A million-dollar order marked the beginning of my career in chemical trading

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A million-dollar order marked the beginning of my career in chemical trading (original). Today, on a chemical industry forum, I read some insights shared by others regarding the sales of chemical products, which really inspired me. So I spent half an hour writing this article to briefly explain how I secured my first million-dollar order, in the hope that it will be helpful to everyone. I’d like to clarify that this was written purely out of personal feelings, and it doesn’t represent anything significant; please avoid criticizing it. I started working at my current chemical plant on April 16 this year. The transition from being a manager at a foreign-owned company to heading the online sales department of a private enterprise was very difficult. Not to mention crossing industry boundaries – working with active pharmaceutical ingredients, intermediates, household chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers that one has never dealt with before – and moreover shifting directly from a technical supervisor role to the position of head of a network sales team, which is an area one has also no experience in. In other words, it involves overcoming three challenges and stepping into three different fields at once. At first, all I knew how to do was collect and send emails; for three whole months, I didn’t close a single deal. Hundreds of emails were sent every day, only to be either returned or lost without a trace. The cold looks from colleagues and the lack of understanding from family – the suffering involved is beyond description. But I wasn’t discouraged; day and night I studied the performance characteristics of my factory’s products, got to know the production processes, as well as the trade procedures. Compare with similar products in the same industry to analyze their advantages and disadvantages. Keep writing analysis reports and memorize them. Additionally, I began to adjust my strategy: in addition to continuing to send emails, I spend over ten hours each day on various chemical industry information websites, carefully gathering information on chemical products ； To increase visibility, I also frequented various chemical industry information websites to post messages and gather the latest product price information. But the information either gets deleted or is ignored; the China Chemical Quotations Website is slightly better, as it has dedicated sections for posting product quotation information, and there is a lot of such information available there. Here, I learned a lot about the product prices of various downstream companies as well as the pricing information provided by competitors, which laid a foundation for my business insights. Finally, at the beginning of July, I received an order for 2 tons – it was crazy; just 2 tons, worth only 18,000 yuan. Our factory does not handle shipments of quantities under 20 tons on its own; with no other choice, we had to boldly approach the chairman and the general manager to ask for their help. The two leaders were quite considerate; I briefly explained the situation, and they immediately showed leniency and made an exception to allow the shipment. They also congratulated me on receiving the order; I was truly very moved at that moment. Leadership understanding is often more important than getting a raise or a reward. After shipping, I carefully inquired about the arrival of the goods and their usage... At the end of July, it was still this same company that ordered 120 tons of goods at once – a total value of 1.2 million! Moreover, they said that demand would be stable in the future, with no less than this amount each month, and they wanted to sign a long-term supply agreement with us! …… Oh, over three months have passed, and my career in chemical trading has finally begun! So waiting is extremely painful and agonizing, but opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. .