So What If English Is Poor? Two Accountants Sold Die-Cast Parts Globally, Hitting 50 Million Annual Sales
2025-11-07
Source:
Original: Tang Yan ，Victor Metal ， November 3, 2025 17:18 | Guangdong
1. We Knew Early: Foreign Trade Was a Must
From the very start of our business, we were certain about one thing: we had to do foreign trade.
Only by selling die-cast parts overseas could we earn more profits.
Our business focuses on die casting—structural components made of aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, and zinc alloy.
They may look like cold pieces of metal, but we know: behind every part lies the patience of ordinary people, honed through countless hours of work.
However, back then, we hadn’t even figured out how to handle domestic orders, and what little "English foundation" we had was long forgotten.
Doing foreign trade? It seemed like an impossible dream.
2. Shrinking Domestic Profits Pushed Us to Make a Decision
In those years, domestic competition became increasingly fierce.
Low unit prices, thin profit margins, slow payment collection—customers pressed us for faster delivery, while we chased them for payment.
Anxiety hit us the moment we opened our eyes each day.
For a while, I even doubted: "Are we not cut out for manufacturing?"
But Victor said: "We can’t wait any longer. Even if our English is bad, we have to find a way to go global."
So we started recruiting foreign trade sales staff and built a small team.
For a whole year, a team of 4-5 people only received one sample order worth a few hundred US dollars.
After sending the sample, we never heard back.
I still remember that feeling clearly—we were working so hard we could barely breathe, yet there was no sign of hope.
Finally, Victor made a decision: "Forget it, I’ll do it myself."
3. An Accountant by Background, He Dived Into Foreign Trade
During the day, he handled all kinds of factory affairs;
at night, he went home to learn foreign trade through courses, memorize vocabulary, and study platform algorithms.
He filled dozens of notebooks with notes—starting with the keyword "die casting," every page was densely written.
It was with this relentless spirit that he gradually boosted the store’s ranking.
Finally, the "ding-dong" sound of Wangwang (Alibaba’s messaging tool) rang more and more frequently.
But when inquiries increased, a new problem emerged: it was too hard to recruit foreign trade talents in the town where our factory was located.
So we rented an office in the city center and hired a group of experienced foreign trade sales staff who could speak English.
4. Poor English? Use the "Stupid" Method!
In 2021, when our child started primary school, I also joined the foreign trade team.
For my first customer email, I spent a full two hours writing it.
I clicked the translation software on my computer so many times it was almost worn out.
To my surprise, the customer actually replied: "Thanks for your quick response."
At that moment, I almost cried.
Later, I kept practicing bit by bit, using the most "stupid" method—looking up every word one by one, replying to every message one by one.
Others communicated with customers through language; I won them over with sincerity.
In 2023, my personal sales volume exceeded 5 million yuan.
In 2024, it reached 18 million yuan.
The entire team’s performance was nearly 50 million yuan.
5. But This Road Was Never Easy
I’ve had my breakdowns too.
Since I was "slower" than others, I had to work harder to keep up.
I was on call 24 hours a day.
I made sure customers received my replies as soon as possible.
Even when I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I would check my email for new messages.
If there was one, I would handle it immediately before going back to sleep.
The next day, I still had to go to the factory as usual to follow up on order production.
Sometimes I was so tired I wanted to quit on the spot; there were times I felt wronged and wanted to throw my computer.
But every time I remembered the phrase "customers trust us," I would take a deep breath and keep going.
"No shirking responsibility, no fear of trouble, correct mistakes when they’re made"—this is the principle of our factory.
6. I’m Not Fighting Alone; the Whole Factory Supports Me
The smooth delivery of orders doesn’t depend on just one person.
Engineering, production, quality control—every department gives it their all.
Once, a part had a porosity issue.
The engineers modified the mold seven times, but the problem still wasn’t solved.
They stayed up almost all night testing mold temperature, adjusting the runner, and changing materials.
Finally, production became stable.
At that moment, no one spoke—we just patted each other on the shoulders.
We weren’t just repairing the mold; we were honing our own patience.
7. Our English May Not Be Perfect, But Our Trust Is
Fifteen years have passed, and we still believe:
the purpose of communication is not to show how fluent you are, but to make the other party trust you.
This is our story—from two accountants who couldn’t speak English, to two entrepreneurs exporting die-cast parts to the world.
Victor Metal | Make Manufacturing Warmer.
Language barriers can be overcome with translation,
but technical challenges can only be solved by ourselves.
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