General

After using customs data, many salesmen will complain that customs data development is useless. I will firmly tell you that it is very useful to develop customers or understand customer information. Over the years, many of our customers have insisted on using customs data to develop customers, and have benefited a lot from it. Just because the customs data has helped me a lot, I hope you can also benefit. Well, the following is a representative question that we have selected. It should answer a lot of questions about customs data. I hope it can help you.

Q1: What is the customs data? I haven't used it before. How do I start?

A: Don't worry, this article should solve some of your doubts.

Customs data is a general term for customs bill of lading (manifest) data and customs declaration data.

Through these necessary import documents, you can intuitively know the exporter, importer and detailed goods information of each import. And this information will become a very important weapon for us to develop customers.

This is equivalent to knowing that there are hundreds or thousands of corresponding customers. It saves you from the process of screening and verifying real buyers, so that you can directly enter the next step of the "quick order" process.

Q2: How to use the system when there are too many data found? It seems that development is slow.

A: Your feeling is correct. It's a bit confusing to see so many customs data when you first get to know them. In fact, the first step we need to do is to filter and sort out the data and make a development plan. If you are developing while querying, the efficiency will be relatively low. In addition, customer development of customs data really needs a certain period, because all the importers you see already have suppliers, and customer development needs to pay attention to a rhythm. So what you are recommended to do is to sort out the information of importers, analyze customers, search for contact information, and finally develop letters or phone calls.

Q3: I searched with very precise keywords of our products and only found a few pieces of information. What can I do?

A: This is actually the same as using search engines to search.

First of all, ask yourself, may the product term you searched appear in the cargo information of the bill of lading?

Sometimes too detailed product keywords are not found on the bill of lading, because the freight forwarder or document personnel on the bill of lading try to use simple words with fewer words to prevent information errors caused by complex information.

Secondly, the keywords you use are not consistent with the cargo information words on the bill of lading.

For example, if you export disposable covers, but the customs declaration personnel may use the words disposable amount, disposable clothing, and disposable apparent on the bill of lading, then if you only use disposable covers to search, you may only be able to match a small part.

Therefore, if you search for very little information, you need to think about whether you need to change the search term. In addition, is there only one way to search for importers through product keywords? Of course not. We need to spread our thinking and find more importers. The auxiliary search scheme, combined with the management form of "customer source summary", realizes the system development of customs data.

Q4: Why can different countries search differently? Some only show importers?

A: Different countries have different degrees of openness to data. If a customs data manufacturer tells you that he has all kinds of data, he must be a liar. For example, there is no country in the Middle East that has opened customs data for public trading. Among the countries that open customs data, some countries are bill of lading (manifest) data, and some countries are importers. As a result, the data format is different and the search options in the customs data system are different. Therefore, mastering the search rules of different countries is also the first step to make good use of customs data.

Q5: Which countries need to distinguish language search?

A: The data information is derived from the customs record system of the importing country. Therefore, the general cargo information and the importer's company name will be in their own language.

Therefore, for goods information (product description) and importer company name, English countries use English to search, Russia and Ukraine use Russian to search, and other language countries use the corresponding language to search.

Q6: Why can't I search with the Chinese customs code?

A: Maybe you don't understand the source of customs data.

Because the customs data information is exported from the customs system of the importing country, usually the importer or the importer's agent should reflect the corresponding commodity code of the importing country in the customs clearance documents for filing to pay the tariff, so you need to use the commodity code of the importing country.

Q7: Why can't I search by the name of a competitor's company?

A: It is possible that the other party is an agent or a company leaving the case for export, so the shipper on the bill of lading is not the English company name of the competitor.

Q8: Why is there no customer contact information?

A: Basically, there is no customer contact information in the customs data. Some customs data that claim to have customer contact information on the market are re matched with third-party enterprise directory procurement through email crawling software. Therefore, focusing on the key points, the customs data should be developed in coordination with Google search and SNS platform, and a search plan should be developed to achieve accurate development. It is precisely because there is no customer contact information in the customs data that many customers have not been accurately developed.

Q9: Are the prices in the customs data true? Why are some prices so low?

A: Prices in customs data are not completely indicative. Usually, the price figure is the average unit price of the total amount of the whole shipment. Some are tax avoidance prices deliberately understated by multinational subsidiaries to the parent company, and some are filled in by customs officers at will. However, the frequency and quantity of procurement are of important reference value to foreign traders.

Q10: Is there any development value for customers who do not purchase frequently?

A: I suggest we consider it from the overall strength.

A relatively gentle procurement frequency means that importers have time and energy to learn more about new suppliers within the procurement time interval. However, high procurement frequency means frequent procurement and short cycle, which may not be easy to develop. Because a short procurement cycle means that stable and sustainable supply is very important. Under this rhythm, importers will be more cautious about changing suppliers or adding new suppliers. Of course, prudence does not mean that cooperation opportunities are necessarily small. This issue should be viewed dialectically, and more attention should be paid to the strength and competitive advantage of the company, and how capable it is to be a large customer.

Q11: Will the data be updated in time?

A: Of course. Don't worry about this. The latest data is updated regularly. However, I would like to remind you that in terms of customer development, it is more important to make good use of the previous data. If you do not master the development method, even the latest data, I think no matter how new the data is, it may not help you so much.

Q12: After I use keywords to search for customers, I have to search one by one to find out that most of the websites are info or marketing mailboxes. Is there an efficient way.

A: This problem may be encountered by many people. What you need to train is the skills in four dimensions: customer analysis+information acquisition+development scheme+customer email search. The problems you encounter are also the problems that many foreign traders encountered when they first contacted Google for development. There are solutions to these problems.