when I first started as a salesman in China SUPACK Packaging company, my leader told me: ” SKILA ,small wins by wisdom, big wins by virtue. “. The most effective sales are slow and steady. Our factory manufactures food-grade plastic packaging in that time. Alex is the owner of a beverage company, and my biggest client by far. Last year’s purchases were close to USD 6 million, or 30% of our company’s total sales. When I first met Alex, his company had only three employees and a second-hand manual filling machine. With his permission, now I share with you the story of our collaboration.

Alex was one of our fair clients in my first year at the company. Their country was a post-war country, so the economy wasn’t very good and payment method will be more troublesome. For various reasons, his inquiry did not arouse the attention of other colleagues. In the final analysis , “a well sales need to learn to choose the customer who worth your service”. It is the first class of our sales course.

He was in my sales area, and after searching their company and conducting market research on their products, I contacted Alex. As expected, Alex’s company is currently in a ”tweener” stage with few employees. But as a transit country, they have a huge market to develop and the demand is exactly in line with our products. After a detailed understanding of Alex’s requirements, I recommended the appropriate packaging materials and a report on their market research to him. Our order dealed soon , USD 2000.

The following year, Alex placed only one or two small orders. We keep in touch once a week and follow up the sales of their company every month. We talked about expanding the company in one of our regular greetings when I found their company had done well. He said he would come to China soon to visit our factory and look for better filling machines. After confirming the news, I talked to the manager at the time and met with the machinery plant we worked with. The machine shop gave us a few well-prepared after knowing the situation. Alex was so happy to get our proposal and we saved him a lot of time. After accompany him to visit the machine factory, it spend me three months to follow-up equipment progress, inspection, delivery. It was a busy time, but on the other hand, my clients were increasingly trusting me. Thereafter, the order quantity of Alex gradually increase. The greatest demand is four 40” containers per week of packaging. As a result, our factory has to buy machines to expand production. We trust each other more , a lot of products which Alex purchased in China will be sent to our factory and we help him to pay then send them to him.

In Our third year work together, Alex disappeared in a routine order day. After days of trying to find him and leaving messages, he texted me：he had been swamped. “My opponent stole two of my product designs, and the drinks were replaced with inferior products and sold at a lower price “. This issue led to his brand damage and inventory increase in the situation of fierce market competition. Their company is at a turning point and need more investment, so the capital flow back fault and all raw materials lack seriously. Alex asked us to help him get through it , start by supplying him with the raw materials and change payment to 60 days after delivery.

There are significant risks associated with changing the collaboration model, but we are also not willing to abandon Alex. We did a detailed analysis of Alex’s sales. Alex is a mid-range product with a big market and a competitive price. His company is in a rising period and the product position must be upgraded. This market analysis coincides with our new product, biodegradable packaging bags. After much discussion with the boss, the boss agreed to the plan. Then we changed the way with Alex: We try to fit Alex’s needs as best we can. Alex develops new products that are partially packaged using our latest packaging. At this point, our cooperation has become even closer

People can copy what we’ve done, but they can’t copy what we are going to do. Later, Alex’s new product was a triumph with our help and the efforts of their team. He beat the rivals with his advanced positioning. In 2019 , Alex’s performance is their country’s beverage industry NO1 and I also promoted to product manager. Now, we’ve grown together and he is like family to Skila now.