How to Sell on WeChat || A Guide for Salespeople and Realtors
This is a question we get A LOT. Mostly from individuals who are trying to set up their business and are in the sales industry where they are servicing their customers through WeChat. So what’s the norm? How are other people doing it and successfully selling on WeChat? Here are some tips to help boost your sales on WeChat.
Tailor Your WeChat Profile To Your Business
If you are using your WeChat Profile for business, have a photo that represents you. For realtors, this means having a professional headshot instead of a photo of you on vacation in shorts; for salespeople, a nicely-lit or edited headshot off your phone could suffice.
Also, to ensure your clients or prospects know that you are using your WeChat account for sales and/or after sales service, write that into your short bio description! For example, “Celine boutique salesperson” or “Condo Presales Expert” , helps to explain to people who add you on WeChat what you do and how you add value to their network. It’s important to note that a lot of times WeChat users will add other people on WeChat for sales purposes, I can’t count the number of times someone from a WeChat chat group has tried to add me to to sell me Telus or Shaw or some other telecommunications service. This means that other WeChat users who add you on WeChat may be complete strangers, so if you are using WeChat for business purposes, then you want to make sure your WeChat account profile communicates that.
Post Regular Updates About Your Product / Service
WeChat Moments are one way to distribute news about your business, services or products, as are WeChat chat groups, although most people will mute WeChat chat groups after a while if they see that the news updates are spammy. WeChat Moments are viewable by your WeChat contacts, and are shown in a chronological order, meaning that you can and should optimize your postings for certain times during the day when you know most people are scrolling through WeChat Moments. According to recent statistics, users check their WeChat Moments as many as 10 times per day, but of course there are still peak times when people check their WeChat Moments, such as in the morning as they are commuting to work, in the early evening when they are commuting back home from work, and in the later hours of the evening just before they go to bed.
The norm is for salespeople to post new product photos along with pricing and available number of items in stock to encourage their clients to pre-order with them on WeChat. After a client has pre-ordered online, the salesperson will either arrange for the product to be delivered to the client’s home, or reserve it for in-store pickup. WeChat users, the majority of which are Mainland Chinese, are used to a seamless shopping experience, in fact, if you thought Amazon Prime was fast with its one-day delivery time, we should consider the lightning speed delivery service for China Ecommerce companies, which guarantees delivery by 3PM the same day if you order by 11AM - that’s same day and within a 4-hour delivery window! Online shopping is also the norm for Mainland China residents, which is why it’s common for them to never set foot in a store and simply order the product through directly messaging their salesperson on WeChat. This happens even for what one would consider to be larger purchases, such as luxury handbags, jewelry, collectible footwear and even presale condos(!)
Share Your Business Progress
People won’t know about your business growth and wins if you aren’t telling them about it! Salespeople who post about their products being sold out within a few hours or a day usually condition their clients to respond faster the next time they post a limited edition product. Likewise, if you are a realtor, you would want to announce the sales volume you have transacted and number of homes you have sold at the end of each month, so your clients know that you are active in the market and that you can sell or have the best access to new developments and projects. Sold a multi-million dollar listing? Make sure you post about it on WeChat Moments so your prospective listing clients know you are able to sell high-value homes.
What if you don’t always have new projects to share but you still want to stay top of mind on your clients’ WeChat Moments? Realtors who share news on industry updates, potential changes to mortgage and credit lending rates, keeps their clients in the loop on an opt-in basis so their clients can check out their WeChat Moments to view the latest industry news and buyer or seller tips.
It’s not uncommon for salespeople to generate as much as 70% of their sales volume through simply better managing their WeChat personal account. This is why it matters to strategically think about how you are utilizing your WeChat network. Our team now offers a one-hour training session on the best practices for using a WeChat personal account for business, so contact us today if you want to revamp your WeChat account to start earning more from your WeChat network today!