Golden Time of Foreign Trade

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, and so does the Chinese National Day! Can the New Year's Day and Spring Festival be far behind? Are you counting down the days for all the festivals and getting ready for joyful holidays? I bet you are so happy now that you are under much less pressure than before.

I am very excited myself. I have been waiting for the holiday for a whole summer, and finally the second half year with many festivals is coming! Are you wondering where I am going to have fun or if I am going home to get union with my family? You know what? In fact I can live with my family every day so I needn't worry about that. The most important thing is:

The majority of Chinese foreign traders will be going on a vacation so nobody is going to compete with me for customers! I have been waiting for this good opportunity since the Dragon Boat Festival. My years of experience in foreign trade tells me that the chances of getting customers' replies are a lot bigger during Chinese holidays. Yes, a lot bigger! By no means will I miss this great opportunity. I have already made out a working plan for the three-day Mid-Autumn holiday:

1. Reply customers' e-mails in time;

2. Send a bunch of introductory e-mails to customers;

3. Call and chat with old customers and try to follow up the work that is unfinished or that I want to do;

4. Make a whole-year conclusion, make a statistical analysis of the company's performance, and make plan for the remaining five years;

5. Enjoy the moon at night with my family and eat moon cakes.

Why would I send introductory e-mails to and call customers during Chinese holidays? That's because in the foreign holidays the customers are probably going on a vacation and how could I or dare I do such an annoying thing to disturb them with a "happy holiday"?  If I ever affect the customers' mood I can hardly change their impression of me. But the Chinese holidays have nothing to do with the foreign customers, and these holidays only influence them in that they will receive less e-mails and "harassing" calls from our peers, so I can remind them to confirm the terms like PI, CO, BL and even payment without worries. And they will reply me more patiently than they normally do, so the confirmation can be done quickly.

Although I cannot go on a vacation during this holiday, I can gain a lot more. The customers can chat with me for a longer time, and our friendship will be improved. What do we talk about? I will seize the opportunity to introduce our products to the customers so they can have a deeper understanding of our products. Or I will talk about something deeper with them, such as their inventories, their best selling products and the people in charge of purchase in their companies (don't be pessimistic and think they would never tell you these things. As long as you are thick-skinned enough you can get all the information). By doing so, I can know the customers very well. And if we have a good relationship I can even ask them about their customers in the same market.  

I have done so in the previous holidays and I did gain a lot. Working efficiency in these days is usually better, and I would do my job with higher proficiency, which would help improve my confidence.

It is my credo that we should accumulate as more customers as possible while we are young, so the road of our foreign trade businesses could be smoother and more comfortable!

I must say in here that this article has nothing to do with your bosses (I am no an undercover sent by your bosses). I would like to wish all of you a happy holiday! Enjoy yourselves!