General

As a foreign trade personnel, I look forward to receiving inquiries or emails from buyers every day. Sometimes we have a lot of foreign trade inquiries in a day, but after replying to customers and making quotations, many of them sink into the sea without any response. At this point, choosing the right positioning and coping techniques is more important than constantly sending emails.

There are approximately the following types of customers for inquiries, and corresponding judgment criteria should be provided for different types of customers:

01 Intentional procurement type

Looking for the product you provided (or similar product)

Features:

Clear objectives: specific/single product name, quantity requested, and delivery terms.

Comprehensive information: company name, address, email, phone number, fax number, website contact person.

Questioning profession: The questions are detailed, and the email is concise and to the point.

We should pay high attention to such foreign trade inquiries, and timely, accurate, comprehensive, professional responses and competitive offers are the key to achieving transactions. If the buyer does not respond, it is possible that our quotation is not comprehensive or competitive enough, greatly exceeding the customer's goals

Price range, so we are often screened out in the first round.

If you want to keep such customers, at least you can communicate with them more, then you need to be more cautious in quoting and not arbitrarily quote high prices. At the same time, the quotation should be as detailed as possible without any errors.

Some salespeople only write the amount when quoting, without even specifying the pricing method, whether it is FOB or CIF, which can make buyers feel that we are not professional and do not understand the basic common sense. Therefore, such mistakes must be avoided.

In addition, it is particularly necessary to promote and introduce our company and products. In the reply email, please include the company's website link or corresponding product page link, so that customers can have a more comprehensive understanding of us, and there may be unexpected surprises.

At the same time, business personnel should be patient in responding to customer emails. If it is only a one-time response without the following text, do not give up easily; Perhaps the other party did not carefully read your email due to the large number of suppliers replying to it. In this case, it may be advisable to send it a few more times. It is recommended that the email information sent each time needs to be modified and not completely consistent.

02 Potential customer type

I have business experience, but I am not familiar with your product yet. Some beginners have many specific problems that need to be solved.

Features:

A. General information is relatively comprehensive (including company name, address, phone number, fax number, contact person/sincerity)

B. From the professional evaluation of the problem, it can be judged that such customers are your potential customers

This type of customer needs to be nurtured, with patience, professional answers, and appropriate tracking to enhance their confidence in doing business with you. Usually, after receiving inquiries from such clients, we can ask them some professional questions in the response, which can be seen.

If such buyers do not respond to the quotation, it will also be due to the high quotation. In addition, the buyer currently has a relatively fixed supplier, so it will not be easily replaced, but there is also an intention to find new suppliers. For such customers, in addition to providing complete responses, we also need to make the email look unique and catch their attention.

03 No clear target type

Enquiries forwarded through trade B2B platforms often end up as price lists due to a wide variety of inquiries and unclear objectives.

For this type of foreign trade inquiry, we need to learn to filter customers. Write a general format email expressing your desire to establish a business relationship with him, ask professional questions, and ask them to provide more information about their profession. You can also say that there are over a hundred types of our products. What functions do you want, what market are you mainly targeting, and what is the quantity? Don't ask too many questions, just use one or two; To put it bluntly, it means collecting customer information and determining needs.

If the customer is willing to answer, then we can further follow up. If they are unwilling to answer, there is no need for further communication.

04 Information Collection Type

Some customers may have just entered this new field and need to understand the market, products, and learn more, so they may send inquiries to some suppliers.

Features:

Very professional, after several communications, they will remit the sample payment, but they will never become your customer, on the contrary, they may become your competitor. When replying to such emails, it is important to adhere to professional standards and try to politely refuse. When we reply, we can ask the other party what they want these materials for, and then ask them back.

05 Request sample type

Customers in India, the Middle East, and Africa often request free samples. Through email communication, it was found that he was not concerned about price, quality, etc., but only about sending him samples. Persist in asking him to pay for the sample and postage, and there will be no response.

For such inquiries, we have been able to take them calmly and there is no need to feel depressed because the buyer did not respond, causing psychological pressure on ourselves.

06 Competitive Purpose

Coming prepared, stealing intelligence is the most headache~~

Features:

Dress up as a foreign customer to spy on your prices, transaction terms, and other information. Enquiries are professional and difficult to distinguish; Especially for the product or marketing departments within the enterprise, it is a research activity.

This is the most difficult email to reply to. Use network technology to identify its origin. If it is an inquiry from your own website, you can use the statistical analysis tool installed on your website to find the IP address of the person who sent the inquiry to you, and know if it comes from which region in China; You can also try to communicate with the buyer over the phone through multiple exchanges and experience evaluations. If the other party refuses to provide a phone or fax, it is highly likely that the foreign trade inquiry is fake.

Enquiries of high quality are one of the necessary tools for foreign trade personnel to attract customers.