Doing foreign trade in Yiwu is a very hard industry and an extremely interesting thing. This morning, you dressed up and had coffee with an Arab in the lobby of a luxury hotel. At night, you sweated and led a group of workers to load containers. Sometimes you don't have a phone all day, and sometimes you have to stay up late and argue with Americans. You may earn tens of thousands of yuan in an email, or you may miss a word and cause "disaster" There is the warmth of receiving chocolate from Swiss customers, and there is also the pain of being cheated by a profiteer in a certain country. As China enterprises enter the international market faster and faster, more and more small and medium-sized private enterprises begin to recruit and explore foreign markets. A considerable number of fresh graduates and other professionals have also applied for or jumped ship to become foreign trade salesmen. These enterprises often do not have mature foreign trade departments and personnel, and some even have never had direct foreign trade experience. Then, in this "three noes" environment with no foreign customer channels, no work experience and no guidance from mature business managers, how can a foreign trade novice in Yiwu work? First of all, both business owners and business novices must be aware of two facts: 1. Foreign trade companies are not enemies of factories, but friends. For a long time, the development of enterprises can not be separated from the cooperation of foreign trade companies. Selling goods abroad through foreign trade companies (not just as export agents, because customers are foreign trade companies) will certainly lose a lot of potential profits-which is what many factory owners are worried about-but this is the only way for most small and medium-sized factories. Foreign trade companies are familiar with the international market and foreign trade operation. Cooperation with them can not only greatly reduce the early risk of entering the international market, but also gain valuable experience on market demand, which is very important for improving products to meet the needs of international buyers. In addition, when foreign trade companies supply goods to foreign trade companies, they will set many requirements in packaging, transportation, documents and so on. Don't underestimate and get tired of these rules and regulations, because most of them are the requirements of foreign buyers. Seriously follow the requirements, communicate with foreign trade companies more, and learn more about the causes and effects of these requirements for your future reference. Therefore, as a newcomer, the first thing to pay attention to is to cooperate with existing foreign trade companies seriously and actively, and pay attention to sorting and filing according to different orders. The foreign trade company will be your first teacher. The foreign trade market cannot be developed in a month or two. Foreign trade is a systematic project. In addition to the most important price, other transportation and document handover are also key. So it's not as simple as a normal transaction: quote the price and sign the contract if the customer accepts it. Even if you find an interested customer, the customer needs time to get to know you and observe you, so as to ensure that you can deliver the goods on time and submit the documents with good quality and quantity at this price. Because we don't meet thousands of miles apart, this process is longer. What's more, many times customers will not buy your ready-made products, but need to make some changes, confirm sales samples and so on. You should not only learn foreign trade, but also be familiar with product knowledge, so as to answer customers' inquiries and increase their confidence in you. Therefore, it is not surprising that it takes three months to six months from the start of work to getting the first order. Of course, if your products have absolute advantages, or have the opportunity to participate in large-scale expositions such as the Canton Fair, this process may be shorter. This is the second point that needs attention: treat market development rationally and don't expect immediate results. Next, make some necessary preparations. One job is to learn foreign trade, and the other job is to be familiar with products. A good way to learn foreign trade is to take documents as the center and focus, and use documents to "string" out all the steps of foreign trade process. Common foreign trade documents such as invoices, packing lists, commodity inspection, bills of lading, certificates of origin, bills of exchange, beneficiary statements, letters of credit, etc. are collected and stored at the bottom for future reference. For factories, the product categories are relatively fixed and the export procedures are similar. I made a complete set of documents once and then copied them. Letters of credit, in particular, are various. Letters of credit from Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia often have their own distinctive regional characteristics and special terms. If there is an opportunity, choose a representative letter of credit in different places for filing. Encounter special terms, record processing methods and accumulate experience. Familiarity with product knowledge is the basis for the success of foreign trade salesmen. The more you know about the product, the more your customers will respect you, and when bargaining, the words will carry more weight. If you have time, go to the workshop more, ask the workshop director and the old skilled workers, and even operate some production links yourself if you have the conditions. This can not only improve interpersonal relationships, but also let us know something about the East and the West that is not available in books. Understand the production process of products, the links that are easy to cut corners, the main raw materials, the sources of raw materials, the quality of raw materials and the resulting quality differences of finished products, quality inspection methods, technical parameters, common quality problems and leading factors. Understand the composition of product production cost and the allocation accounting of manual packaging of water and electricity. In this way, you can estimate the product price yourself and know the bottom line of the price. This is the key for foreign traders to carry out their business independently. Actively make some friends or worship some teachers. One is the freight forwarder, the other is the commodity inspection bureau (if the products fall within the scope of commodity inspection), and the other is the international settlement department of the bank. These three aspects are often consulted by foreign trade novices in the future. Let these friends and teachers mention it, it will get twice the result with half the effort. Communicate with your boss or direct department leader. Many times, bosses or leaders themselves don't understand foreign trade, and it's easy to make the mistake of amateurs guiding experts and eager for success. Seeing that you are busy sitting in front of the computer all day, but you have never actually placed an order, it is inevitable to have doubts. Therefore, at the beginning, the general branch should communicate with them, report their work, and keep abreast of the progress, problems encountered and solutions-at least the ideas they are trying to solve. It is very important to let the leader know what you are doing, otherwise your efforts will not be affirmed and supported, which will affect your work mood. Respect your predecessors, peers or colleagues you may meet. Think of them as opportunities for you to learn. Novices on the road, don't expect to make a lot of money, relationships are an important resource for future development. There are many trivial things in the foreign trade industry, but it is also an opportunity to learn something in a down-to-earth manner-although it is a trivial matter, there is often a difference between "knowing how to do it" and actually doing it. When assigned to do these little things, try to do them as long as they don't affect the work. Customers who have worked hard to develop are "robbed" by their predecessors, and they don't care much, because this is probably instructed by the boss-in order to keep customers safe. At the same time, this is also the natural state of most industry novices. Finally, observe professional ethics. Reputation is very important in Yiwu foreign trade. The place where you work is also the place where you learn about the product industry, and it is more likely to become a project that you will manage all your life. No matter whether you change jobs to another manufacturer in the same industry or do foreign trade yourself, the industry circle is so big and well-informed, and once your reputation is polluted, it will be greatly affected. For foreign trade novices, it is very important not to do "private work", not to sell business secrets (such as customer information) and not to take kickbacks.