Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

Duanmu's criticism was enlightening, and Dong Qiangqiang accepted it humbly. Because Duanmu was right, he could only write reports and had never worried about finding clients. Writing is easy, but selling what he writes to others is difficult. But sooner or later, he will have to fly solo to develop institutional clients. Then, without Duanmu as a wingman, he will have to rely on himself. Can he speak English? ? Is it professional? Are you brave enough? If that doesn't work, there is really no need to worry about Lao Bai. People must always be responsible for themselves first, and then they can be responsible for others when they have spare capacity.

He could only pray to Lao Bai for good luck.

Dong Qiangqiang, who failed to make it, came up with the latest report and road show speech that were revised based on two exchanges with customers the next day as promised.

Although the two of them had made thorough preparations, were in the best mental state, and performed better than the previous two times, Dong Qiangqiang's English was also much more fluent than the previous two times, and there was almost no need for Duanmu's supplement, but when they met on Friday, The right customer turned out to be more demanding and difficult to deal with than the two companies I had signed with before. They asked all kinds of strange questions without answering them, and they often spoke in a weird and arrogant manner. There was an unfriendly hostility everywhere. Both of them felt that the other party was not here to discuss business, but more like he was here to quarrel.

What is commendable is that when they first met a difficult customer, both of them maintained a calm mentality, because through communication with previous customers, both of them realized the shortcomings of catching cicadas and the direction they should work hard in the future. Now that I have two clients, I will no longer be greedy. I will only pursue the cause and work hard, and the result will follow fate. I will try my best to answer logical questions without worrying about the final result.

The customer didn't mention whether he would consider purchasing Cicada's full-year report until he left. The two of them didn't ask and walked out the door waving goodbye.

After sorting out the difficult customers' valuable questions and ideas for answering them, Dong Qiangqiang took business photos of Duanmu and himself, and took a set of photos of the new office. He planned to update the photos to Chanchan's official website when he returned, and asked Duanmu to go there. Obtain the consent of the two customers and allow them to put the name of the customer company on the official website. Although it is extremely pitiful for a company to have only two customers, both of them agreed that this week's business development was an efficient and pragmatic ice-breaking trip. It was a small step for them personally, but it was a giant leap to catch a cicada.

The weekend is the Easter holiday, and the summer semester officially kicks off after the holiday. In the evening, Dong Qiangqiang was going to take the high-speed train back to Trier. Before leaving, Duanmu invited him to dinner at Wanfu again.

Seeing Duanmu staring blankly at the seafood column on the menu, Dong Qiangqiang was stunned: "I have eaten crabs for so many days, you don't want to eat them again, do you? Let me make it clear first that I can't take a bite, so just order yours Just eat what you can.”

Unexpectedly, when Duanmu heard this, he shook his head vigorously: "To tell you the truth, I also feel sick after eating it. Don't say I won't eat it today, I will never touch crabs in this life."

"You can't eat anything delicious until you eat it in two bites. Even if you eat lobster every day, you will get tired of it." After Dong Qiangqiang finished speaking, he remembered that it was Lao Bai who first said this, and he couldn't help but be stunned for a few seconds. Duanmu didn't notice Dong Qiangqiang's change. While checking the dishes he wanted to eat on the menu, he said: "I have thought about it. As long as the other party makes the payment, we will set up a subsidiary company in Germany and find an agent to do the accounting and accounting for the company." Pay the taxes and then pay us wages."

"Just three melons and two dates are enough to last for several months?" Dong Qiangqiang asked teasingly.

"Just two clients will definitely not be enough, so we will have to find more next time. At the same time, you must write at least two English reports every month."

"Write two articles a month?" Dong Qiangqiang's first feeling was that it was too much. "Is there so much that can be written? Is one article a month okay? Or three articles every two months."

"If you want to output quality content, you must first have a lot of input. If you read little, you will definitely not be able to write anything. And even if you can write it, whether the customer will recognize it or not is still one thing. If you only write every month If someone doesn't like one article, we still won't be able to sell it. Of course, it's the same for me (I write two articles every month). We all need to read and write more if we want to win. The more you write, the more opportunities you will have. Don’t forget our new heavyweight weapon. If you want to do your job well, you must first sharpen your tools. That software is more powerful than you think. Use it as soon as possible when you get back, so that I don’t spend money in vain. "

“I’ve been thinking these past few days: We are working hard to write reports, and then go to customers one by one, have long, thoughtful conversations with them, and try our best to please them, but all of this means that we have to spend a lot of time and Energy, it is no exaggeration to say that each report provides content that is actually done by oneself, which determines that our business model is particularly important, and the hard-written reports are time-sensitive, if they cannot be completed within a unit of time. Internal sales are no different than waste paper, but we should not be able to sell a hundred copies in a short period of time. This means that the income ceiling of this model is not high. If it is done well, it may just be a business, but it is difficult to form Scale effect." Dong Qiangqiang asked Duanmu the problem that had troubled him in recent days, "I also worked in an Internet company for a while before going abroad. Both foreign and domestic Internet companies work hard to polish a product and then strive to sell it. Buyers from all over the world.”

"My point of view is different from yours: Chanchan is a small start-up company that competes with large companies in the industry. Its competitive advantages must not be easily replicated on a large scale, otherwise other large companies will do more and better than us. Faster, nothing will happen to us. We must first do troublesome things that are thankless, difficult to be copied, or difficult to scale in the early stage, and accumulate our original customers in the process of development. In this way, even if we do not develop, we will only If it can continue to create huge value for customers, it will still have a competitive advantage. Even if it is successful, I never think that growing into a giant-level company is considered successful. "

Dong Qiangqiang vaguely remembered that Duanmu mentioned the relationship between input and output just now, as if Lao Bai had also talked about it to him. He also couldn't remember whether Lao Bai first told him and then relayed these similar words to Duanmu, or Duanmu realized it himself, but Lao Bai must have expressed similar views. Speaking of business models that are complex and difficult to replicate on a large scale, it seems that when Lao Bai started working on Le Bai, he also spent a lot of effort building a local team of drivers and tour guides. It seemed cumbersome at the beginning, but when Xu Tongying guided him to attract customers, Then it soared into the sky. The current low income of Lebai is only due to the impact of SARS, not a mistake in the business model. But then again, coins have two sides. There is no problem in heavy operations when there is continuous cash flow. Once the cash flow breaks, team costs will pose a hidden danger. In order to control costs, we can only reduce expenditures. Once it is not handled properly, bad results will occur, and it may even be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh. Judging from Lao Bai's previous actions, he was definitely not a fool, but he was such a smart man. Why did he seem to be acting in a radical style now? Dong Qiangqiang always believed that he was bold in investment. Would Duanmu, who is big and even wanton, be willing to choose a seemingly stupid and slow way to develop? What role does human character play in the entrepreneurial process?

With Duanmu's instructions, the week's harvest and the thoughts that came with the harvest, Dong Qiangqiang embarked on his return journey. (End of chapter)