How to Respond to Buyer Inquiries Alibaba

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the webinar .

The topic today is “How to follow up inquiries and make

the deal”. Hope the information we share today can help

you to get more inspiration for your Alibaba business.

It will start at 16:30 (Beijing Time)

Thanks again for coming!

Alibaba.com Online Training Course

How to Respond to Buyer Inquiries

Alibaba Gold Supplier Service Team

General Rules To Reply Inquires

Agenda

Understanding Your Buyers and Group Inquiries

Quotation Samples

Top 3 Considerations When Buyers Choose Suppliers

What Concerns the Buyers most in dealing with new

suppliers

Research from Nielsen

What are the key elements on the first contact?

Understanding of Buyers’ Needs 63%

Suppliers’ Response Time 55%

How Do You Group Inquires?

According to information provided in an inquiry, we divide

inquiries into 4 main types:

Specific and detailed inquiries

Specific but brief inquiries

General inquiries

Advertisement and spam

Type 1: Specific And Detailed Inquiries (Top Priority)

• I am interested in importing royal jelly powder from your country. And our company is located in Busan.

We have many natural food distributors in Korea. If you can fulfill my following request, please contact me.

• Color: milky white or light-yellow

Appearance: powder, 100 mesh

Odor: pure fragrance peculiar to royal jelly

Taste: acid, pucker, sweet aftertaste

Moisture: 5%

…

Quantity Required: 1,000 kilograms

Shipping Terms: FOB

Destination Port: Busan, Korea

Payment Terms: T/T

• Thank you

Jerry Wales

Sales Manager

• ABC company

Email: [email protected]

• Tel…

Purchasing conditions

Specific requirement

Payment Terms preferred

Complete contact information

Our company is specialized in tools and small machines sale in US. We are interested in your

Gas Cutter Machine. Could you send me your catalogue with price list?

1. Please indicate if you would like to send samples of some selected products (FREE OF

CHARGE) for inspection prior to place orders.

2. Please indicate any discounts or special offers for quantity orders.

In the first instance, please send all correspondence to: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you

Jenny Wanda

Sales Manager

Email: [email protected]

Only product name, no specific requirement

Type 2. Specific But Brief Inquiries (High Priority)

Type 3. General Inquiries (Low Priority)

• Dear Sir/Madam,

We are interested in your products which I saw in Alibaba and we sincerely hope to

establish a long-term business relation with your esteemed corporation. Please kindly

send me your catalog.

• Thank You

Johnson Kell

Sales Manager

Email: [email protected]

No product name and no product details

Example 1:

dear sir

Good Day!

im a factory from china .

i can offer cellphone ,but your qty is very big

this is right ?

if you have interesting

Example 2:

Dear Sirs,

I am Mr. Ali Buba, Bill and Exchange manager, Bank of Africa Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. I have a profiling

amount in an excess of US$18 Million, which I seek you to accommodate for me. You will be rewarded with

40% of the total sum for your partnership. Can you handle this

I need your assistance in transferring the sum of ($18 Million) eighteen million US Dollars into your account within 7

to 10 banking days.

Promote their own product to you

Type 4. Advertisement And Spam (Least Priority)

A huge amount of profit mentioned at first

General Rules To Reply Inquires

Agenda

Understanding Your Buyers and Group Inquiries

Quotation Samples

General Rules To Reply Inquires

1. Analyze before making quotation

2. Reply efficiently

3. Track after quotation

Analyze Your Buyers:

Before making your quotation, investigate who are our

buyers and what they need.

Study their demands from inquiry

Go through their company website

Search from Google or other Search Engines

Learn from Customer Reports by third party

……

Reply Efficiently

Timely Response (Reply within 12 hours; keep TradeManager online)

Answer all buyers’ concerns

Make a clear but attractive quotation

Display your products together with pictures and brief

description. (Excel or Word Format is recommended)

List the price and also the shipping cost if necessary.

Track Your Buyers:

Add potential buyers in Contacts

Send a follow-up email after 2 or 3 days if no feedback

Contact by other communication tools, such a telephone, fax,

TradeManager, etc.

Bring your greetings in festivals or send your new products to them if

necessary

General Rules To Reply Inquires

Agenda

Understanding Your Buyers and Group Inquiries

Quotation Samples

Quotation Sample: Specific And Detailed

Dear Mr ABC,

We are pleased to receive your inquiry of Aug. 2nd and to hear that you are interested in our plush toys.

Our company, Universal Trading Co., Ltd, was established in 1998. …

Model No.: 105023658

Product Origin: India

Price Terms: FOB Mumbai Other Price Terms: CIF London

Delivery Lead Time: 30 days

Certification(s): EN71, EN50088, EMC

Shipment: To be effected within 2 months from receipt of the relevant L/C by Maersk Line.

Payment: By sight L/C, T/T

We will keep this offer valid only for 7 days.

As we are receiving orders day to day and our present stocks are nearly exhausted, we would advise you to place an order as soon as

possible if deliveries are required to be prompt.

We are looking forward to your initial order. Thanks and best regards,

Yours Faithfully

Mairaj Ali

Export Dept.

A.B. Technology Co., Ltd

Email: [email protected]

Point out when you received the inquiry.

Give a short introduction

about you to your buyer

Letter body should contain the detail

description of your product, such as

functions, color, size, delivery time and

packing

Your contact details must be input at

the end of quotation.

Dear Jack,

Thank you for your kindly inquiry dated on Apr. 9th regarding the Gas Cutter Machine. And I have visited your company website and

known that your company is nearby Los Angeles. So the price for Gas Cutter Machines is as follows on the term of CIF Los Angeles in

USD.

Gas Cutter Machine Mode No. NB-PB-037P USD32.56/Set

Gas Cutter Machine Mode No. NB-PB-037H USD39.75/Set

The payment term will be 30%T/T for deposit and the balance against the copy of B/L. And the L/C is also available for the first order.

All of our Gas Cutter Machines are meet the American API standard and best seller in North America. They would be double checked

through our special examining instruments on our product line. Replacement Parts be packed separately with manual guide on the bottom

of the carton who is free of charge.

12 Sets of Gas Cutter Machine be piled in a pallet. 16 pallets exactly fill a 20 feet container. The lead time is 3 weeks once the order is

confirmed.

There will be highly appreciated if you could let us get your opinion on our quotation. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Thank

you.

Mary Li

Sales Manager

ABC Manufacturer Co., Ltd.

Tel: +86-571-0000000

Check buyers’ company information from internet and company

websites, and give quotation as per buyer’s local market needs.

Quotation Sample: Specific But Brief Inquiries

•

Dear Mr. Sunny,

Thank you for your email of Sep. 6th, 2011.

We are able to produce 3 series of starter batteries, namely BCI (Battery council

international), DIN (German standard) and JIS (Japanese Standard) batteries. From your

website, I get to know that your company has kept a long-term business relationship with

some Japanese carmakers. So I figure the batteries you are using should be JIS series.

Here I am sending you the specification of this series of batteries for your reference.

…

We hope our products can meet your need and we may establish a long-term steady

business relationship.

• James Martin

Export Dept.

A.B.C. Co., Ltd

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 66-xxxxxxxxx

Check the buyer’s company information from internet

to further evaluate what exactly the buyer may want

and give quotation with specific requirement.

Quotation Sample: General Inquiries

Why Buyers do not contact you?

Too busy

Hope to get price list

Reserving suppliers

No interest

Price not acceptable

Price ok but pending final

decision

How to deal with it ?

Create a customer list

Actively call

Actively email

Improve Quotation samples

Up coming trainings and Learning center

Thank You!