General

The foreign trade software market is a mixed bag of good and bad, and online evaluations of "pitfalls" are everywhere. Therefore, everyone is cautious when choosing foreign trade software, especially for foreign trade companies. Once selected, all foreign trade salespeople in the company will need to use it for several years, and all data will be accumulated in it, which will result in high replacement costs. So, how to choose foreign trade software reliably?

Firstly, let's take a look at the types of commonly used foreign trade software?

1、 Common types of foreign trade software

For foreign trade companies, the reasons for using foreign trade software include business demands brought about by customer management and data backup, management demands brought about by increased personnel and complex business processes, and customer development demands brought about by expanding customer acquisition channels. Therefore, different types of foreign trade software have emerged to address these issues.

According to the deployment method, foreign trade software is divided into SaaS mode (cloud server centralized deployment) and lifelong version (local server deployment).

According to the architecture, it is divided into two categories: BS (browser operating side) and CS (client operating side), with some software supporting both types.

According to the platform, foreign trade software has third-party applications targeting Windows computers, Android phones, Apple phones, and Mac computers, as well as enterprise WeChat, DingTalk, and other platforms. Whether it's SaaS mode, local deployment, BS or CS, enterprises should choose the approach that suits them. Of course, if multiple modes can be supported, users can reduce selection barriers and focus more on the functions of the foreign trade software itself.

According to its functions, foreign trade software is divided into foreign trade customer management software (CRM), foreign trade customer development software, and foreign trade customer management software. With customer management as the core requirement, it aims to promote the backup and flow of customer resources within the company, improve user experience, and manage customer lifecycle.

Foreign trade customer development software, including customs data acquisition, full network contact mining, foreign trade email group sending software, social media software, and so on.

In terms of functionality, the products of various foreign trade software are similar, but in terms of functional performance, they vary greatly. For example, when developing software for foreign trade clients, many of the data and information found by the software are either outdated or invalid; The email rejection rate is too high; Personalized email is not supported; Another example is the foreign trade customer management software, many of which do not reflect the characteristics of "process management". A sales process needs to frequently switch multiple interfaces in different sales stages, and the experience is not very friendly

2、 How to choose, mastering these four points is enough

1. Does it meet your core needs?

According to the actual needs of foreign trade companies, there is no need to match all the functions in one go, and if there is no match, it will cost a lot of money.

For foreign trade companies, choosing foreign trade software is not about how powerful its functions are, but about whether it meets the company's needs and brings substantial benefits to the company's business expansion and management. So when purchasing foreign trade software, it is important to consider whether it is practical. Some foreign trade software is also good, but it may not be suitable for your company. For example, some software integrates powerful additional functions, but some modules are not needed by the company. Therefore, it is necessary to discard them and make your foreign trade software more refined and practical.

For the vast majority of foreign trade companies, they want to solve the following pain points through foreign trade software, and you can also refer to them:

① Improve efficiency and save time

② Accurately reach customers

③ Data is useful and authentic

④ Efficient management of customers, orders, processes

⑤ Email marketing has a high reach rate and a low probability of blocking emails

After clarifying the requirements, you can create a list of the required functions and list the most important ones, such as email group sending function, global customer search function, which functions are indispensable for CRM customer management... Then, based on this list, you can select several foreign trade management software that meet the requirements.

2. Is your background good?

Background investigation: Are the founders, product managers, and technical team members familiar with the foreign trade industry? Is the founder's resources in the foreign trade industry extensive, and does the technical team and leader have a background as an internet powerhouse?

Is the software development company legitimate? When selecting a foreign trade software, it is necessary to know the research and development company to which it belongs. We need to confirm whether the company is reliable and can check whether the enterprise is legally registered on the website of the Industrial and Commercial Bureau.

The method is as follows:

1. Enter the words "National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System" on Baidu to enter the official website of the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.

2. Enter the company name/unified credit code/registration number in the box to query (using the input of the company name as an example).

3. Follow the prompts to slide the puzzle and complete the puzzle verification.

4. The system will search for relevant enterprise information based on the content you enter, and click to view it.

Do you have high-tech enterprise certification and software patent rights? Software itself is a technological product, and software patent rights can directly determine whether the software has undergone legal and compliant certification. If there is no national authorized invention patent, it can be directly disregarded. Secondly, high-tech enterprises represent software companies' investment in software research and development. If they cannot achieve this, they will not be able to obtain this certificate. If investment in research and development cannot keep up, then no matter how well sales say it, don't believe it.

Is it independently developed? Our own research and development team effectively ensures after-sales service for purchasing foreign trade software. Software products are different from general products. In the long-term use process, even if the initial research and development considerations are more refined, there will still be many unexpected problems. If you have your own research and development team, the problems that arise can be solved quickly. If not, you often only get perfunctory or delayed responses. In addition, with the continuous development of the industry and changes in various policies, software needs to be constantly updated, which is difficult for outsourcing teams to achieve. Only software companies with their own development team can provide customers with the latest services.

3. How about after-sales service guarantee?

This includes the speed at which technical and sales personnel provide feedback on user questions, the speed at which problems are solved, as well as service awareness and attitude.

After sales service is crucial. Don't trust companies that boast excessively about their software and deceive them into paying no attention after purchasing. Using such software will only increase the company's burden. Some people may question it, I'm useless. How do I know how good its after-sales service is? I think this can be learned through other channels. There will always be customers who have used their products. Before making a purchase, first understand the software company's products and services through those customers before making a decision. Don't invest blindly.

4. Is there an industry solution?

Simply put, it means whether this software is useful or not, and whether it can help you. So you must use it before you know.

The foreign trade industry involves a wide range of aspects, with numerous details. A good foreign trade software should be very familiar with the foreign trade process, and its designed management philosophy should be in line with the actual situation of the industry. It can grasp the pain points, and professional foreign trade software will learn from advanced application models and management practices in the same industry, fully reflecting the characteristics of the industry where the enterprise is located in the form of industry solutions.

For foreign trade customer development software, its function is customer development. Generally, it directly and accurately locates a certain region, selects industry keywords, obtains customer contact information in bulk, and of course, there are other methods, such as customs data, social media account retrieval, etc. So we must understand how it finds customers? Be sure to choose a global customer acquisition software that can accurately locate product requirements and obtain customer contact information in bulk.