sbdcsierra Chapter 1755 Day 1
Chapter 1755 Day 1
Chapter 1755 Day 1
After walking around for half the morning, the two of them were exhausted and didn't want to move or do anything when they got back.
Ye Yaodong lay down on the bed, saying, "I'm getting old, and I feel like my legs aren't doing so well anymore."
"You're already exhausted after only half a morning's walk? What if I take you out for a stroll this afternoon? You'll be completely worn out!"
Where are we going this afternoon?
"Let's wander around and see more. It took us two days to get here by train, so we can't just spend half a day sightseeing. We'd rather be tired and see as much as we can so that we don't waste the long trip."
Ye Yaodong buried his head in the pillow and said, "Okay."
As usual, the two took a stroll around the exhibition hall before leaving, and seeing that there were still people guarding it, they went out to explore again.
The others were the same; apart from those on shift, everyone was just loitering outside.
Ye Yaodong also brought a camera with him on this trip, and the couple treated it as a vacation, taking pictures wherever they went in the afternoon.
And, unexpectedly, he also managed to buy the golden curly hair he'd been talking about that morning. Anyway, whether it was useful or not, he bought it as soon as he saw it.
The two happily strolled around all afternoon, finally returning to the guesthouse before dark.
At dinner, they counted heads again to make sure everyone had returned before they felt at ease.
Everyone seemed to have made a purchase, with excited smiles on their faces. They chatted in small groups about what they had bought, how good the quality and low prices were, and those who didn't have enough money borrowed from each other.
"Looks like we've had a good haul!"
Ye Yaodong rubbed his hands together with a smile, then started making empty promises again, "You had a good time today, so let's cheer up tomorrow, it's time to make some money!"
"Your performance this year depends on tomorrow. Whether it's a feast or just steamed buns and pickled vegetables, it's up to you. There's also a big house beckoning to you!"
“My family compound has hundreds of apartments, ranging from 100 square meters to 89 square meters and 70 square meters. It depends on your abilities. Others don’t have such good opportunities. Many key employees in the factory haven’t had the chance yet and have to work hard for several more years.”
“You are different. You are the salespeople on the front lines. If you can sign a few big deals this year, or if your cumulative sales reach the standard, you will not only get high commissions, but also have the opportunity to be allocated rooms at a price lower than the market price.”
"It all depends on yourselves. Good luck! The factory won't treat you unfairly."
"I bought two blonde wigs. Tomorrow, the two women will wear them and we'll pretend to be dressed up to attract some customers. It'll also be a good opportunity for you newcomers who know English to practice when no one's around."
"Let's get some rest tonight. We don't know what tomorrow will bring. Anyway, let's get up early the day after tomorrow morning and take a group photo at the entrance of the venue to commemorate our factory's first time participating in the Canton Fair!"
"Alright, I've said my piece. Let's call it a day and go back to our rooms to rest."
Everyone responded with great enthusiasm, clapped their hands, and then happily dispersed in twos and threes.
The next morning, everyone got up early, dressed smartly, ate breakfast, and headed to the exhibition hall with high spirits.
However, they arrived a bit early. Even before the exhibition hall opened, many exhibitors were already waiting at the entrance, each wearing a name tag and waiting to enter.
When the gate opened, everyone rushed in and headed to their respective stalls.
At this time, no buyers had arrived yet, and everyone was relaxed, walking and chatting, except for Ye Yaodong and his group who were attending for the first time.
They were already a little nervous as soon as they entered the exhibition hall. Although some of them had participated in domestic trade fairs before, this was about communicating with foreigners. Seeing their different facial features, they always felt pressured. With their broken English, they certainly couldn't chat and laugh so freely.
Ye Yaodong also noticed this. "Relax, don't worry. Those foreigners will definitely bring translators and have people who understand Chinese around them. They're probably worried about not being able to communicate with us."
Everyone relaxed a little for the time being, but once they sat down in their own exhibition hall with the lights on, they couldn't help but feel nervous again.
Lin Xiuqing held two wigs in her hand. "Do you want to put them on? Do you want to start pretending now?"
"Wait, there's no one around right now."
Their exhibition hall is also divided into sections according to product categories. The surrounding area is naturally filled with various seafood or canned fish products, mostly canned fish. He had already inspected it yesterday.
At the same time, he was also thinking that maybe next year he could ask Hong Wenle from his hometown to apply for import and export rights and participate in the Canton Fair. That might extend the life of the factory.
It looks thriving now, but he knows that it will slowly start to decline after the millennium.
If he could extend his lifespan indefinitely, he could keep holding shares and receiving money forever.
"They're here! There are foreigners!"
The deputy factory director got so excited that he tugged at his clothes, almost knocking him over, and his own glasses fell to the ground.
Ye Yaodong chuckled, "Don't get excited, don't get excited. We can only see one or two now, but we'll see a whole group later. When that happens, they'll all come and line up here."
Everyone looked at the foreigners with anticipation, then went into other people's exhibition halls, craning their necks and looking on expectantly.
As foreigners came and went in the surrounding exhibition halls, a white foreigner walked up to their exhibition hall. Everyone greeted him warmly, and the foreigner smiled, lingered for a moment, and then looked away.
The smiles on everyone's faces froze for a moment; it was inevitably a little awkward the first time.
Ye Yaodong took the wig from Lin Xiuqing's backpack and handed it to the two female sales clerks.
"Xiao Zhang, Xiao Liu, you two put it on."
"Hahaha……"
The two girls were a little embarrassed.
"What are you afraid of! Keep your head down and pretend to look at the product, press numbers on the calculator, and don't say a word!"
Ye Yaodong directed, "Xiao Juan, go over there and pretend to talk to them in English, speak loudly!"
Their team has 15 people, only three of whom speak English, two women and one man, and they were recruited with great difficulty from Shanghai.
I used to work as an assistant at a foreign trade company, but it was a temporary job. Seeing that there was no hope of becoming a permanent employee, I decided to give it a try since they were hiring salespeople with foreign trade experience at high salaries. Although it was a private company, the salary was high.
Two foreigners wearing blonde wigs were at their stall, looking at the shelves, holding a bag of dried squid, and seriously pressing buttons on a calculator.
Meanwhile, Ah Juan, speaking in loud, accented English, asked and answered herself, "Hello! This is our best quality! How many do you want? One container? Good..."
This meticulously planned "double act" immediately produced a remarkable effect.
The herd mentality is universal, especially when it comes to a whole container of orders!
Passing foreign and domestic buyers would be curious to see people having such lively negotiations, and that someone was asking for an entire container of goods.
The others suppressed their laughter, watching them pretend to talk while keeping an eye on the foreigners who were looking over, and then greeting them warmly.
The false prosperity quickly brought real attention.
People were immediately drawn over, and two other salesmen who understood English quickly went up to chat with them.
The two imposters went to a corner and secretly removed their wigs, then nonchalantly went back to greeting customers.
Ye Yaodong's eyes lit up. He winked at Lin Xiuqing and whispered in her ear, "Am I amazing? I can do this?"
Lin Xiuqing chuckled and gave him a thumbs up, "Awesome!"
"Quickly, help pour tea and serve water..."
Everything is difficult at the beginning. Once you have a following, people will naturally be attracted to you.
The sales staff got busy. The two of them, the boss and his wife, didn't know anything and could only stand by and serve tea and water, hand out samples, pens and business cards.
An hour passed, and their exhibition hall was full of people. Everyone forgot their nervousness. After the customers had sampled the food and exchanged business cards, they quickly went on to greet the new customers.
Although no orders have been placed yet, the presence of customers and the busy atmosphere are a good thing. Everyone is busy greeting customers, and no one has time to feel discouraged.
At this moment, an elderly Hong Kong trader stepped forward, pointed to the shredded squid being sampled, and asked the price. The sales staff around him were busy attending to customers, so Ye Yaodong looked around and decided to take matters into his own hands. Although the man's Cantonese-accented Mandarin was a bit broken, Ye Yaodong could understand him.
He knew a bit about the general trade pricing. The salesperson had mentioned it in a meeting, and he understood. It was basically just FOB and CIF prices. They had also prepared a list of bottom prices for how to quote.
However, after hearing the price, the other party nodded and said they would take another look. After exchanging business cards, they left.
Lin Xiuqing listened to the whole thing from the side, "They've asked each of them and left, are they going to make comparisons?"
"Probably, it's fine. It just opened, so it's normal that they won't place an order immediately."
He glanced around and saw that some stalls were already taking orders, but there weren't any long queues. He felt a little more at ease, reassuring himself that it was only the beginning of the day and there was still plenty of time.
Half an hour later, a portly Italian businessman named Giovanni was attracted over.
He showed great interest in the grilled baby squid with a barbecue flavor.
Through broken English and expressive body language, Ye Yaodong understood from the salesperson next to him that the other party wanted to modify the packaging design and add Italian labels.
Faced with this request, Ye Yaodong hesitated for only three seconds before making a firm decision: "No problem! We can do it! Forget Italian, we can make it out of any scribbles!"
Xiao Zhang translated with a smile, "No problem! We can do it!"
This promise brought him a trial order of $5, but the other party required payment by letter of credit.
He quickly called Lin Xiaojuan over and asked her to guide Xiao Zhang in making a letter of credit order for the customer, since she was the one who knew the most about this.
A $5 order is a small order for these foreigners, but it is a morale-boosting order for their factory!
my country is currently at a critical juncture in its exchange rate system reform, implementing a dual-track system where the "foreign exchange adjustment market" and the "official exchange rate" coexist.
The official exchange rate is approximately 1 US dollar ≈ 5.76 Chinese yuan, but the exchange rate in the foreign exchange adjustment market is different.
Currently, strong import demand and a shortage of foreign exchange have led to exchange rates in the exchange market being much higher than the official exchange rate.
The current exchange rate in the foreign exchange adjustment market fluctuates between approximately 8.0 and 8.7 yuan per US dollar.
Ye Yaodong only started cramming on this kind of knowledge when he was about to attend the Canton Fair, and only then did he learn about these things that he had never encountered before.
What does this mean for him?
This means that the settlement method directly determines their profits.
And it is highly likely that their export revenue will be allowed to enter the foreign exchange adjustment market and settled at the market exchange rate, such as 8.5. In that case, a $5 order could bring them $425000 in sales.
This is a truly enormous sum of money, far exceeding the profits from domestic sales.
If settled according to the official exchange rate, it would only be 288000, which is a significant difference.
In order to encourage exports, the government is gradually increasing the proportion of foreign exchange reserves retained by enterprises and those entering the exchange market, so there is a good chance that they can secure settlement at the market exchange rate.
Ye Yaodong kept a close eye on the order the entire time. After signing the contract and receiving the deposit, he breathed a sigh of relief, and the others' eyes lit up as well.
Even though everyone was busy with other clients, they were still listening intently for any news about orders being signed.
"Yeah~"
"Success!"
The two salespeople cheered excitedly, holding the order, oblivious to the presence of others, almost moved to tears.
Signing this order will earn them a commission that is twice as much as their salary.
Ye Yaodong said with a smile, "This order originally belonged to Xiao Zhang, but Xiao Juan also contributed. For the first order, you two will both get a share. Xiao Zhang's commission remains the same, and Xiao Juan will also receive a commission!"
Wow, thank you, boss!
The young girl cheered excitedly, and everyone in the venue couldn't help but smile knowingly.
At the same time, this order was like the first domino to fall. Following Giovanni's signing, other clients who had been inquiring and observing also took action.
A Singaporean businessman had been consulting for half an hour before finally deciding to order a container of fish noodles.
A massive order worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars!
Everyone instantly became as enthusiastic as if they had been injected with adrenaline. They had made a good start, and now it was up to them to see what they could do.
Then another American businessman became interested in their horse mackerel fillets and placed an order for $2.
Customers placed orders one after another, and everyone was filled with unparalleled enthusiasm, creating a joyful atmosphere at their stalls.
Sometimes, a good atmosphere is more attractive.
After they made their first order, they didn't stop and kept making orders, ranging from a few thousand US dollars to hundreds of thousands.
In the afternoon, even more foreign businessmen came to inquire, and they were clearly overwhelmed with staff. Even Ye Yaodong and Lin Xiuqing had to bite the bullet and join in the conversations.
Although they don't understand the language, they have calculators, which they use to negotiate prices.
As the closing bell rang and the surging crowd gradually receded, Ye Yaodong and his team members were almost exhausted, but everyone's face was filled with irrepressible excitement and a flushed glow.
As they tallied their spoils, they received a thick stack of business cards from more than a dozen countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, and even as far away as the Netherlands.
They also secured over twenty orders, totaling seven or eight hundred thousand US dollars worth of goods.
As Lin Xiuqing held the bill and calculated the amount with a calculator, everyone gathered around her, their mouths agape as they stared at the numbers on the calculator.
Ye Yaodong quickly calculated in his mind that, using the highest exchange rate of around 8, the orders generated from today's busy work were already worth more than 6 million!
This is only in one day, yet it has already generated half the revenue of last year.
There are still two days left, and as far as he knows, the peak will be on the second day.
"How much...how much is this? More than 600 million?"
Lin Xiuqing was also full of excitement, "Yes, that's right, we've generated over 600 million in sales today, which means you can get over 6000 in commissions today, and there are still two more days to go."
"If you work for just two more days, your commission will be higher than your annual salary. And it's only the first half of the year now, there's still the Canton Fair in the second half, you'll definitely earn even more then, earning 1 this year is definitely not a problem."
"After all, today is only our first day of operation, and we don't have any old customers yet. We'll have old customers in the second half of the year."
"You can maintain good relationships with your customers and try to get them to place repeat orders. Once they know the quality of our products, they will definitely place larger orders in the future."
The salespeople were ecstatic; their commissions were higher than their salaries, and this was only the first day.
Ye Yaodong continued to encourage them, "Keep it up! There will definitely be more orders tomorrow. I told you all, right? There are plenty of opportunities in our factory. You're nothing in those state-owned enterprises, you can only be assistants, but here you can shine."
"Today is just the beginning. There will be many more opportunities to come. Keep up the good work! After the exhibition, I'll give each of you a big red envelope. Now, let's pack up and leave!"
Everyone cheered, "Roar!"
"Thank you, boss! Thank you, boss lady!"
"Hurry up and clean up, it's about to close. I'll treat you guys to a good meal later."
"Alright!" everyone shouted with great enthusiasm.
Their passionate team also attracted the attention of those around them. Ye Yaodong smiled broadly at everyone and said politely, "Excuse me, we're just excited because this is our first time participating in the Canton Fair."
The people around him smiled kindly.
He carefully packed the order and a backpack full of US dollars and carried it on his back.
Each of them carried an identical book on their backs. Although it was quite conspicuous, since they were all exactly the same, it didn't matter. It just happened to show that they were a team.
Considering safety concerns, and with the exhibition still going on tomorrow and the day after, they didn't dare to wander around. Instead, they had a good meal at a restaurant near the guesthouse.
"When we're traveling, safety comes first. We should avoid unnecessary trouble. Right now, the Canton Fair is our priority. Once we're back in Zhoushan, we'll throw you a celebration banquet to reward you properly."
Lin Xiuqing said, "Let's get plenty of rest tonight, get up early tomorrow, take a big group photo, and then get to work. Tomorrow will definitely be a great day, even more fruitful than today."
"Great, I'm full of confidence now. We're sure our gains from this trip to the Canton Fair will exceed our total turnover for last year!" the deputy factory manager said confidently.
"I hope it can double tomorrow!"
"Haha, everyone, keep it up!"
The whole team is full of confidence, and today's successful start has boosted everyone's morale.
Ye Yaodong said with a smile, "Tomorrow we'll follow the same pattern as today. When it looks about right, Xiao Zhang and Xiao Liu, you two can put on wigs again to attract customers."
"Haha, the boss's ideas are really good, and they actually work."
Xiao Juan said excitedly, "Boss, how did you come up with this idea? It really works! Even though I shouted loudly, my toes were practically digging into the ground, and my face was red to my ears and neck. Luckily, some people were actually attracted, otherwise I really wouldn't dare to open my mouth again."
"Haha, so you're the hero. The red envelopes for the three of you will have to be bigger. Keep it up tomorrow."
"Absolutely, definitely!"
With a flushed face, Xiao Zhang said, "I've been busy serving customers all morning, and I had some inquiries for the first hour, but I haven't made a single sale yet. I was really anxious."
"Me too. I was getting really anxious listening to the sounds of the invoices being processed next door. Luckily, I got a letter of credit order."
"So, was it just that Italian guy who handled the letters of credit today?"
Ye Yaodong said, "Don't call him an Italian. After all, he's our factory's number one cash cow. His name is Giovanni, remember that. Xiao Zhang, you also need to remember to treat this customer well, your first customer."
Xiao Zhang patted his chest and said, "Absolutely, this is my God of Wealth, I have to worship him."
"Take some time to learn more foreign trade terms. Just knowing English isn't enough. We can't keep relying on Xiaojuan for help."
"That's for sure. Letters of credit are a bit complicated, but I can handle the other quotes."
"Yes, everyone should learn more. Now that we're starting import and export business, English and foreign trade terminology are very important to us. You should continue attending night school as well."
Since the import and export rights application was approved, all of the company's sales staff have enrolled in a foreign trade training program and attended night school.
Although it's only been a month or so and the results are somewhat unsatisfactory, it's still better than last year when I knew nothing at all. I need to continue taking the course and keep improving myself.
Everyone echoed and made the promise.
Even without him saying it, everyone would have continued working after they got back, since they had tasted success today and were more confident about tomorrow.
"Alright, you've all had a bit to drink, go back and get some rest. Don't go out anymore, it's too chaotic outside."
"Okay, I understand."
"Let's go."
Today was a pretty successful day, exceeding their expectations.
This was their first time participating, and the first time a manufacturing company had participated in the Canton Fair. Ye Yaodong was already very satisfied with the revenue of six or seven hundred thousand US dollars on the first day.
As soon as he returned to the guesthouse, he poured the US dollars he had received all over the bed.
This has become a family tradition: counting money!
Lin Xiuqing excitedly pounced on it, lowering her voice, "Wow~ There are so many~ It's the first time I've ever seen US dollars, and the first time I've ever seen so many strange banknotes!"
"It must have been tough for you, wanting to cheer with excitement but having to lower your voice and whisper."
"Of course, after all, there are ears in the walls of a guesthouse, and the soundproofing here isn't very good, so we have to keep our noise down and speak softly to avoid being overheard, especially with so much money involved."
"Count them."