically review what our foreign trade salesmen need to pay attention to after signing a foreign trade order with a customer, in order to avoid problems during the execution of an order that has not been easily negotiated, or even lead to customer complaints and loss of customers.

01 Delivery date

First of all, after signing an order with the customer and receiving the payment, the first step we need to do is to quickly execute your order to avoid some salespeople having too much work on hand, so they kept the order in their own hands and didn't communicate it to the relevant departments to execute the order, resulting in delays in the customer's delivery time. If the customer's order is in a very urgent situation, we need to compress the order execution cycle within the company.

For example, if the customer wants a 15 day delivery date, you need to tell the company's internal department that the order will be delivered in approximately 13 or 12 or 10 days. Adequate time compression must be carried out internally to ensure timely delivery of orders. For our customers, what we have to say to them is different. Maybe we have promised them 15 days, but we also need to tell them that this order is urgent. In order to avoid any special accidents, we also hope that you can give us a few days of turnaround time and strive for a sufficiently long delivery time at the customer's side.

Through this internal compression+external extension method, the order delivery time is controlled within the controllable range of our business personnel. This is something we should pay special attention to in the delivery period section.

As your order is scheduled, you should gradually and occasionally follow up on where it has progressed. For example, whether the materials have arrived, whether production has started, and when it will be packaged, you probably need to have an understanding in mind. Only if you continue to follow up with your colleagues and relevant department personnel can they repeatedly know that this order is in a hurry. Every time you follow up, you ring a bell for these colleagues to let them know the urgency of this order. This is also a detail that we should pay special attention to when it comes to the delivery date.

02 Pay attention to the special requirements of customers

Next, in the second section, after we have signed a foreign trade order with the customer, we need to particularly check and pay attention to whether the customer has any special requirements in this order, such as the specifications, product parameters, and functional features of the customer's product that are not quite the same as some of our previous internal standards, This place is also the place where we are most likely to encounter incorrect shipments during the production process. Therefore, we need to highlight the customer's special requirements at the first time of placing an order. "You can bold or annotate your production order, or print it out.". Some companies print out internal orders for signature. In this place, like I used to circle them in red ink to remind colleagues to pay special attention.

"It's not enough to circle this special requirement and emphasize it. We need to do one more thing, that is, [repeat].". What is repetition?

For example, if you know that this order has already been placed in the engineering department, you need to ask the engineering department or ask relevant colleagues to help you follow up. You need to tell him and emphasize with the engineering department which place is special. In a few days' time, we will see which department he has probably arrived at. If the person you are connecting with is responsible, you need to find the person you are connecting with. If you are the department responsible for interfacing with the relevant direct subordinate, you should directly seek out the direct subordinate department to highlight special requirements. Only in this way will the probability of errors on your special order be low.

03 Perform product inspection before shipment

Next, in the third section, we should pay attention to a verification before shipment. What is verification? If your merchandiser or assistant, or if you have time on your own, go check the product yourself. First, check whether the product parameters are correct? Is this what the customer wants? The second question is whether the color box and its label are correct. Third, do the labels and models match the product.

Some salespeople may have experienced this disadvantage. For example, if the label is correct and the product inside is not the same product, this can sometimes be overlooked.

Before we leave the warehouse, for large orders and orders from large customers, I would suggest that we personally, or with an assistant or a follower, enter the warehouse to randomly unpack and verify our products before shipping and picking up the goods. During the random unpacking inspection process, remember to take a comprehensive photo record of the product. It is best to use video+photos, such as its label, inner box, and outer box, to take photos, and to take videos for our customers to record. Including the shipping marks, it is also necessary to check, such as the number of boxes, is it correct? This is something we should pay attention to. When you are loading containers or taking delivery of goods, you should repeatedly check whether the number of boxes and pieces is correct. Sometimes the customer receives it and says it's short, which is why you didn't check it yourself. So after we sign the order, these sections are all areas that we should pay special attention to.

04 Customer service beyond peers

After signing a foreign trade order, what else should I pay attention to? "We come to the second category, which is a service for customers, because we don't sign the order completely, and our service ends when we receive the payment.". What other services do you have at this time?

For example, if you are involved in some customized products or irregular special products before signing an order, you may not be sure about your packing list at this time. After you have the product specifications and other relevant information in hand, it is important to work out your packing plan, which is our PL, as soon as possible, so that when you ship in the future, you will not rush to do this related parameter information, which is not prone to errors.

This action may be done by yourself, by an assistant, or by following a single person.

If the freight forwarder is the customer's own freight forwarder, we also need to provide the packing list to the customer as soon as possible, so that he can arrange the shipment conveniently. At the customer service level, in addition to packing information, we also need to update the progress of orders to customers from time to time. For example, if it is a new customer, during the production process of his order, we can take some pictures and videos related to the product to reassure the customer that his order is being executed and under production. If the customer has special requirements, we can take a photo to the customer when materials arrive, or during the production process, take a photo to convey the customer's special requirements to our customer. The customer will know that his special requirements have received sufficient attention in your company, and the customer will be able to feel your special follow-up and service to his order.

These are some points that we should pay special attention to after signing the order.

05 About payment for goods

"If the customer's money has not yet been fully paid after signing a foreign trade order, I generally recommend that you collect the payment as soon as possible, and wait until the payment is fully received and it is confirmed that the account has been received before shipping.". "Don't worry, when a customer urges you, don't let it go as soon as the customer urges you, and then the goods are shipped out like this. If the money can't be recovered by then, it's still your own problem and the company's problem.". Of course, if the company signs an OA or DP with a customer, this is another matter. In the case of OA or DP, we must provide him with some relevant information.

The above are the issues that we are talking about today when foreign trade salesmen sign orders.

To sum up, first, there should be no errors in internal confirmation, second, customer service should be done well, and third, payment for goods should be confirmed clearly before shipment.