Hi all! I am a fan of business success story. I know! In the alibaba homepage we can find some stories but i want something interactive where we can share experiences. So let us keep this topic alive a long long time with some beautiful success story. Who wants to begin?

Replying to [LeeHello]:I am agree with gabor bathori about buyer inquiries but i also know that it is not facil to give a reply to all of them. But i think you should use Alibaba as a springboard to reach international customers. I think you should work on your personal communication in your own website by using Alibaba'advantages and at the end make that information about you, your products and your company travel without Alibaba's help.
Give something more than the other sellers.
Thinks different that others.

hello mioboy:
nice to meet you.
i seek your information in the alibaba forums . and feel an interest in it . can i chat with you in the web

Replying to [LeeHello]:

This is my personal opinion. You may agree with me or not, it does not matter.


Successful sales come when the prospects (before customer) is convinced and persuaded to buy from you. And having an advertisement in the Alibaba Portal is only one of the media to communicate your product to them. However, the highest impact you can have on your prospects is to make a face-to-face contact, a handshake, and have dinner together maybe.


This is why I travelled to many places all over this part of the world, but I had never been to America.


Pardon me for saying this to you, USD25,000 is very little sales after so long time, at this rate, my company will go hungry, with no money to pay the salary of the staff in the factory and offices. If you want to buy Mercedez Benz cars, then you have to go to Stuggart, Germany, and if you want to buy the Airbus, you must go to TOURS.


If you want to sell to the customers in the shipyard, you must go to them, do not expect them to come to you. We have a team of about 7 Sales people in our office, and this is what I told them from the beginning. First thing in the morning, they will make their morning call and go and visit new customers and again the old ones, to thank them for buying your products. It is more expensive to get new customer than to retain the existing ones.


A similar custume jewellery dealer in Alibaba from South Korea is getting about USD20,000 a month of sales for their product. I read his testimony earlier. Why and how did he do it? He wants to keep it a secret, else his competitors will copy his method and override him.


I am a Sales Manager for more than 12 years and I did that with 3 million dollars sales a year to the Power Generation Plants of Indonesia (Perustuaan Listrik Negara).

Replying to [Street Smart]:There is no magic formulae to success, it is sweat and skill.

You have got to know your product well, like the back of your hand, rehe it with your own people first, do a presentation one-to-one and one-to-many using Power Point and Slides presentation. You have got to learn the skill of doing the presentation to impress you viewers on the product.

You have got to speak their language, if you want to sell to Germans you have got to speak German, to the Indonesian, speak Indonesian and to the Chinese speak mandarin. You must learn to be courteous, to be bold to ask for the order, not after some drinks in Karaoke, you forgot to ask for the order. But ask it in a polite way, like "We hope we can work together on this project." be willing to listen to the customer and find his needs and wants. Chinese always say work together or cooperate.

Find out about your competitors. Drill yourself with the competitor's products and highlight all their weaknesses and compare them with your product strengths. Do talk about your failures, but always mark your successes. Mark your goals and target, and visit the customers systematically. Do product comparison point-to-point with your competitors'.

Give you customers incentives to buy from you. Provide him the rewards of bulk orders, give them quantity discounts and watch out your Production rate, never give them empty promises, but be truthful and honest with them.

Based on the 4 Ps of the Marketing Mix, you will have to make your sales strategy, and get everyone in the company involved, including the QC Manager, the Production Manager, the Engineering Manager and the Research N Development Manager and the CEO.

Replying to [Street Smart]:I will not have found better answer. Thanks for your contribution, Through all topics, i have the feeling that you have much experiences in business. Can I ask you how old are you? If you don't answer i will understand. Have you got a success story to tell us, even if it is not yours

Replying to [Street Smart]: I quite agree to you! I am only in sales for one year and have enough to learn from you! However every factory over here seems to rely on Alibaba and the advertisement of Alibaba makes them believe that to work on Alibaba is the best way to export.
Honestly I do want to have the chance to meet our potential cusotmer face to face instead of wasting a lot of time on Internat replying the countless inquries. However how can the small factories like us afford to send us abroad? My boss invested 7500 USD on Alibaba last year and he would not one penny withought getting those money back.
I resigned last night and have planned to move to Guangzhou where I might be albe to work for a stronger company.
Thank you,Street Smart , what you have achieved (3 million doller a year) is going to be my goal and I am sure with the support of big company I will certainly be albe to manage it!
Thank you all.
Lee

My story is a success for me. I stated three years ago with a one thousand dollar investment in horse tack at a dealer auction , and soon found my way to Alibaba. I located suppliers in China and India, and will do over one half million dollars in sales this year. It has enabled me to build a building that I use to operate out of, and also for a warehouse, and I am presently building another warehouse to grow my business.
My advice is to find a product that you are familiar with or study one until you can answer most questions that can be asked about that product in an intelligent way. When this is done, start you search for a supplier, and the best place to find one is Alibabba. Find one you can work with and don't be afraid to start small. My first order was for five hundred dollars with a company in India. I just received an order from the same company for twenty five thousand. They were willing to start small and help me grow. I have traded with several Indian companies, and one from China, and have been treated with nothing but respect. I am currently working with two companies to develop new products. Both China and Indian companies that I deal with have been very willing to work with me in this area.
If you know your products, and don't mind putting in lots of hours on a computer, even the little guy can make it. Dannie

Replying to [LeeHello]: Today is Sunday, it is my day of Rest and worship.

I am breaking precedence to answer this post. Please do not get me wrong, Alibaba is a great vehicle for the E-Commerce sales. With a daily hit rate of 500,000 it is one of the most popular website portal. There is an independent body named Frobes who rate the portals by two criterias: HIT RATE and STICKYNESS (time of stay).

However you should have a Marketing Plan for your company. It has to be a mixture of different ways to Promote your products, and it has very much to do with your TARGET Market. Advertisement is one part of promotion, but it is towards a general audience. Placing an advertisement in Alibaba website is a one to many promotion.

Someone mentioned Exhibition or showcase in one posting... this I agree with him/her to be effective for your kind of product of jewellery. Your product is more specialised on the aesthetic value. Your product should make the people who use it feel important, or increased self esteem... and your target audience are the young and trendy people in the marketplace. So, you product should reach out to the place of interaction with them. Display of the product, packaging and presentation is of uptmost importance.

You have to establish your local base market first, right in China. Do this presentation to establish a network of distributors for the China market. Major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and all the major cities in the rural areas. Then hold a joint-show with fashion designers for fashion shows in Japan, South Korea, and other parts of Asia.

Replying to [nabilbo]:First to answer you about my age, it is not shameful to be either very young or very old in this forum, because age is never a factor in business, but you will get wiser as age catches on. Someone who is following my writings may know that I am a grandfather, which leaves me to be above 50 years old at least. But I am fortunate, because my birthday only comes once every four years, on a leap year where the present system has 29 days in February. On the brighter side, everybody can know my birthday whenever there is an Olympic Games, and the next one will be in 2008 in China, then I will be 60 years old, but celebrating my 15th birthday.

Replying to [Okie]:Great success story as i like. Thank you for this. I hope this will encourage other people to be honest and patient in business!