10 rules for telephone communication with foreign buyers (I)

As a good salesperson, maintaining good communication with customers is the cornerstone of order completion. However, foreign traders often have such troubles: we responded and may even send samples after receiving customers’ inquiries, but the customers no longer contact us. Many foreign traders do not know how to solve such problems. At present, 90% of cross-border e-commerce communication is done by mail, but in fact, as long as you master the skills, telephone communication will have a multiplier effect on the success of the order. Here are 10 rules for telephone communication with foreign buyers.

1. Try telephone communication–one of the most important ones of 10 rules for telephone communication with foreign buyers

This is the most important one in 10 rules for telephone communication with buyers——we need to confident and try to communicate with buyers with customers. The biggest advantage of telephone communication is that when the inquiry is stuck, we can understand the customer’s real thoughts and needs in the most direct, fastest and most accurate way, and solve the customer’s problems. We can also judge the importance that customers attach to us by customers’ tone.

Communicating with foreign businessmen by phone is a very technical task. Before we call, we need to complete the preparations and consider how to describe the problem in a short time, attract customers, let customers trust us, solve problems and eventually achieve our expected results.

2. Eliminate fear

I have talked to many foreign trade newcomers about the problems in telephone communication with overseas customers. The biggest problem is fear and tension. The first reason for this problem is that salespersons are not confident in their English ability. The second is that the culture and communication methods of the two countries are different, which is easy to cause misunderstandings. The third is that many foreigners have accents that often confuse new foreign traders. However, these can be improved and solved through learning.

Knowledge needs to be accumulated over many years. In addition, we can also eliminate our nervousness through psychological hints. We can tell us that after making a phone call and communicate with customers well, we can have a new order. In this way, we can encourage ourselves a lot, and become more confident.

3. Learn phone etiquette

We need to pay attention to telephone etiquette when calling overseas customers. In many countries, unauthorized business calls are impolite, so we can send an email to invite them before calling our customers. We should also pay special attention to the time difference, check the time zone of the customer in advance, and do not disturb the customer’s normal rest time or affect the customer’s work. In addition, we should use honorifics when calling customers, and pay attention to our tone, and emotions to leave a good impression on customers. For example, our voice can be lower than that of customers, indicating our humility and attention to customers.

4. Express in the simplest language and in the shortest time–one of the most important ones of 10 rules for telephone communication with foreign buyers

We have to keep learning and practicing how to express our ideas in the simplest language and in the shortest time, because our overseas customers are probably busy, and if we take up too long, it will cause resentment.

We can list all the questions on the paper, and practice them in the mirror if conditions permit. If our spoken English is poor, especially for new foreign traders, we must think and practice as much as possible before calling the customers. Also, we should remember to speak slowly, on the one hand, our expression will be relatively clear, on the other hand, we are not easy to be nervous.

5. Don’t echo what the books say or show off our English

The key to getting an order is to meet customer needs and solve their problems. In real business communication, as long as we can understand the customer’s description of the problem and clearly express our meaning, we can achieve the purpose of telephone communication. The most common mistakes for new foreign traders are echoing what the books say when calling and communicating with customers. They may copy a large amount of foreign trade correspondence and read it when communicating with customers. What’s more, they may also show off their English and use some gorgeous words. In fact, daily communication is for effective communication and does not require the use of vulgar words.