Being sales, we always receive much enquiry. It is so common that the client only asks for quotation without some reference messages. They just state how you will charge for varied kinds of service. Rarely, they reveal the acceptable bottom line for the price.
They are kicking the ball when you rush to ask the client how they think about your price. They just confirm that “sorry, I am still waiting for the client’s future confirmation. We will inform you the updated news.” Well, in most cases, there would be no reasonable end or no result for this kind of enquiry.
If we come against these circumstances by million times, you will definitely get mad or hart-broken. Certainly, we shall never lose a light of hope if we might have a chance to win the project. Just like my colleague says” I do the best, God does the rest.”
When you get one enquiry, it does not mean you are going to succeed. It is just the very beginning. You should have prepared for the reality that you would lose the project, but what you need to do now is to have a try to win. This must come down to the professional issue: how to judge if the enquiry is effective?
Many of the sales men are not expert in judging the effectivity.
As per my opinion, the following aspects will help you to verify the effectivity:
Firstly, we judge from the contents of the enquiry, one basic rule is that more information about the project, more possibility of true enquiry.
Where the enquiry should contain the following message:
1, when the client asks for a quotation. Shehe will state the language pairs, fields, deadline, file formats and acceptable rate.
2,The client will have clear instructions for the possible project when you put forward any questions. Meanwhile, they will show interest if you can provide some samples or your experience on this kind of materials.
Secondly,When you quote, they will response in a short time which somehow means a real enquiry.
Sometime, I send quotation. However, in the meantime, I enclose the contact with client as well.
Here I would like to emphasize that we are now in a time of e-commerce in which the effectiveness displays in two aspects: one is that it is communication between two parties and offers much convenience for both. The other side is that it lacks the facticity for both counter parts. Henceforward, in the society deserves honesty, each trade can come to reality after the two parities earn a deep understanding for each other.
To some degree, it is the reason that exhibitions have a bright day nowadays, where the buyer and supplier have their way to understand each other so that they have easy direction to find the sense of truth and safety.
It is the same case when we assign one project to some teams in other countries. The only way we communicate lays in e-mails. Heaven knows, the one who answers your mail is a man or woman. You may have been guessing and soliloquizing “can I trust them?” or “can they do it well?”. Lots of trepidation wanders in your mind before the final minute you get what you want from your cooperator in other corner of the Earth.
Most companies over value the function of e-commence especially some foreign trade ones, who execute the doctrine – the sales can win orders only if they have computers, phones, network and samples. However, such doctrine loses its vitality in the current society full of e-commence air.
Actually, in many cases, our client refuses to cooperate with us just because they regard our price as no competiveness or our sample is not good enough. So we must know each side of our service or products before accepting the possible enquiry and judge if it is a real enquiry.