“Ivy, the British customer just placed an order for 45 units of equipment!” a colleague shouted excitedly in the office.
“Shhh,” Chen Zhifei (Ivy) calmly turned her head, but the corners of her mouth were raised and could not hide her joy. “The follow-up needs to be gone over carefully to ensure the delivery details.
 “Short hair, capable and straightforward, and calm — this is the first impression Chen Zhifei gives to everyone. Her colleagues often praise her for her experience and thoughtfulness. She and her team are now responsible for LiuGong’s overseas industry account management, large project management and bidding support, and multinational group account development and management.

Guided by the goals set in university

“My career goal from college has always been to work in international trade and engage with customers,” Chen Zhifei remarked.
It has been 16 years since she entered the construction machinery industry at her first job. For her, customers are the key to the existence and development of the company and herself. The concept of meeting customer needs is highly compatible with LiuGong’s corporate culture of “customer first”. So when she decided to join LiuGong in 2010 to pursue her goals, she became a member of the International Key Account Department that had been recently established.

“The pinnacle of collaboration and relationship management with key industry customers is the building of strong, long-term trust between the two parties, and the continuous creation of value in an ongoing partnership. The key to maintaining these strong relationships is LiuGong’s ability to continuously improve its organizational and system management capabilities to ensure quick response to the evolving needs of customers. This includes improvement in product technology development, service, business operations, etc.,” Chen Zhifei noted. This approach has made a number of customers choose to maintain long-term business cooperation with LiuGong and her over the years. Even after changing jobs, some customers still maintain contact, and Chen Zhifei is very proud of this trust that has been built over time.

“LiuGong provides a platform for sustainable development of employees, cultivates their abilities, builds trust, and gives them opportunities,” she noted. From managing and developing customers, to leading newcomers and managing the team, Chen Zhifei has rapidly grown on the “international” platform and has gradually become the backbone of the department.

Develop along with the company

With the continuous development and growth of LiuGong’s international business, Chen Zhifei participated in planning the first trial and promotion of large equipment and electric loaders for major international customer companies. She had also experienced the bidding of complex and important large-order projects in different regions of the world, witnessed order deal or cooperation breakthroughs with top industry benchmark customers in many countries, and participated in the negotiation of LiuGong’s largest overseas sales contract. Chen Zhifei continues to plant the seeds of trust with the team, and these seeds have blossomed, even along this challenging road.

These large companies, which have significant influence in their respective industrial sectors, have extremely high requirements for equipment performance, cost performance, production and operation cost optimization, and service support, and are highly sought after by major brands in the global construction machinery industry for cooperation.

With the advantages of better equipment performance, faster after-sales service response, and more efficient financing services, LiuGong has effectively met customers’ needs time and again, and gained their trust and long-term cooperation. This year, a major multinational customer in the cement industry, which has been working with LiuGong for 20 years and has over 300 LiuGong machines, purchased the first batch of customized LiuGong fully electric loaders for its Mexico plant.

Today, LiuGong products have spread to more than 170 countries around the world, with customers covering engineering construction, quarrying and mining, manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, the service industry, recycling industry, and other industries. The customer structure is constantly being optimized and the bond of cooperation is also continuously strengthened. In 2022, the number of LiuGong’s key overseas industry customers saw 10% year-on-year growth, and the repurchase rate saw 100% year-on-year growth. The transaction amount of large projects was expected to see nearly 200% year-on-year growth.

Over the past ten years, the success of overseas industry customer development and management and large projects has enabled Chen Zhifei to see LiuGong’s international development through the perspectives of overseas customers. “‘Reliable’ is the unanimous evaluation given to LiuGong by major overseas customers who have continued to cooperate with us for many years,” Chen Zhifei said. “They trust LiuGong because we really consider product and service solutions from the customer’s perspective and solve their production and operation problems.” This global recognition is the result of the continuous and diligent work of LiuGong for several years.

Talking about future development, Chen Zhifei said that the company and her team will continue to improve industry customer development and system management, expand and deepen cooperation with major customers in different countries and industries, contribute higher value to achieve long-term win–win outcomes.