117 expands into Shanghai market

  While Lin Zhenhua was busy dealing with various relationships in the factory, Xiong Lijun had already arrived in Shanghai with his wife Tao Hui, and began to set up the Shanghai sales office according to Lin Zhenhua's arrangement.

  Tao Hui has formally gone through the procedures for suspension of salary and retention of position at his work unit, becoming the first person in the entire work unit to plunge into the sea. At this time, the situation of going into business on one's own had already appeared, but there were not many people who dared to do so. Tao Hui had several tens of thousands of yuan in savings as a guarantee from Xiong Lijun, so he was under no pressure regarding going into business on his own.

  The Shanghai sales office is flying the flag of Hanhua Industrial Co., Ltd., but the account belongs to Xinxin Store, which has a strategic partnership with Hanhua Industrial Co., Ltd. in terms of equity. Xinxin Store holds half of Lin Zhenhua's shares, and it can be said that they are in cahoots.

  Lin Zhenhua has some doubts about the policy's frequent changes. Although the ultimate direction of the policy must be to encourage the development of private enterprises, he cannot guarantee that there will not be any twists and turns in the middle. In this case, it is very important to put eggs into different baskets.

  As for how much benefit he gave to Xiong Liming in their cooperation, Lin Zhenhua didn't think too much about it. Lin Zhenhua's vision was not limited to such a small dealership, he wanted to do things that were much bigger than this. People who are stingy and calculating about tiny profits cannot accomplish great things.

  After Xiong Lijun arrived in Shanghai, he rented an office space on the side of Huaihai Road in a lilong, with a small storefront in front and a warehouse in the back, totaling around 500-600 square meters. The rent was only over 400 yuan. Of course, for people at that time, over 400 yuan was also an astronomical price, but Lin Zhenhua thought it was so cheap that it seemed like he had picked it up for free.

  After learning about the rent, Lin Zhenhua instructed Xiong Lijun to ask the landlord if he had any intention of selling. In his mind, if he could spend a few hundred thousand yuan to buy it directly and put it up for 30 years, this property would be worth at least tens of millions. Unfortunately, after Xiong Lijun asked, he got a negative response, saying that renting was no problem, but selling required approval from higher-level leaders, which would definitely not be approved.

  Xiong Lijun hung a big sign reading "Jiangnan Province Hanhua Industrial Company Shanghai Sales Office" in front of the office door and applied for the installation of telephones, etc. This sales office was formally established.

  According to Lin Zhenhua's requirements, the sales office hired four employees, all of whom were brought over by Xiong Lijun from Fenghua County, with food and accommodation provided, and a monthly salary of 30 yuan.

  For these four places, many people have been fighting for them. You know, this is going to Shanghai to work, and there are still many people in Fenghua County who haven't even been to the provincial capital of Ningbo, let alone suddenly being able to go to Shanghai to work, it's like a dream come true.

  Tao Hui's family was a power transmission and transformation company, with many children in the neighborhood. When it was learned that her husband was in charge of recruitment, many people ran to her home to ask for favors, asking her to put in a good word for their children to be hired by Xiong Lijun. Tao Hui had finally gotten a taste of being an official's wife and naturally agreed to all the requests. However, when Xiong Lijun mentioned this to Lin Zhenhua, he was immediately vetoed.

  "Zhenhua, why don't you agree?" Tao Hui complained to Lin Zhenhua, "These people are all acquaintances of mine, isn't it more reassuring to use them than those strangers?"

  Lin Zhenhua said: "Xiao Tao, it's not that I don't give you face, but I'm thinking for your own good. Have you thought about what would happen if these people arrive in Shanghai and refuse to listen to Lao Xiong and your orders? What will you do then?"

  "We always say it's fine before we leave, if they don't listen, then we can only let them go back." Tao Hui said matter-of-factly.

  Lin Zhenhua said, "Do you think you can do it? They're all acquaintances of yours, can you bear to do it? Even if you can bring yourself to do it and really send them all back, aren't you afraid their parents will go to your parents to complain? In the end, you'll be in even more trouble."

  "Ah, I didn't think of that." Tao Hui finally came to his senses and realized he had been thinking too simply. "Alright, I'll go reject them right away."

  This is the difference between new and old concepts. Before the market economy, the relationship between people was mainly based on human feelings, and there were some benefits that definitely thought about taking care of their own people. After the development of the market economy, the relationship between people became complicated, with both human feelings and interests intertwined, which inevitably led to conflicts. Lin Zhenhua's understanding of this point is far more profound than Tao Hui's.

  Finally, following the couple Xiong Liming to Shanghai were four young people who had nothing to do with them. Two of them came from Hanhua Machinery Factory, named Qi Qinghui and Cai Yanfang; the other two were recruited from Fenghua County, named Zhang Wencheng and Ren Yuntian. These four people happened to be two males and two females, the two young men were in charge of managing the warehouse, transporting goods and maintenance services, while the two girls mainly served as customer service representatives and also undertook cleaning, receiving guests and other tasks.

  Shanghainese people's houses are not very big, the house rented by Xiong Lijun, excluding the warehouse and storefront, still has eight rooms. Among them, he and Tao Hui occupied one room, four employees occupied two rooms, and five rooms were used as offices, reception rooms and guest rooms. It is indeed true that "although a sparrow is small, it has all its internal organs".

  The first batch of Shui Lian brand electric fans arrived in Shanghai in November, which was not a good time to sell electric fans. Xiong Lijun carried a cardboard box containing the electric fans and started door-to-door sales.

  "I've never heard of a 'Sleeping Lotus Electric Fan' before."

  At the Red Star Department Store in Shanghai, Manager Le Chuan furrowed his brow and said to Xiong Lijun. He was a short and stout man, obviously someone who had been pampered all his life, but being stout also has its advantages - usually having a better temper.

  "Hehe, Manager Le, this is our new product, it's just been put into production recently. So you haven't seen it on the market yet."

  "Which factory are you from?"

  "We are from Jiangnan Province."

  "Jiangnan Province, it's a small place," Le Chuan muttered in a low voice, "How much do you sell your electric fans for?"

  Wholesale price 221, retail price 248.

  "248?" Le Chuan's mouth curled up into an exaggerated arc, "This electric fan of yours won't be imported, will it? Do you know Shanghai's Huasheng brand? It's an old brand, 400mm capacitive, four-speed piano key oscillating timing fan, and just the other day they lowered the price to only 210 yuan. Your new brand dares to sell for 248?"

  Xiong Liming said: "Le Manager, we certainly know that Huasen is an old brand, and we dare not compare with it."

  However, our electric fans have some special designs, in terms of appearance and function, they are not quite the same as those on the market, so this price is a bit higher, which is normal.

  Le Chuan shook his head: "What's with the special design again? Isn't an electric fan still used for blowing cool air? Besides, it's already November, which is the off-season for electric fan sales. How can you sell them at such a high price? You don't know, do you? There are too many brands of electric fans on the market now, and many of them are not selling well."

  Xiong Limin said, "Manager Le, it's no use just talking about it. Look, I've brought one of our electric fans over. Now, let me unpack it and show you. You're a seasoned merchant, so you can tell whether this thing is worth the price and whether it can be sold."

  Lè Chuān reluctantly nodded: "You hurry up a bit, I have many things to attend to here."

  "Very soon, very soon." Xiong Lijun said repeatedly.

  After that, Xiong Lijun pulled the box he brought from behind him, quickly opened the lid, and took out a Shuilian brand electric fan from inside, placing it on Le Chuan's desk.

  Le Quan was originally somewhat annoyed with Xiong Liming, but he didn't want to directly refuse him because of his face. However, as soon as he saw this electric fan, his eyes widened and he stood up from the chair uncontrollably, stretching out his hand to touch the base and bracket of the fan.

  "With such a small base, can it stand stably?" Le Chuan asked in surprise.

  "Manager Le, take a look at this." Xiong Lijun said confidently.

  Le Jiaochan touched it lightly at first, but didn't use enough force and couldn't lift it. Suddenly, his spirit came: "Director Xiong, is this the new electric fan your factory just produced?"

  "Really? How is it? Still good enough for your eyes?"

  "Not bad, not bad," Le Chuan praised. "Just the materials used are very good. You don't know, some small factories in rural towns, they try to save on materials too much, the iron skin is so thin that you can poke a hole through it with a cigarette butt, it's really not durable. We Shanghainese people are all very practical, if we buy an electric fan, at least it should be used for 20 years, if the material is no good, who will buy from you? This one of yours is very good, what is this base made of?"

  "This is a whole piece of cast iron, from our own sand mold furnace."

  "Do you still have sand pot?"

  "Yes, our Hanhua Industrial Company is a provincial-level medium-sized enterprise. The things we make are even better than those made by the Japanese." Xiong Lijun started bragging casually, after all, he was from Hanhua Factory and knew a lot about it, so he had something to brag about. He told Le Chuan about the previous breakthrough of Hanhua Factory's ice machine main shaft, and Le Chuan listened with rapt attention.

  "It's actually a product of a regular enterprise, no wonder, no wonder." Le Chuan said, he used his hand to touch the electric fan back and forth, and found a new advantage: "Director Xiong, I found that your fan is very good-looking, the workmanship is also quite exquisite, there is not a single burr on it."

  "That's not all," said Xiong Lijun. "I'll plug it in and show you, and you'll be even more surprised."

  "Okay, okay, I have an outlet here."

  Lè Chuān hastily helped Xióng Lìjūn find a place to plug in, seemingly having forgotten that he had just been saying this fan didn't have much of a future.

  The power is on, and Le Chuan didn't wait for Xiong Liming to take action. He personally went forward and pressed the switch. While pressing, he was still commenting: "The switch is also quite good, very light and handy. The sound of the fan blades is very small, you guys are using a pretty good motor too. There are two lights here, oh dear, is this light a defective product? Why did it dim after lighting up for less than a second?"

  Xiong Lijun proudly explained: "Manager Le, this is not a substandard product, it's our newly developed modern breathing lamp. Take a closer look, it's flashing on and off in a regular pattern."

  "Oh, one bright and one dim, is it designed to be like this on purpose?" Le Chuan understood, he stared at the two breathing lights carefully for two or three minutes, suddenly laughed: "It's quite interesting, really like human breathing. Is it called a breathing light? Putting it in the room at night when sleeping can help with sleep, right?"

  Xiong Lijun patted the horse's buttocks and said, "Manager Le is really insightful, he saw the wonderful place of the breathing lamp at a glance. This lamp has a separate switch, if the user doesn't like it, they can turn it off at any time."

  "Great, great!" Le Chuan exclaimed, "By the way, Manager Xiong, how much did you say this electric fan costs?"

  Wholesale price 221, retail price 248.

  "It's not expensive, it's not expensive!" Le Chuan said, "Before Watson reduced the price, he also had to sell for 237. That function is not as good as yours. Now Shanghai people have money too, and they don't care about spending money."

  "So, Manager Le, is your store willing to sell our electric fans?"

  "Alright, we can sign the contract immediately. However, let's be clear about one thing: the quality of your subsequent products must be the same as this sample. If they don't meet the requirements of this sample, I reserve the right to reject them."

  Xiong Liming patted his chest and said: "This is absolutely no problem, our company has introduced Japan's comprehensive quality management technology, every link has a quality guarantee."

  "That's good, we'll start with 500 units first and see how the market reacts. If the reaction is good, we'll order more later. What do you think, Manager Xiong?"

  "Are you talking about 500 units?" Xiong Lijun was somewhat surprised, and he asked cautiously: "Manager Le, it's winter now, I'm afraid there won't be many people buying electric fans. Can these 500 units really be sold out?"

  Lè Chuān said disapprovingly, "Winter is winter, but doesn't anyone get married in winter? You have such a beautiful electric fan, it's also good for someone to buy it as dowry. Brother, Shanghai is so big, with over 50 million people in the whole city, can't they digest your 500 electric fans?"

  "That's great." Xiong Lijun said, "Our first batch of goods has arrived in Shanghai, and I'll arrange for someone to deliver them to you tomorrow."

  "Let's send the first batch of 100 units for now, and we'll see about sending more later," said Le Chuan.

  "No problem, 100 is 100."

  "There's another thing, your electric fan is after all a new brand, the product is good but others don't know about it, so you can't do anything. So my suggestion is that you should do some promotion and advertising, what do you think?" Le Chuan was giving Xiong Liming advice.

  Xiong Liming said confidently: "Manager Le, don't worry, before I came out, our boss had already designed a complete set of advertising plans for me, and we can start at any time."