Sales & Service

As we know, more and more companies want to take a share of the profits in China market. As a thorough preparation is the basic rule of each successful sales activity, to maintain a business relationship and keep a good after-sales service is also the key point in the trade. 

We should say that a well-prepared company is necessarily to appear a trustworthy feature in front of a potential client. But sometimes they fail to realize that their existing customers could also be a source of new business. A selling company should also offer as much as it can, but never anything which it can not provide. This should be self-evident and will attract customers to get more orders.

If you want to approach China market, when an agreement has been achieved with the customer after all the effort, take care not to endanger the deal by doing some fatal mistakes:

- "Guanxi", an important Chinese business element: In China, "Guanxi" means "relationship", stands for any type of relationship. In China business world, it is also understood as the network of relationships among various parties that cooperate and support together. The Chinese business market, people always said," You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." In essence, this boils down to exchanging favors, which are expected to be done regularly and voluntarily. Therefore, it is an important concept to understand if someone is going to approach China market.

-If you are not sure to be able to keep the price, make it clear from the beginning on and arrange flexible agreements; the key point is, to mention these things from the beginning on.

- It is well known that nobody is supposed to tell his "company secrets", but negotiations with China companies always should be led with a spirit of forthrightness. In western companies, openness is considered to be serious, reliable and professional; but in China, it means rude, unserious and unreliable. New order will fail!

It is not surprised that there are still a considerable number of sales managers do not care about after-sales-service. In some cases, after-sales service can be almost as important as the initial purchase, even though no order is being placed, to keep a good after-sales service is also indispensable.

Such a behavior will be appreciated by each customer and mostly pay back with new orders. An occasional email or telephone call will have great benefit for the development of the customer relationship. Of course, a telephone call or email should be linked to some meaningful statement. Emails with contents like "Hello, how are you?" or "Do you have a new order for me?" are not perceived as very considerate by most customers. It will be more useful to send emails with meaningful contents. Some examples as follows:
1. Information about new designs and products;

2. News about new equipment (machinery) in your factory, if this new equipment means a direct value/benefit for your customer;

3. Congratulations related to festivals such as Chinese New Years etc. (You need to main the cultural background of your customer);

4. Update your certificates, for which you have successfully applied recently;

In any case, each customer has different needs and all messages, E-mails and telephone calls should always be related to the customer's interest.

We can summarize all these activities under the world: "after-sales service" or "after-sales management":

- The target of the after sales management is to assure the customer, that he has made the right decision with purchasing your goods;

- You have to encourage your customer to repeat the same purchase again or to buy another product of your assortment;

- In any case you will try to make sure, that your customer has been content with his last order;

- You will also use the all after-sales-communication with your customer to receive information about market trends and customer demands; this will help you to adjust and improve your offers while targeting old and new customers;

- You will contact your customer in different ways, as through telephone, email, with giveaways, electronic flyers etc;

- CROSS SELLING: if possible, you will try to sell related goods to an exiting customer!

Sometimes, many sales managers are surprised to receive no orders after they have sent out one or two emails to a foreign customer after the fair. As a consequence, many of them will give up contacting the potential customer in a time frame less than two months after the fair. Such a time frame is much to short. If a sales manager has made research and is convinces about the professionalism and (solid) market status of a potential customer, then he should not give up contacting such a customer for several months. This does not mean to send out an email each 3 days. It is rather necessary to develop a feeling for the needs of such a customer and to present the own offer accordingly.

In general, it is always easier to keep an existing to customer than to find a new one. And if you face high competition within your product, short-term after-sales activities will not lead to success! Only long-term after-sales-service, with a well-considered proportion of an activity will be successful!