General

Foreign trade development clients?

How do novices in foreign trade develop foreign customers?

This can be said to be a clich é d topic in the foreign trade industry.

There are various ways to develop customers for foreign trade, including exhibitions, self built websites, B2B platforms, social media, and development letters.

Many foreign trade salespeople enter a strange mindset, thinking that they cannot find customers because there are too few channels, and then try various channels, but the development effect is still not ideal.

Then we continued to search for "better" channels that most of our peers may not have entered yet... such a cycle.

But have you noticed that no matter how many ways foreign trade develops customers, there are only one or two commonly used methods for foreign trade sales, and not all channels need to be explored. Choosing one or two that are most suitable for oneself and mastering and mastering them is enough.

Foreign trade development customers can be divided into two situations: "you look for customers" and "customers look for you". The former can be referred to as' active attack ', while the latter can be referred to as' passive benefit'.

1. Search engines

Proactively find customers through search engines such as Google and Yahoo, send development letters, and recommend their own products.

This method is a traditional and classic foreign trade customer development method, with simple and free operation, easy to get started, low usage threshold, and no charge. Usually, the constant changes in keywords can have unexpected development effects.

However, there are also drawbacks, which are the relatively low authenticity of the data, the time-consuming and cumbersome nature of the data, and the need to spend a lot of time analyzing, organizing, archiving, and categorizing the data.

2. Domestic purchasing websites

Find customers through domestic purchasing websites, such as China Manufacturing Network, Foreign Trade Forum, Fubu Forum, Foreign Trade Circle, etc. There are many foreign trade companies and buyers inside.

They will all post in it, and at this time, they can directly contact the purchaser to send development letters. The cost of such development is very low, and customers come with relatively accurate information.

3. Participating in exhibitions

Not long ago, Zhejiang Baituan Qianqi even chartered a plane to go abroad to participate in exhibitions and seek orders from customers.

At the exhibition, customers can directly, realistically, and up close see your products, and you can have direct communication and interaction with customers.

Generally, those who go to exhibitions and exhibitions are industry related individuals. If communication is smooth and understanding is deep enough, there is a greater chance of signing orders at the moment. This saves development steps such as telemarketing, visits, and customer tracking, and saves time and costs.

4. Social media marketing

In recent years, overseas social media platforms can be said to be an essential source of customers for every foreign trade business.

Registration is free, easy to operate, with a low entry threshold, a large number of users, long-lasting content, and a wide promotion range.

Examples include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedln, WhatsApp, and more. Facebook's daily activity is as high as 3 billion.

Using these social media platforms to promote one's own products has high exposure, low customer acquisition costs, and strong customer interaction, making it the primary choice for foreign trade professionals.

However, social media platforms also have great competitiveness, with a large and complex amount of information that requires operators to maintain at all times and also requires a certain cost.

5. Yellow Pages of Various Countries

Yellow Pages is an internationally recognized telephone directory for industrial and commercial enterprises arranged according to the nature of the enterprise and product category. The main content is to publish the name, address, and telephone number of the enterprise, which is equivalent to the household registration book for industrial and commercial enterprises in a city or region.

International practice is to print on yellow paper, hence the name yellow pages.

The yellow page contains company information of foreign buyers from various industries, including websites, email addresses, phone numbers, etc., so many foreign trade people like to find customers on the yellow page.

6. Customs data

Simple customs data contact information is incomplete, and many customers do not leave contact information.

So customs data is mainly used for data analysis, in conjunction with background investigations of foreign buyers, to understand the export situation of competitors, who potential buyers are still cooperating with, and which customer groups are in urgent need of procurement.