"To those who drink water, remember those who dug the well." may seem like just a common saying to most people, but to Liu Mingtao, the founder and general manager of Shandong Hengwang Group, it holds significant meaning.

Nowadays, through Alibaba International, Hengwang's store sends domestic drilling equipment to the African continent on an average daily basis. "Each drilling rig represents at least one well, and one well can solve the drinking water problem for an entire village," Liu Mingtao likes to calculate this way. Because in his view, selling drilling rigs to the African continent has long been not just a business, but also a way of doing good and accumulating virtue. Engaging in such activities brings him special satisfaction.

From the brink of bankruptcy to a star enterprise, cross-border trade becomes a "lifesaver."

On Alibaba International, Shandong Hengwang Group is truly a star seller:

In six years, export volume grew from 0 to 50 million; the foreign trade team expanded from 2 to more than 40 people; products are sold to over 40 countries and regions worldwide; the boss, a post-80s, is young and handsome...

However, few know that before joining Alibaba International, Hengwang was once on the verge of bankruptcy.

In 2011, 24-year-old Liu Mingtao founded Shandong Hengwang Group Co., Ltd. in Jining, devoting himself to the mining machinery field and starting domestic trade in 2012. Due to the lack of a team, insufficient experience, and severe homogeneous competition, he struggled to penetrate the market, and the meager income was hardly enough to cover the company's daily expenses. At the most critical moment, he had to sell his Volkswagen POLO car to secure funds to sustain the company for half a year.

A chance encounter opened up a new "continent" for Liu Mingtao.

At the end of 2012, a broker Liu met at the Canton Fair contacted him, saying a client in the Philippines urgently needed a batch of road rollers, with a significant order and quick payment. Hengwang could take the order but had to pay him a 20% commission. Desperate for business, Liu didn't hesitate to accept the order but also had a thought: Why not engage in foreign trade directly with foreigners? The deal was quickly sealed, and Liu began looking for opportunities to enter the foreign trade sector. Coincidentally, staff from Alibaba International visited him, realizing the rare opportunity after deep discussions, Liu quickly led Hengwang to join Alibaba International in early 2013.

The decision proved to be right. Less than a month after joining the international site, Hengwang received its first overseas order. Although it was just a small part for a road roller, worth only 10,000 US dollars, the professionalism displayed by Liu and his team earned high praise from their first customer, who not only became a long-term buyer from Hengwang but also introduced several friends as new clients.

Taking his first steps in foreign trade, Liu didn't expect to soon lead his company onto a "fast track." The product propelling him and Hengwang onto this "fast track" was the drilling equipment, previously undervalued by him, mainly sold to the African market, which he had hardly considered before.

In mid-2013, during a morning meeting, the foreign trade manager reported to Liu Mingtao a promising lead: there had been a series of inquiries from purchasers in various African countries, showing great interest in Hengwang's drilling equipment. Sensing a business opportunity, this astute post-80s businessman instructed the foreign trade manager to try and obtain contact information from a few of these purchasers so he could personally communicate with them, accompanied by a translator.

Deep discussions revealed the underlying need: in the African continent, where water resources are scarce and geological conditions complex, well drilling had become virtually impossible for manual labor and even for conventional machinery, making specialized engineering equipment indispensable for successfully drilling water wells. Compared to the high-priced drilling rigs from Europe and America, which are also not very user-friendly for the average person, those produced in Shandong, China, were practically synonymous with being "affordable, practical, and easy to use." During 2012-2013, China's construction assistance in Africa was booming, and the charm of Made in China won the hearts of the local people. At that time, whether it was professional drilling teams in Africa or utility departments representing local governments seeking to make purchases, they all sought to procure Chinese-made drilling equipment through various channels.

Alibaba International became an important stop on their sourcing journey, and Hengwang, being a professional machinery engineering enterprise on the platform, "close to the water and first to get the moon," became a direct beneficiary of this "flow bonus."

"Remember the Well Digger When Drinking Water: Making Affordable Drilling Rigs for the People of Africa"

After finding the right direction, Liu Mingtao decisively adjusted his business strategy and focused his main workforce on what he considered a "big deal."

On one hand, he strengthened control over the drilling equipment supply chain in Jining, continuously investing in capital and technology to mass-produce Hengwang's own drilling rigs. Throughout the trading process, he collected customer feedback and made adjustments to match the usage habits of the local people in Africa. Considering the general financial constraints in Africa, Hengwang also optimized its drilling rigs by making trade-offs in functionality to pursue the "ultimate cost-performance ratio."

On the other hand, Liu Mingtao decided to deepen cooperation with Alibaba International. He disregarded public opinion and invested in P4P keywords to increase product exposure. He was also among the first to respond when Alibaba International launched premium sincere enterprise and credit guarantee services, always being the first to "eat the crab."

"After becoming a premium sincere enterprise, we could add a strength certification label, which greatly increased customer recognition. Plus, with the factory inspection video feature, customers could more intuitively feel our strength. Once, a customer from Africa personally said that they only negotiate with premium sellers, as it is the most efficient and secure approach," said Liu Mingtao.

Beyond the endorsement of strength, the most direct improvement brought by becoming a premium sincere enterprise was the increase in traffic. Liu Mingtao used one of Hengwang's accounts as an example; with similar exposure, the number of inquiries quickly jumped from over 100 to more than 300 after becoming a premium account, and the conversion rate even saw a slight increase with more inquiries.

Hard work pays off. Early layout, significant investment, fine operation, and strict control allowed Liu Mingtao and his Hengwang Group to gradually build their moat in the drilling rig field, especially in the African market where purchasers particularly welcomed Hengwang's products. There were even instances of local government officials visiting to express their thanks. In 2018, staff from the Nigerian Embassy in China visited Shandong Hengwang Group. The African guests appeared somewhat excited after meeting Hengwang's founder Liu Mingtao, with someone giving a thumbs up and saying, "Chinese drilling rigs are very good! Africa lacks water, often a village relies on one well, everyone 'crowdfunds' to drill wells, and drilling rigs from China have been a great help..."

"I actually think very simply, our friends in Africa really need these things, and to them, it's nothing short of a lifesaver. I genuinely want to help them because selling one drilling rig means at least one new well, solving the drinking water problem for a village. But I'm a businessman; I can't continue without profit. So, I have to find a way to balance price and utility, which reflects the ability to control the supply chain. For example, advertising on Alibaba International is also a good method, even though some peers were skeptical at the time," said Liu Mingtao.

Hengwang's Alibaba Business Wisdom: The Infinite Momentum of Trade Assurance Orders

As a once obscure small private enterprise in Jining, it took only a few years for sales performance to successively break through ten million, fifty million... becoming a global star enterprise, frequently catching peers off guard and favored by markets at home and abroad. One might wonder, how did Liu Mingtao achieve this?

Looking back, Liu firmly believes he "caught a good time," especially participating in every major update of the platform. The decision he feels most worthy of summarization is catching the "Trade Assurance fast train."

In 2015, Alibaba International launched the world's first cross-border B2B neutral third-party transaction guarantee system - "Trade Assurance," which could digitally assess and trace the credit of both buyers and sellers. At that time, many peers were skeptical, as it meant changing the trading modes they were accustomed to. However, Liu Mingtao activated Trade Assurance not long after its launch, and the effect was immediate. "Before the launch of Trade Assurance, although our products had high click rates, conversion was difficult. After the launch, the inquiry conversion rate significantly improved. Especially for bulk commodity transactions, the presence of Trade Assurance reassures both buyers and sellers," he said.

It was then that Hengwang's drilling rigs completely opened up the African market. For machinery engineering enterprises, due to the huge order amount and long delivery period, the importance of "credit" is much higher than in other industries. Before activating Trade Assurance, to close a deal on a drilling rig, Liu Mingtao and his team spared no effort, even at the cost of making concessions for promotion, and still had to worry about payment issues after sales. With Trade Assurance, buyers could directly see the seller's credit through the mark and limit, and Alibaba's platform provided third-party guarantees for sellers to buyers, significantly boosting buyers' willingness to place orders, and Liu Mingtao's business transactions sped up.

"This is like the secured transactions provided by Alipay in our daily Taobao shopping, where the interests of both buyers and sellers are guaranteed. Only, Trade Assurance protects domestic and foreign trade enterprises and overseas purchasers," Liu Mingtao said.

Data provided by Hengwang's foreign trade manager showed that from 2015 to 2018, the proportion of Trade Assurance orders increased year by year, from about 50% at the beginning to 90% in 2018. Along with the increase in Trade Assurance orders was the overall sales volume of the store, first breaking through ten million US dollars and then continuing to climb, successfully breaking through fifty million US dollars in 2018.

This previously unknown small enterprise gradually became a star seller on Alibaba International, also due to the continuous high growth of export volume. In Jining, Hengwang's influence continued to expand. In 2017, Liu Mingtao was named a "Youth Entrepreneurship Pioneer" in Jining, and Hengwang Group also won multiple awards, being named a "New Foreign Trade Benchmark Enterprise" by Alibaba International in the same year. Jokingly, he said this also meant "gaining both fame and fortune."

Win-Win Value: Conducting More Business, Spreading More Goodwill

This high growth perfectly continued into this year's September Purchase Festival.

Having prepared well for its fourth participation in the Purchase Festival, Hengwang Group introduced new promotional policies and products and dedicated specialized personnel to the event. Over one month, the overall volume of inquiries increased by 50% compared to the previous period, and 90% of the orders were Trade Assurance orders, allowing Hengwang to easily exceed its set targets by 30%.

Liu Mingtao believes this success is closely related to Alibaba International's efficient empowerment. He analyzed that the "Global Origin Week" launched by the International Station during the Purchase Festival brought significant traffic to Hengwang Group, located in the Linyi machinery industry belt, especially from regions with high demand for machinery equipment like Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, where the volume of inquiries increased by at least 30%. The "layered and scenario-specific" approach significantly improved the precision of traffic, while Trade Assurance orders made transactions more efficient. "Compared to the inefficient inquiries and marginal product orders of previous years, this year we can clearly feel an improvement in both customer and order quality," he said.

With the help of Alibaba International's layered and scenario-specific solutions, Hengwang Group not only maintained its impressive performance in Africa but also unexpectedly broke through in the South American market. "We had hardly received any effective inquiries from South America before, but now we have, and I see another Africa. In fact, after understanding more, I found many places in South America have similarities with Africa, and I believe we can achieve the same success in future business."

Regarding future development, Liu Mingtao said that he plans to follow the "Belt and Road" strategy and deepen cooperation with Alibaba. The September Purchase Festival this year saw a surge in inquiries from Southeast Asia and the Middle East in Hengwang's Alibaba International store. Additionally, Alibaba International's recent announcement of an industrial belt upgrade strategy also seemed quite beneficial to Liu. "We, Hengwang, are located on the Jining machinery industrial belt, and I believe it will bring us more opportunities for leaps and bounds," Liu Mingtao said.

To catch the east wind of the industrial belt upgrade strategy as soon as possible, Liu Mingtao is actively contemplating further developments. In addition to the currently popular drilling rigs, he plans to develop more cost-effective heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, road rollers, and excavators, to sell around the world...

"The greatest charity is doing business." This statement couldn't be more apt when applied to Liu Mingtao and the Hengwang Group he founded.

On Alibaba International, there are many merchants like Liu Mingtao. On one hand, through cross-border trade, they have found a way to quickly enrich themselves, achieving a personal comeback. On the other hand, the products they manufacture and sell, such as cost-effective drilling rigs, portable water purifiers, emergency radios, etc., are of significant importance to the people in the export regions. Thus, inadvertently, they also take on the responsibility of seeking welfare for the local people.

The ancients often said, "You can't have your cake and eat it too." Yet today, as long as enterprises have a clear strategy, work closely with platforms, and harbor good intentions, it's possible to merge business with goodwill. Times are changing, opportunities are ever-present, and what was once "impossible" is turning into "I can"!

(News source: Alibaba International)