Employees are resigning, factories are shutting down, and what else can foreign trade people who are quarantined at home do except worry?

In April, many foreign trade workers were quarantined at home due to the epidemic, and some even chose to be quarantined in the factory. Whether working from home or in the factory, these foreign trade workers who used to travel thousands of kilometers and cross the ocean to meet with customers for a business deal, can they still seize opportunities thousands of miles away in a study room of only a few square meters?

I would like to use words to record three foreign trade people who are going against the current during the epidemic.

"As long as we are given the opportunity, we will seize it firmly."

On the evening of April 22 , Feng Zuxu, head of Shanghai Yiwei Metal Products Co., Ltd., could not help but share an exciting news in the company group, "A customer that we have been negotiating since the new trade period in March has finally been won today! This customer has unlimited potential, and Amazon has invested 1 billion US dollars in it ! " The employees in the group were excited. Everyone had been working from home for 22 days and they really needed some exciting good news.

Since the New Trade Festival in March , Feng Zuxu has been working together with salesmen and engineering classmates. He conducts careful analysis and overall price judgment for every inquiry, and even discusses how to respond to customers.

"We received a lot of inquiries during the New Trade Festival in March, and we had originally planned to continue the New Trade Festival in April. However, we did not expect that all 18 people in the Shanghai headquarters were locked up at home and had to work from home. " As a veteran foreign trade person, Feng Zuxu immediately formulated the company's strategy under working from home, which is to unswervingly promote new customer development online.

The client signed on April 22 was actually very slow to reply to emails at first, and had already received samples from three companies before Shanghai Yiwei contacted them. Feng Zuxu repeatedly encouraged the salesperson to schedule a video conference with the client no matter what, and to fight with his own professional strength.

(Shanghai Yiwei employees at home and overseas customers in the video)

"As long as we are given the opportunity, we will seize it. Later, in a video conference with the customer, I gave them all kinds of professional explanations. Since we are a customized company, we provided them with many suggestions for improvement." Feng Zuxu said that in the end, Shanghai Yiwei relied on its expertise to make the customer choose them among many competitors.

"Due to the lockdown, we did not send out the samples until April 19. In fact, they have not received our samples so far. But on April 22, the customer still chose to sign a contract with us. " Feng Zuxu was still a little excited when talking about this experience. Although the order volume this time was not very large, he judged that this Internet of Things company invested by Amazon was definitely a potential customer and worthy of long-term cooperation.

When asked why he has invested so much energy in analyzing and judging a customer since the New Trade Festival in March this year , Feng Zuxu said that he often tells his employees this truth: "It is far better to serve a customer well than to try your luck at finding a customer."

Feng Zuxu's strengths are meticulous analysis of inquiries and winning orders with expertise. While working from home, Feng Zuxu also discovered his weaknesses - management issues, both for employees and children.

Because he is a person who immerses himself in work, when he started working from home, Feng Zuxu arranged a full schedule of online work for his employees every day, including a 10 a.m. check -in meeting, irregular online meetings in the middle, and a review meeting in the evening. In addition, Feng Zuxu also assigned employees a job of making short videos and live broadcasts at home, requiring each person to have a live broadcast every week. "To be honest, I felt very tired later and didn't want to attend these meetings. In addition, the lockdown was too long, and everyone's mentality fluctuated greatly, including myself." Feng Zuxu, a hard-working man, couldn't bear it himself, let alone the employees. One employee directly asked for resignation.

On the one hand, there are employee issues, and at home, there is also my son's six online classes every day . "During the first week of working from home, the atmosphere was very tense, and my son was really beaten by me a lot," said Feng Zuxu.

During that time, Feng Zuxu made two or three video calls every day to Yan Yuefeng, an Alibaba International Station clerk who was also working from home in Shanghai. "Yan Yuefeng and I have known each other for two or three years and we communicate frequently. When I started working from home, I sent him two versions of the work-from-home plan. I tend to be impatient to catch up with progress, but he advised me not to be so impatient from the beginning and to pay attention to the psychology of my employees."

On one hand, Yan Yuefeng persuaded him, and on the other hand, employees and children had emotional problems. Feng Zuxu quickly stopped the weekly live broadcast plan, and the nightly review meeting was adjusted to twice a week. He and his wife also made a clear division of labor for the children, with his wife taking care of the daughter and Feng Zuxu taking care of the son.

"Due to the particularity of our foreign trade industry, I used to go out early in the morning and come home at eleven or twelve at night. My son said I was 'busy as a dog'." Feng Zuxu said that because he did not pay much attention to him and his son did not understand him, he adopted a head-on disciplinary approach at the beginning, which made the atmosphere tense whenever the father and son met.

(The crude basketball hoop that Feng Zuxu made for his son)

Decompressing employees is also important for decompressing sons. "The priority is to help. I even built a basketball hoop for him at home." Feng Zuxu said that after he was no longer so nervous, his patient companionship every day quickly brought the father and son closer. "He used to be annoyed with me, but now he sleeps with me every day. So during this epidemic, while we are anxious, everyone still has a lot of growth."

(Feng Zuxu's son is happily shooting basketball)

"What is more terrifying than the epidemic is the mentality of having an epidemic."

In the early morning of March 31 , four confirmed cases were found in Xianfeng Street, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, where the factory of Jiangsu Nantong Jinrui Technology Development Co., Ltd. is located , and the factory was designated as a control area.

"At that time, there were more than 30 non-local employees in the factory, and there were several particularly urgent foreign trade orders on hand. My mother and I decided to go to the factory immediately." The controlled area only allows entry but not exit, so Jin Ye and his mother rushed into the factory without hesitation, set up two Simmons mattresses on the floor in the office, and began their life of "working in the factory."

"Do you think that working from a factory must be miserable? In fact, I have gained a lot in three weeks." Jin Ye said that during the more than 20 days of working from a factory, she also summed up a complete set of methodologies for foreign trade factories to deal with lockdowns or controls. Generally speaking, foreign trade merchants usually encounter four types of problems: inability to ship goods, impact on order negotiations, how to continue marketing, and boosting employee morale.

After Jin Ye entered the factory, he immediately learned about the various rules and announcements about the epidemic on Alibaba International Station. " There are epidemic exemption rules for RTS products on Alibaba International Station . We applied for it as soon as possible to avoid being deducted points for untimely delivery or being complained by buyers, which would not be worth the loss. " Jin Ye said that he also contacted customers as soon as possible to inform them of the impact of the epidemic. Overseas customers were allowed to postpone orders that were originally due in mid-April to mid-May.

However, the factory originally had more than 200 workers, but the number was reduced to more than 30 , and the production capacity was greatly affected because raw materials and auxiliary materials could not be imported. For a few days, Jin Ye and his mother went directly to the production line to do the work of front-line workers.

(Jin Ye’s mother is on the production line)

As for negotiating orders, Jin Ye has long been an expert in the application of live broadcast tools on Alibaba International Station. " I have been communicating with an important customer during this period, basically holding a video conference every two days, from the cooperation framework of the new quarter to the design of new samples, to the materials and subsequent development. As long as the blockade is unblocked, the new samples can be launched online. " Jin Ye said that during his work in the factory, it was common to hold two or three video conferences a day. Because the main customers are in the United States and Canada, they are basically concentrated at 8 am and 8 pm. In addition, his 3-year-old daughter is also a frequent visitor to the daily "video conference".

When it comes to marketing, Jin Ye said that this is the area that Alibaba International Station merchants like her don't need to panic about. Since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020 , many foreign trade merchants have made online arrangements. During this factory lockdown, Jin Ye concentrated on preparing for the April online sports and entertainment exhibition, and also signed up for the My matches online event, which is a buyer matching meeting, to communicate directly with major buyers with clear purchasing intentions . "The online opening on April 11 has been quite effective so far. There are already more than 100 potential buyers, and more than a dozen sample orders have been placed. "

While working in the factory, Jin Ye lived and ate with more than 30 employees . In addition to using limited production resources to rush as many orders as possible, he could also make dumplings, watch movies, and exercise with everyone after work. He was in a good mood and his work efficiency improved a lot.

(During the working hours at the factory, everyone made dumplings together)

On the 21st day of the lockdown , Jin Ye specially recorded a video to share her experience of working from home. She said, "There is a saying that what is more terrible than the epidemic is the mentality of the epidemic, so I really hope that everyone can keep a positive attitude and not be affected by external uncertainties. After all, we still have digital weapons in our hands."

On April 21 , the factory was unsealed, and Jin Ye and her mother finally returned home. Her 3-year-old daughter rushed over and hugged Jin Ye tightly. During this period of "working from the factory", both the mother and the child have grown up.

"We are now looking forward to catching up with the output value that fell this month."

" During the lockdown in 2022 , I locked myself in the factory, insisted on working every day, lived in a motorhome, and had a little wine every night to reward myself! " At midnight on April 20 , Du Chuankui , head of Shanghai Xinjin Industrial Co., Ltd. , shared some of his daily life in the factory on his WeChat Moments. Since March 26 , when he took seven or eight sales people to the factory in Tinglin Town, Jinshan District, Shanghai, Du Chuankui has been working in the factory for almost a month.

(Du Chuankui shared his working life in the RV on his WeChat Moments)

The RV he bought two years ago has been parked in the factory and has never been used. Du Chuankui never expected that he would start living in an RV for this reason. However, others live in RVs to keep their travel pace. Du Chuankui lives in a RV to keep his overseas business from stopping during this epidemic.

The seven or eight salesmen who followed Du Chuankui to the factory were all single. Instead of being locked up at home and having to take care of their three meals, these single salesmen who worked with Du Chuankui in the factory had a good life in the factory with the canteen chef taking care of their three meals. Occasionally, they could eat a pot of steaming hot boiled fish together, and the boss would share his collection of fine wine with them from time to time.

(A great meal during the workday)

During the time of working in the factory, the food and drink for dozens of people in the factory were properly solved. Seeing that many front-line anti-epidemic workers in Jinshan District slept on cardboard boxes on the floor for 7 consecutive days, Xinkui , which mainly sells massage products, also donated 20 folding massage beds.

"We have overseas warehouses in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada, with more than 6 million US dollars in inventory, so the overall overseas sector has not been affected and is still profitable. In terms of sales, everyone is working very hard. Since we cannot participate in offline exhibitions, we are actively expanding our customer base on online platforms such as Alibaba International Station, and the basic indicators are not affected. Now the main impact is on factory production and logistics. " Du Chuankui said that there were originally more than 400 workers in the factory, but because of the epidemic, only 70 or 80 workers who originally lived in the factory dormitories are left. Because the raw materials cannot be transported in, the workers are now basically in a state of suspension. In terms of logistics, it was basically stagnant before, but starting from April 20 , the container sector began to move.

When asked what he had gained from working in the factory, Du Chuankui joked that he had gained weight because he had more sleep time than before. But the real gain was that he and his employees had more time to discuss new product development and brand basic visual aspects.

"We are now looking forward to resuming work and production in May to catch up with the output value lost this month." Du Chuankui introduced that an 80,000-square-meter factory area invested in Yancheng, Jiangsu is also being actively promoted, and he firmly believes that things will get better and better.

epidemic

foreign trade