2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 198 Sales Boom

When Tan Jincheng turned around, he saw Zhang Xupeng with a teasing look on his face.

"How come you have time to come over? Aren't you playing your game?"

"I just took some time to send you a flower basket, so you won't say I'm being inconsiderate," Zhang Xupeng said, pointing to the door.

There were many flower baskets at the entrance, all sent by business partners, as well as flower baskets sent in their personal capacity by familiar friends within the system, such as Zhao Jinsheng. The place was packed full of flowers.

In just a year and a half, not only did his personal assets and career expand rapidly, but Tan Jincheng also quickly built up his network of connections.

For example, many of the flyers for this new store opening were directly distributed to various factories, which were responsible for distributing them. The effectiveness of this distribution remains to be seen, but we will know after some time.

"Business looks good." Zhang Xupeng looked around and saw that the store was very busy, with customers occasionally pushing small electric scooters out.

"Today is the grand opening with many discounts, and it's also New Year's Day, so it's normal for it to be crowded."

Holiday spending is a major characteristic of consumerism, and businesses also like to hold various activities during holidays. Over the next few years, all sorts of holidays will be created to stimulate consumption.

"How much money can such a big store make?" Zhang Xupeng asked with some curiosity.

"I don't know either. I should be able to make some money, but I don't know exactly how much. I definitely won't lose money."

Just kidding, it's factory direct supply. The cost of the vehicle is the factory cost plus the store's labor costs. No store nationwide sells the Flash and Windspeed series at a lower cost than here.

The store is located in a prime location in the middle of the street. After it has been open for a while, they will also implement a trade-in policy. Based on the cheapest model, the profit margin is over 30%.

If you still can't make money, then that's a bit unreasonable.

Seeing Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing being so affectionate, Zhang Xupeng felt a little uncomfortable and left after only a short while. He had originally planned to invite the two of them to have lunch together, but then thought better of it.

"Sigh, I need to find a girlfriend too, otherwise I'll be completely outshone by Xiao Tan." Zhang Xupeng sighed to himself after leaving the shop.

"Have you noticed that Mr. Zhang's mood is a bit off?" Gu Qingqing asked Tan Jincheng after Zhang Xupeng left.

"Hmm, I noticed. He seems distracted." Tan Jincheng nodded thoughtfully.

Even Qingqing noticed it; as the person who knew Zhang Xupeng best, it was impossible for him not to have noticed.

Zhang Xupeng has been somewhat down lately. His business has entered a stable period, and he's made a lot of money, but he doesn't seem to have any big goals anymore. He spends most of his time in the office playing games. Some time ago, Tan Jincheng told him that even if he bought two buildings, he wouldn't feel any passion.

In fact, he was no different. Unlike their previous life, where the two of them sold boxed lunches for several years and suffered a lot, they knew that making money was not easy and were very pragmatic in their work style. This was one of the reasons why they both did well after they separated.

In this life, Tan Jincheng has the memories and sorrows of his previous life, but Zhang Xupeng does not. For Zhang Xupeng, the real suffering was probably in the few months from October 2004 to the Chinese New Year.

During those months, Zhang Xupeng, who was in charge of logistics, couldn't even afford to buy a new electric scooter. Instead, he bought a second-hand one and drove around to various factories. The factory owners called him Boss Zhang, but they didn't really take him seriously. Some of the business managers at the factories even ignored him.

Lacking the experience of the reborn Tan Jincheng, and not being as eloquent when he first entered society, coupled with his pride, he suffered a lot. However, this period did not last long. After the Canton Fair in 2005, everything changed.

He only suffered for half a year at most, and then quickly amassed a fortune of millions and tens of millions; even though Tan Jincheng later withdrew most of the funds, that was after he had grown up.

Watching Zhang Xupeng's departing figure, Tan Jincheng thought to himself, "I should find some time to have a good talk with him. As long as he doesn't do anything illegal, it's fine if he gets a little cocky. Anyway, he's already made enough money to squander."

In the afternoon, Tan Jincheng stayed in the store to observe the customer traffic and sales.

Through observation, Tan Jincheng found that the Flash Chi Affordable Model and the Wind Chi Pink Model are the most popular. As a must-have for office workers, these two models have great advantages. The Affordable Model is inexpensive, and most office workers will not hesitate to buy it.

The trendy design and significant discounts have also made it very popular with consumers, especially female consumers.

In addition, there was a lucky draw for autographed photos of the Fengchi brand ambassador at the store today, which attracted many customers, many of whom came specifically for the autograph.

Watching the bustling customers, Tan Jincheng, hiding in a corner, couldn't help but sigh, "What a pity! If we could invite Brother Chun or Liu Yifei to come and promote the products for an hour or two, they would sell out like hotcakes." "Dream on," Gu Qingqing chuckled. "Don't even mention Liu Yifei, you couldn't get Brother Chun to open a small shop with his current popularity, unless you're willing to spend a fortune and be a sucker."

"Yes, that's why I didn't even invite her. But Liu Yifei will be at the industry exhibition in Shanghai this April."

This April, Shanghai will host a large-scale electric vehicle industry exhibition, comparable in scale to the Canton Fair in the electric vehicle industry. Flash will take this opportunity to promote its brand more comprehensively.

In conjunction with this exhibition, a large-scale offline marketing campaign personally planned by Tan Jincheng over a period of six months is currently in the secret preparation stage.

Just like stock speculation, hype surrounding industry concepts often resonates with the public. Looking at the history of marketing related to electric scooters, there are three events that can be considered as examples of such hype.

First, Little Antelope launched its deluxe "Little Angel Series" in 2001. Second, New Ocean launched brushless motors in batches in 2003. Although the companies involved did not actively promote these two events, they both led to a step-by-step increase in industry sales and, to some extent, guided the industry trend.

In 2005, starting from the beginning of the year, Chip-Day launched a vehicle equipped with a "dual-power" motor. After the hype, the entire industry quickly accepted the concept, and various similar concepts emerged in a short period of time.

It was under this hype that Xinri's sales began to surge, making it the sales leader in the electric vehicle market this year. This is the leader effect under hype.

With existing case studies available, and not content with merely being a follower, Tan Jincheng naturally wanted to devise a marketing plan specifically for Flashpoint Technology.

"It's settled?" Gu Qingqing blinked and asked.

"Yes, the schedule is set. Actually, I wanted to invite Chun Ge to come too, but I don't know if it's because the endorsement fee is too cheap and I feel like I'm getting ripped off. Chun Ge's agent won't agree, saying he's too busy."

If you're not available, so be it. One person is enough. After all, this person was featured in Time magazine this year, and I got a great deal. Can't I be a little temperamental?
Let's wait until the summer of 2006 to see. The reputation of this year's Super Girl contestants isn't very good. I believe that Tianyu Entertainment and the agents will be much more obedient by then. As things stand, it seems that Li Yuchun still can't make her own decisions.

"Boss, boss's wife. What are you doing here?"

Just as Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing were whispering to each other, Zhou Ao, who was in charge of store planning in the marketing department of FlashTech, spotted them.

Tan Jincheng replied with a smile, "Oh, we're shopping. We just happened to come in and have a look around."

Gu Qingqing nodded. She was no longer as shy as before when the employees of Flashpoint Technology called her "boss lady"; she had become immune to it.

"That's great! It's an honor for us to have the boss come and guide our work. Hey, Xiao Li, pour us two glasses of water." Zhou Ao called out to a nearby employee.

Zhou Ao had been keeping an eye on the store all day, thinking about the new store opening and the first sale of Fengchi. He knew the boss would come to inspect the store, but he didn't see him all morning. When Zhang Xupeng came at noon, Zhou Ao went to eat lunch.

"How are sales? Which one is selling best?" Tan Jincheng asked casually.

"Sales were pretty good today, thanks to the promotion. The best-selling model was the affordable Flash, with over 20 sold this morning alone. We also sold nearly 20 pink Windmills. Other models sold well too," Zhou Ao said excitedly.

This was his first time in charge of a major marketing event since joining the company, and he was eager to make a splash and leave a lasting impression on the boss.

Selling over 20 units of a single model in one morning is considered extremely successful. Normally, a small electric scooter dealership would be doing very well if it could sell 100 units a month, while a large store like the Flash Brand flagship store would be considered a hit if it could sell 400 units a month.

Judging from the data, today's sales volume is already equivalent to a month's sales for an average store! Zhou Ao couldn't help but be excited.

"Oh? That's pretty good. It seems this event was quite successful." Just as Tan Jincheng observed, indeed, for any product, the one with the best price-performance ratio sells the best.

"It's all thanks to the boss's excellent guidance," Zhou Ao said with a grin.

He was in charge of planning this event, and the store manager would be responsible for the normal operation of the store afterward. As long as the event plan was approved by the boss, that would be enough for Zhou Ao.

"What does this have to do with me? It's all thanks to your marketing department. Remember to give me a copy of the sales report tomorrow. I'll be going now," Tan Jincheng said with a smile.

Now that we've been discovered, there's no need to stay here any longer.

(End of this chapter)