New Year - New Trade Leads

Well, Yanjie and I met at the airport and retrieved my luggage. It was such a relief to have my belonging's again, I could now start to relax and focus on my stay in Shenzhen.
We spent some time together that evening getting to know each other.

We had met online, Yanjie worked for a trading company that sold mobile phones.
A month or so prior to my visit to Shenzhen, she resigned from the company because she was not happy in international sales. Because of her excellent english skills, she quickly found a job with a large home decorating store. It was because of her english that we had been able to communicate so well by Skype and telephone. So, we remained friends, though we did not do any business together.

Once situated, I started to place calls to my trade contacts to schedule times for my company visits. I should also add that not everything went according to plans. One of my contacts informed me that their company no longer had branded mobile phones, only Chinese mobile phones. This was a disappointment to me because they had advertised brands such as Nokia at wholesale prices. I was not interested in the Chinese phones, so I did not visit that company.
Another company I contacted, I had very little interaction with before coming to Shenzhen.
I included them on my list because they seemed to offer a large inventory of mobile phones.
I contacted them via Skype on my laptop computer in my hotel room.
When I told my contact that I was in Shenzhen and wanted to visit her company, I did not receive a warm welcoming. She told me to wait while she consulted her manager and I was left waiting for over an hour without a single word or explanation being sent to me.
When I questioned her as to what had happened, she offered no explanation.

What I eventually came to realize is that many of these Chinese companies are trading companies not manufacturer's; meaning that the trading companies sell products that are manufactured by factories in China. There are many trading companies that are selling the same products of the same factory.
Many of these trading companies work from small offices and have only a few items on hand as samples. They are not often prepared to have certain products available at short notice.

I did not consider this at the time, I was so turned off by how I was treated, that I never contacted this company again.


Next blog; my visits

Shenzhen 08- New Year;New Trade Contacts

Well, I should also say that I was introduced to the Skype products by Korinna.

She picked me up at my hotel by taxi and we went to her company in the Futian district of Shenzhen.

Korinna and I had known each other for a while through Alibaba, the largest trade association in the World, we chatted often in Skype.

When I arrived in Shenzhen, I contacted her and we set a date for our meeting.It was a meeting that almost never happened; I had not yet adjusted to the time difference and was not sleeping at night.

On that particular morning, I was so tired that I wanted to postpone our meeting.
I think I attempted to call her, but she was already on her way and did not answer, so I got up and dressed for our meeting.
When I came down to the lobby, there she was, getting out of the taxi with a big warm smile and greeted me with a soulful handshake! She exuded a lot of positive energy.

It was a Saturday morning, (many companies in Shenzhen work at least part of the day on Saturday's) and her co-workers did not arrive for an hour at least, so we got to spend some time alone. She used the time to explain and demonstrate her company's Skype products and wifi mobile phones. She was also sweet enough to offer me the opportunity to take a nap, after seeing how tired I was. But, her energy was contagious, so I was able to decline her offer and enjoy her company.

We ended our meeting with a nice lunch at a Hunan style restaurant nearby.

Okay, on to my 2008 return trip to Shenzhen, to summarize:

• My flight to Beijing was changed to a later flight upon arriving at Newark airport



• My luggage must not have gotten the memo, it did not arrive with me for my connecting flight to Shenzhen



• I missed my connecting flight



• I had to report my missing luggage to authorities at Beijing airport(it was very hard and stressful finding help for this)



• I had to pay for another flight via a Shenzhen airplane so that I would not arrive too late



• I had made arrangements to meet a contact named Yanjie, at Shenzhen airport



• I arrived after 1:00am the following morning, was scheduled to arrived about 10:00pm the night before

Yanjie was waiting at airport and she arranged for taxi to take me to my hotel and her home after she helped me file a missing luggage report.

I stayed at the same hotel as the previous year, the Golden Lustre, because I was comfortable there and liked the staff.

Yanjie called me a day after my arrival to tell me that my luggage had arrived at the airport.We made arrangements to meet each other there.

Next blog; more details on my experiences with new contacts and products.