General

For foreign traders, responding to foreign trade inquiries is not just a simple email exchange. Sometimes, even if they are very interested buyers, they may fall into the sea due to inappropriate response content. Today, we will follow the process to teach you how to respond to foreign trade inquiries step by step and successfully "win" your customers.

1、 Clarify customer information

The identity and scale of overseas buyers vary, including raw material buyers, intermediaries, or terminal sales. When receiving a foreign trade inquiry, do not rush to make judgments first. You can first judge the level and type of the other party from the inquiry information, which is very beneficial for future communication.

Moreover, some business personnel have a subjective first impression of the quality of foreign trade inquiries. For example, if the content is short, the quality will be poor, and if the content is long and the intention is clear, it is a high-quality inquiry. This is a quick judgment made based on their own experience, but many high-quality customers may miss it like this.

The quality of foreign trade inquiries should be judged based on the value information contained within them.

The most valuable information is in three aspects: the purchasing power of the other party, whether the other party has decision-making power, and the demand for the product.

By judging the three aspects of the customer through available information, the quality of the inquiry can be basically determined.

For example, if the other party has purchasing power and the products they need also meet their needs, but the position is not sufficient without decision-making power, then they can respond in detail and follow up in a timely manner, which is a highly likely inquiry.

But if the other party has decision-making power, meets the needs, but does not have purchasing power, they belong to small customers, and the priority is lower.

For more accurate and timely inquiries, we recommend AB Customer Inquiry Express. This platform can help enterprises find more suitable foreign trade inquiries through multi-channel customer acquisition methods.

2、 Clarify the other party's needs

Understanding first and then communicating can avoid leaving a bad impression on the customer in the first reply. It is important to analyze the inquiry content in detail, and the fastest response is not as good as the most appropriate one.

It is also important to try to avoid asking questions that the other party has already informed. This situation is not uncommon among foreign trade salespeople. When responding to foreign trade inquiries, it is important to empathize and not make the other party feel that The replies are not even close to what I am requesting.

In terms of content, inquiries can be divided into two types: vague and clear.

Fuzzy inquiry, first of all, is short in content and only indicates the need for a certain product, but it is difficult to determine the intensity of intention.

For this type of inquiry, we can provide a more comprehensive response. For example, if there are products with better performance than the other party's requirements, we can recommend them and demonstrate our service capabilities, such as quality control, delivery time control, after-sales service, etc. Also, we can raise questions and explore customer information.

Clear inquiry, with detailed content and long length, clear product description, and quotation requirements, the intention is relatively clear.

The response to a clear inquiry should first focus on the information that the other party is concerned about. If there is a quotation requirement, please quote first. If the price cannot be guaranteed to satisfy the other party, try to impress the other party with the advantages of your own product, and focus on promoting quality control and service efforts to make the other party feel our expertise.

If the other party requests to send samples, it is necessary to consider whether their purchase intention is genuine or whether they only want one sample.

3、 Prepare a reply

Responding to inquiries is certainly the most crucial step, but with sufficient preparation, as long as there are no errors in the email, there is no need to be too nervous.

After preparing a reply, it is best to check according to the following requirements:

Did you clearly respond to the other party's inquiry

Try to be concise and avoid complexity in your language

Does the product introduction reflect the exciting advantages

Is the verbal description professional enough

The email title should be straightforward and clear

Lastly, foreign trade inquiries have strong timeliness. It is best to reply within 48 hours and no longer than three days, otherwise the customer may be intercepted by someone else.