In order to make things simple and clear, although the characters are real, I don't want to sit in the right position to avoid unnecessary trouble.
This is also to highlight the theme of this chapter: business can't be done without mutual successful personal relationships.
When I was very young, I heard a Cantonese song "Monica" adapted from Japanese singer Koji Kikkawa by Leslie Cheung. Monica in Japanese songs should be Koji Kikkawa's lover, so they have been dancing in a cheerful rhythm.
Monica Leslie Cheung? -? Love concert
It is said that Monica played by my brother is about Maggie Cheung, and Maggie Cheung played Monica in their movie Destiny 1984. So Monica's songs are very nice and her people are great. ?
So, I've always had a crush on the name Monica. When the name Monica appeared in the email of the Italian client I contacted, I immediately became curious about her.
Monica in Italy looks very Italian. Most beautiful women from the Mediterranean have high noses, deep eyes and three-dimensional facial features. Fair skin is probably a little dark because of too much sun on the beach, and it is really beautiful and generous. Especially when she called me, I was deeply impressed by her English conversation with an Italian accent.
Monica's Italian company is an importer, owns its own brand Kliss, and also represents several brands, such as Rifle and CDL. They design and sell their own brands, while helping other brands to purchase and import.
Let me briefly talk about the clothing production process of many brands in the European Union. The customer gives the initial sample clothes drawing, the factory makes the prototype sample clothes, and then makes the salesman sample clothes according to the sample clothes modification opinions. The number of general sales samples represents the number of sales staff and channels of this brand. For example, we often make 20 sales samples, so there are 20 sales people/channels who take these samples to find retail stores to sell. The sales quantity is finally summarized to importers or agents, and then they place orders with China factories according to this quantity. However, the number of sales samples does not represent the size of the order, because the ability of sales personnel and channels is different.
Many importers in Italy are actually doing something secretly. At that time, all the goods exported to the EU were subject to quota restrictions, and the quotas were in the hands of many large foreign trade companies. In the second year, the state allocates the quotas of each company according to the export quantity of that year. If the quota is not used up in that year, foreign trade companies can resell it to others at prices ranging from a few dollars to several dollars. At that time, many foreign trade companies actually made money by selling quotas. Commodities exported to the EU are exempt from quotas except silk156157, while cotton and wool are subject to five types of quotas. When the amount of the five categories is the highest, they will be fired to more than two euros. Foreign trade companies can declare clothes that used to be cotton cloth as real silk when they declare customs, thus avoiding quota fees. This is actually the practice of many garment enterprises exporting to Europe and America.
Of course, there is another way to do entrepot trade and change the country of origin. Only the garments exported from China to Europe and America need quotas, so if the garments are transferred to Southeast Asia and replaced with local certificates of origin, the quotas can be avoided, thus reducing the import cost of goods. Many freight forwarders specialize in this business because they can get through certain relationships and earn a lot of agency fees. Reminiscent of the Sino-US trade war in 2020, many China enterprises export their goods to Vietnam, and then mark the origin in Vietnam, which is just the same trick.
These methods of scratching the edge eventually entered the pile of old paper with the gradual cancellation of quotas after China's entry into WTO, but these are all real things that happened in the past.
As mentioned above, I didn't write an email to Monica at first, but as another salesman. Of course, we don't have to tell the guests about it, but I am the main interpreter when receiving the guests. For details, please refer to the story of foreign trade Xiaobai starting from scratch and 30 million yuan in three years (1).
Monica's main knitted products are rayon, rayon and cashmere sweaters. This is also the product I first learned. Our cooperation has made me from ignorance to almost becoming an expert in this field. ?
One thing that impressed me the most was that one year the Spring Festival was coming. In order to deliver the sample clothes before the Spring Festival, we asked the factory to work overnight, and then drove the sample clothes to the huge warehouse of the freight forwarder at Pudong Airport before the last flight took off, so as to catch the flight to Italy. Today's logistics has been very developed, and there is no need to rush for sample clothes as hard as at that time.
Monica is an old customer of the company, and my main job is to assist the old salesman. However, their company is one of the leading companies in my foreign trade business. As an afterwave, I am not qualified to serve them well. What I really grew up is the customers I developed through exhibitions and websites. This is my most important experience and story, such as Jade.
J ade is a 30-year-old Hong Kong beauty who comes from a famous foreign brand company in Hong Kong. Jade means jade in English. The so-called modest gentleman is as gentle as jade. She is fluent in French, English and Chinese, and speaks very gently and slowly. Talking to her feels like talking to a little girl, and finally I want the candy in her hand. She has five daughters and five dogs. Daughters are distributed in various countries and regions, and five dogs accompany them all the year round.
I have seen her many times in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and we are all familiar with each other. So sometimes she tells me something she knows.
With the expansion of our department's business, I remember that one year our department made half of the company's profits. But it didn't last long. At this time, there was a division within our department. The leader informed me that a major salesman here said he wanted to be independent. She will take about 6.5438+0.2 million net profit, which is Jed's business.
This salesman F doesn't know English and is my right-hand man. In order to give this foreigner the first portrait, I gave her an English name. Strong ability, strong personality, a good hand in a line, but not enough independent operation ability.
I didn't think much about it either. I just told the leader that I can earn back the lost performance myself. I have the confidence to let her go with a score of more than one million.
It's nothing new that the business will be divided internally after it becomes bigger. It's all for profit, just like a family will fall apart at some point.
Jed and I talked about it on the phone, and she also expressed regret. But then one day, she told me that my company intended to let F leave here. The company wants both rain and dew and no monopoly.
Now that I think about it, is there anything wrong with the company? In the long run, the company needs to cultivate new people and develop its business steadily. Salesman is a very important part of garment foreign trade that needs more sales skills. This is different from high-tech and high-tech business. They need technology itself more, followed by sales. The core technology of companies like Apple and Huawei is the selling point. Advanced mobile phone products, such as better camera, better chip running speed and leaner operating system, will bring their own sales attributes. But our clothes are low value-added products, and the ability of sales staff determines whether the products sell well or not, but the products are second.
Since people are the core factor of foreign trade companies, it is not surprising what the companies did in those years. Jed and I are no longer business partners, but friends forever. And she is a mirror of my study, which shows my shortcomings and the problems of the company and makes me think more.
The friend I want to talk about next is a little special, because she is the more important protagonist Shu Fen in this article. I clearly remember the first call from Shufeng.
"Excuse me, is this XX company? I'm Shu Feng from French company Alain Manoukian. "
Hi, I'm Oliver. I'm glad to hear that you are online.
In this way, my story with Shufeng began. Shu, a French national born in Vietnam, was only about 26 years old at that time, and the petite charm of Vietnamese girls was undoubtedly revealed in her. For the relationship between France and Vietnam, please refer to this article: Ho Chi Minh is on the left and Saigon is on the right (top).
Shu's company brand AM is said to come from the famous movie star Alan Delong. I think when Alan Delong was in full swing, everything related to Alan could sell well.
Allen's Zorro (1975) is the first film introduced to China after the reform and opening up. I don't know how many crazy fans it attracted in China, so AM soon attracted a group of loyal fans in China. ?
1975 The film Zorro was released, which quickly aroused the enthusiasm of domestic chivalrous swordsmen to draw swords.
In fact, AM brand was founded by Mr. Manoukian, who happens to have the same name as Allen Delong, and it borrowed Allen Delong's powerful personal IP appeal (customer language) to some extent. When I saw AM brand in magazines in 2005, it was the first line in France. At that time, I also paid special attention to its store in Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai. In addition, they have counters in Galeries Lafayette and Paris in spring. The Chinese name of the brand was translated into Amy by Shu Feng, which means taking the initials am. At that time, its design center was still in Paris, and it purchased about/kloc-0.0 million pieces of knitted women's wear every year, with suppliers all over Turkey, Hong Kong and Chinese mainland.
Tree Summit speaks fluent Chinese, and we have very good communication. Like this brand, Shu Feng's image is fashionable, elegant and intellectual. She came to Zhejiang many times. We talked about business, went shopping, drank coffee and talked about life. Orders also bring the company a steady stream of rich profits, with a purchase of 2 million US dollars and a profit of 2 million RMB as the standard.
The purchase price of a sweater with 100% cashmere in 2006 was about $35, and the price in France was about ten times. Our common interest has created our strong relationship and made me responsive to the needs of the brand. One year when my eldest son was born, I asked the top management of AM Company to give my son a French name Louis, which further strengthened this cooperative relationship.
Unfortunately, a few years later, Shu Feng left AM Company and a new buyer took her place. Shufeng's new company can't continue to cooperate with us because their positioning is lower-end clothing. We tried to make an offer, but found that we couldn't create value for each other, so we quickly lost contact, just like friends who had been together for a long time suddenly separated from each other, and then stopped contacting because of lack of the same topic.
As I emphasized at the beginning of this chapter, personal career without mutual achievement can't be done much. I have a good cooperative relationship with every partner. They support me, and I reciprocate, providing them with quality products and services and winning excellent performance.
Once this relationship of creating value together ceases to exist, our cooperation will soon end.