General

Is customs data really useful? The answer is absolutely useful, but it is not just about finding a purchaser that can be effective. Most foreign trade companies or business personnel who use customs data not only fail to develop suitable systems or master the correct usage methods, but also waste time and energy, and even affect the company's image. Below, Xiao Zhijun will share with you his experience in developing customs data for customers, so that everyone can avoid detours.

1、 Preliminary screening of buyers to find professional buyers

By using the one click search function in customs data, you can enter "product keywords, company name, or HS code" to see a large number of foreign purchaser names. Although there is a large quantity, not every one is a professional customer, and it is necessary to screen buyers. How to filter?

By comparing the number of times a purchaser purchases products related to your business with the number of times all products are purchased, you can directly confirm the customer's professionalism. Some buyers have purchased your product, but it is only one of the hundreds or thousands of transactions they have purchased. Such buyers are mostly freight forwarders and traders, and can be directly screened out.

2、 In-depth analysis by buyers, targeting precise buyers, and mastering their purchasing habits and preferences

After preliminary screening, we have found buyers who have genuine purchasing needs for our products, but these buyers may not all be suitable target customers because supply and demand capabilities may not match, and company strength may not necessarily match. In order to save time and improve the order completion rate, we must conduct in-depth analysis of the purchaser in order to target precise buyers.

How to conduct in-depth analysis on the purchaser?

1. Determine whether the purchasing capacity of the purchaser matches their own production capacity based on the quantity and weight of each purchase. The right is the best.

2. Analyze the supply chain of the purchaser to understand whether it is centralized or decentralized. If its supply chain is concentrated, it indicates that the purchaser has a stable partner and is difficult to enter; But if its supply chain is scattered and variable, it indicates that the purchaser is easy to enter and is a good target customer.

3. Judging customers' preferences for products based on which regions they have previously purchased from, including those who have been purchasing from Europe and those who have been purchasing from India, is very helpful in understanding whether customers care about quality or price.

4. By analyzing the purchasing time of customers, it is determined when their next purchase may occur. Some customers purchase in the second half of the year, while others purchase every month. The timing of contact varies for different customers, and finding the right time to contact also increases the probability of customer response.

3、 Analyze competitors in the same industry, know oneself and the enemy, win every battle

For the matching buyers that have been analyzed, we need to focus on analyzing their existing suppliers (i.e. competitors) for three reasons:

1. Understand the products and prices of its existing suppliers (competitors), identify their strengths, and strategically contact buyers to determine the quality and price of the product. This can greatly increase the order completion rate.

2. Analyze the procurement chain of competitors, preferably those with comparable strength in the market, and find customers who are also our target customers to cooperate with. Due to its comparable strength, we can definitely do the same for customers that he can do, which can eliminate the previous screening process. This old salesperson will have an advantage and a better understanding of the industry.

3. Monitor the procurement chain of peers, and the newly added and lost buyers are the target customers that we can focus on developing.

4、 Deep excavation of contact information

The contact information included in customs data is of the highest quality in India, with a relatively large number of procurement managers and a name and email address that can be directly used. But there are still many buyers whose contact information is not the main person in charge, or some have no contact information at all. This requires us to delve deeper into our contact information.

So how to explore contact information?

1. By using the product name to find a purchaser, you can find the relevant company information of the product, including company profile, phone number, and click on the company portrait to search for the company's relevant contacts, company homepage, and procurement information. It's simply not too convenient!

2. Find the official website through the company name, and some official websites leave relevant responsible person information. For small companies, we can directly find owners, presidents, or CEOs; For large companies, we need to find the functional heads of relevant departments, such as buyer, purchasing, department or some product engineers.

3. By searching for the name of the responsible person through LinkedIn, it would be much better to find the contact information once you have the name; You can also directly send a message to the customer's official Facebook page and ask the buyer's email. The test is valid, and some customers will give you their email.

4. It is also possible to directly extract emails through social media websites, which would be more efficient.

5. Utilize the "precise person in charge positioning" service in customs data to search for the precise person in charge with one click. Many customs data companies and platforms have launched this service now, such as:

5、 Multiple ways of communication in parallel

After finding the precise contact information of the target purchaser, it is time to contact the customer. I suggest that everyone not only stay in the stage of developing customers through email, but also learn to use various social media and instant messaging apps to contact customers. Think about it from a different perspective: If you receive a promotional email, it is highly likely that you will not reply, but if someone adds or greets you on WeChat, will your probability of replying be much higher. There are WeChat accounts in China and Whatsapp, Line, Viber, VK, Messenger, etc. abroad, which communicate directly online through chat tools; Of course, if there is a customer's phone number, it would be more efficient to call them directly.