Gazing at the Rainbow

Chapter 37: Regional Allocation Competition

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Early in the morning the next day, CEO Qin Yi and Lin Yun came to Lingyun Industry together. This was CEO Qin’s first time appearing in the company.

Everyone was surprised, besides Lin Yun, whose face appeared lit up with joy as she greeted everyone, “Good morning everyone!”

Only at that time did everyone react, and quickly greeted the higher-ups. “Good morning!”, “Good morning, Director Lin!”, “Good morning, CEO Qin!”

…

Linyun Industry currently had a total of twelve employees. The bosses were husband and wife, Lin Yao as the internal staff member, six external salespeople, one cleaner, and two accountants. At present, the CEO, Qin Yi, the accountant, and clerk from the finance department were all part-time.

The cleaner, Yuan, appeared jittery after seeing CEO Qin. At first, Lin Yao thought that Auntie Yuan was simply nervous, until she went to the tea room to pour water, and heard Auntie Yuan saying with awe, “The CEO really is a gorgeous man.”

Lin Yao finally understood the reason Aunt Yuan had been acting so weird.

This was probably an aesthetic gap between people of different ages, just like many older generations thought that the actor Tang Yuqiang was drop-dead gorgeous, yet Lin Yao simply couldn’t see what was so handsome about him.

Auntie Yuan was astonished by CEO Qin’s striking appearance, but Lin Yao thought that he was well-figured at best. He was tall and hunky and had an air of sophistication, but he was still far from being “drop-dead gorgeous!”

The two higher-ups locked the door as soon as they entered the office, and the ambiance in the office grew heavy.

There wasn’t any other reason, besides the fact that the six external salespeople in the company had been in the company for more than a month, but they still haven’t started conducting business yet, and internal staff member Lin Yao was the only one with an order form.

At the end of the year, each company had a performance appraisal stage, so they couldn’t help but think about the implications of Chairman Qin’s sudden arrival.

Although the doors of Lin Yun’s office were closed, Lin Yao was very close, so, even though she tried not to eavesdrop, she could still vaguely overhear Lin Yun’s coquettish tone of voice, and CEO Qin’s hearty bursts of laughter from time to time.

Lin Yao felt like she had witnessed more than enough PDA so early in the morning…she stood up and planned on going to the tea room to stay with Auntie Yuan for a while.

“Click”, Lin Yun’s office door was opened.

Lin Yun walked out radiantly and announced to everyone, “CEO Qin will join our meeting this morning to discuss the new development plan with us.”

******

Jian Wen and the others had joined Lingyun Industry more than a month ago. In theory, they should have already passed the stage of familiarizing themselves with the products. They should be arranged to do actual market development. But Lin Yun knew practically nothing about international trade and couldn’t coordinate arrangements.

Jian Wen was capable, but she was even more of an industry outsider than Lin Yun.

Several other salespeople were relatively mediocre in terms of both of their personal capabilities and their English level. No one could take the lead. Besides, the machinery industry was different from the clothing and home textile industries, where most of the salespeople came from.

As for Lin Yao, in Lin Yun’s eyes, she was simply her little follower and barely counted at all.

That was why Lin Yun insisted on letting Qin Yi come to the company to organize and arrange the development plan.

In the conference room, Qin Yi sized up Lin Yun’s maiden army quietly and said, “The development of overseas markets is a long-term and gradual process. Because of geographical and cultural differences, overseas customers’ purchasing habits are also different. And what we have to do is to make targeted business contacts based on the different consumption habits of different customers in different regions, and in the process discover the customer’s market demands.”

Lin Yao was taking notes while carefully listening to CEO Qin’s lecture on developing overseas markets.

She often dined with Lin Yun, so she was already familiar with CEO Qin’s resume.

CEO Qin had a graduate degree from a prestigious school, was currently a senior executive of a publicly-traded company. He also had extensive connections in the industry.

Of course, a person like him wouldn’t be lacking in public speaking skills. Speaking of company development and market development, the things that CEO Qin talked about were what worried Lin Yao the most, so she was greatly enlightened.

“Due to everyone’s hard work, the company’s website has been established, the latest company product catalog has been completed, and all preparation procedures have been properly taken care of. The next thing we need to discuss is how to carry out our market development work in an orderly manner. Mr. Lin will allocate existing customer resources.”

Lin Yun proposed the company’s existing customer resource allocation plan according to CEO Qin’s instructions.

For example, “old customers” (one they already had a deal with) would be handed over to Lin Yao.

Currently, many of the “old customers” in Lin Yao’s hands had already placed orders or were about to place orders.

In fact, those so-called “old customers” were the only customers who’d expressed interest in a request for a quote.

Of course, the other experienced external salespeople were aware of this, but they were currently newbies at Lingyun Industry. None of them were in a position to clarify this. As a rookie, Lin Yao was the only one who didn’t understand.

But, regardless, the fact that new customers would be handled by the six external salespeople, made Jian Wen, Zheng Yuning, and the others see a shred of hope.

For business personnel, performance not only helped them maintain their pride, but was also their foothold within the company.

And once these customers struck a deal, as salespeople they would receive commissions!

What’s more, whether or not they could be officially instated in the future also depended on whether or not they could make progress in these few months. These customer resources were simply too important for them.

The ambiance in the meeting room became lively and enthusiastic. Everyone seemed excited and fired up.

Lin Yun and Qin Yi glanced at each other, and they both saw satisfied looks in the other’s eyes.

Lin Yun said meaningfully, “If any of you have any opinions or suggestions, bring them up now so we can discuss them together.”

The six external trade salespeople present all agreed with this method of task distribution, and only Lin Yao raised her hand like a primary school student.

This was truly surprising. As a matter of fact, Lin Yao wasn’t business personnel at all, so the issue of allocating customer resources didn’t concern her at all.

Lin Yao didn’t think so. Although she was still an office staff member/sidekick, she would soon become an external trade salesperson!

Under the watchful eyes of everyone present, she asked without beating around the bush, “I have a question about the allocation of these customer resources. Isn’t it somewhat ill-suited to allocate different customers in the same market to different salespeople in the company?”

The conference room suddenly fell silent. No one could deny that the question raised by Lin Yao made some sense, but no one spoke, and the air grew stiff.

After getting approval from CEO Qin, Lin Yao continued to say, “For example, there are currently five customers in Mr. Wen’s country. About 50% of the products they plan on purchasing are basically the same or of similar nature, and there are similar situations in different markets.

For example, there are more than a dozen Korean customers, and the products requested for quotes are very similar. If we all want to contact them ourselves, of course, that would be fine. The question is, if different salespeople in our company contact different customers, won’t there be vicious competition within the company in the future?”

Lin Yao had been in Lingyun Industry for less than two months, but already had seven to eight customers’ orders in her hands, and she had received countless requests for quotations.

Lin Yao had read all the customer information in Lin Yun’s hands and had printed the Christmas card delivery addresses just recently, so probably no one knew the situation better than her.

For a split second, all the salespeople had different expressions on their faces.

Lin Yun was confused.

In her mind, all foreign customer orders and domestic purchases were technically handled by her. Lin Yao was simply doing chores and running errands for her.

How could Lin Yao understand things that even she couldn’t understand?

What’s more, the plan was actually proposed by someone else.

Qin Yi didn’t expect the plan he personally proposed to be questioned by an office staff worker, and her question was actually quite reasonable.

He adjusted his eyeglasses in surprise and asked, “So how would you distribute it?”

He was implying that since she said that there was a problem with his plan, does she have a better plan?

He didn’t really have any interest in listening to Lin Yao’s opinions or plans and was simply trying to turn the tide in his favor by taking a step back.

He and everyone present firmly believed that Lin Yao could not come up with a more perfect plan than this.

At the moment, Lin Yao became the center of attention again.