People who are engaged in sales know that in order to have good sales performance, it is very important to find customers, and the same is true for foreign trade sales. The customers of foreign trade sales services are generally overseas, so how to find more overseas buyers? I have been engaged in foreign trade sales for almost 10 years, and I will share with you the following nine ways for me to find overseas customers, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of various methods, hoping to help the small partners engaged in foreign trade sales!
First of all, the first method: find customers through customers, this is the most direct and very effective!
Many customers provide some additional introduction during the communication process. Take advantage of these opportunities and you can find out more
Client. Of course, it requires a certain foundation.
Advantages: Customers introduced by customers are relatively accurate and easy to handle. Disadvantages: more time and energy, high maintenance costs.
The second method: exhibiting
This is a photo I took while attending the 2016 show. In recent years, various exhibitions at home and abroad have emerged one after another, some exhibition industries are relatively broad, and some exhibition industries are more specific. The customers found at the exhibition are relatively reliable and have a high level of trust.
Advantages: Companies that often go to the exhibition will find: at the exhibition, customers can see your products directly and closely, you can communicate and communicate directly with customers face-to-face, and the business negotiation process is effective, timely and fast. Generally speaking, the people who go to the exhibition are related to the industry. If the communication is smooth and the understanding is deep enough, the current opportunity to sign the order is relatively large, so there is no need for development steps such as network marketing, visits, and customer tracking, saving time and costs.
Disadvantages: However, with the development of the times and the support of national policies, more and more companies participate in the exhibition, customers in the same industry and the same exhibition, can communicate with many suppliers at the same time, it is convenient to find similar products. Therefore, it is a bit difficult to develop new customers at exhibitions and sign orders on the spot.
Third method: search through search engines, etc
For example, Google can find customer websites and display pages, and find the customer’s contact details through communication with customers.
Specific Google how to search for development customers, I have published related articles in the previous public account, interested partners, you can look at the previous articles. Or click the link below.
Google Advanced Search develops customer how-to-LIGHTBEST Co.,Ltd (light-best.com)
The fourth method: customs data
At present, the third-party service companies that do customs data are mixed, some customs data leave real buyer information, and some leave the information of freight forwarders. It can also be consulted through official channels, and this data is free of charge.
Advantages: accurate acquisition of customer information, very accurate acquisition of customer information, easy to develop
Disadvantages: First, it needs to charge a large fee, and second, the customs data is generally old data half a year ago or many years ago, and the timeliness of customers is relatively poor.
The fifth method: B2B platforms
With the rise of a batch of B2B platforms such as Alibaba and Made in China, international trade for SMEs has become easier.
Advantages: Online promotion, save travel expenses for overseas and business trips, exhibition expenses, etc.
Disadvantages: There are more and more B2B platforms, the traffic of major platforms has reached the bottleneck, and a large number of advertisements need to be placed on paid promotion, which is costly, inefficient, and has more porridge. The following is the website of our Alibaba B2B store, interested partners can click the link.
The sixth method: through industry forums, such as Forbes Forum, foreign trade circles, etc
Each industry has its own forum, and you can search relevant industry websites and forums to find customer information.
Advantages: These foreign trade forums are a communication platform, buyers and sellers can post on the forum, the cost of development capital is low, and the acquisition of customers is relatively accurate.
Disadvantages: Need to post constantly, large workload, high time cost, low customer acquisition rate
The seventh method: offline customer acquisition
For example, go to a certain area, the area is mainly concentrated on a certain industrial chain, go to the local field to visit customers, distribute brochures, face-to-face communication.
Advantages: accurate customer acquisition and high efficiency
Disadvantages: Sales personnel need to find customers one by one, consuming time and energy, especially foreign trade sales, need to go abroad, apply for visas, order air tickets, hotels, etc., high capital costs.
The eighth method: build your own website
The company establishes its own official website or Google independent website, such as our official website: www.light-best.cn
There is also www.light-best.com
and Google Indie: www.bestuvlamp.com
Advantage:
1. Limited by platform rules, relatively flexible and free, and platform rules are many, competitors are many,
2, can be customized and according to their own needs development, can meet the long-term needs of enterprises in the development process, and according to the development of the enterprise continues to improve, but at this point, many companies or individual foreign trade personnel can not do, they often on the website investment is very small, reluctant to spend money on the website, think that there is a website can, just simply display products, do not play the advantages of the website at all, and often because of a large number of such company websites, the existence of personal foreign trade websites, so that many people have misunderstanding, do a good job of the platform, It further ignores its own advantages to build stations.
3. Self-built websites need professionals who know how to optimize and promote, and also need certain technical support, if self-built websites are optimized and promoted well, the effect will be better than the platform. If the brand effect is generated, it can even kill the platform in a matter of seconds
Disadvantages: There are a large number of professional and technical personnel constantly optimizing and promoting the platform, and the level of the website is often very high, including speed, ranking will be very good, there are also many advertisements on the platform, the website traffic is large, and the probability of customer access is relatively high.
If there are no professional technicians for maintenance, updating, optimization and promotion, the ranking lags behind the platform.
The disadvantage of self-built website is passive, waiting for buyers to optimize browsing through high opportunity cost. Foreign SNS platform
The ninth method: foreign SNS platforms
Such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. to find foreign trade customers
Advantages: Foreign buyers tend to be younger, and the application of social platforms is very extensive. SOHO is a good way to use foreign social platforms to develop customers
1. Social platforms can eliminate geographical restrictions and promote in multiple regions
2. The platform has large traffic and high exposure, which can enhance personal or corporate brands
3. Customer stickiness and customer interaction
Disadvantages: There is now too much content published through SNS, high repetition rate, strong advertising, more false information, less participation and interaction, and strong operational ability
Post time: Mar-23-2023