Sales promotion

  In front of the gate of the Provincial Department of Finance in Nancheng City, Lin Zhenhua and Chu Hongyang were being questioned by the doorman.

  "What are you doing?" The gatekeeper asked in a majestic tone, with some remnants of the working class leading everything, and the status of the old gatekeeper was not lower than that of the department heads in the organs.

  Lin Zhenhua beamed with a smile and handed over his work permit: "Master, I am the manager of Jiangnan Province Hanhua Machinery Factory Labor Service Company. Look, this is my work permit."

  "Manager? You're so young to be a manager? This work permit of yours isn't fake, is it?" The doorman flipped through the work permit up and down, as if trying to find something wrong with it.

  "Hey, old man, take a look at this. This has our factory's big seal on it. Can this be fake too? Besides, what would I gain from faking it?" Lin Zhenhua shouted as he pulled out a pack of Daqianmen cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to the gatekeeper.

  The gatekeeper took the cigarette and lit it with the lighter pressed by Lin Zhenhua, his expression softened a bit: "Okay, what are you doing running to the Ministry of Finance? Which department are you looking for?"

  "Excuse me, sir, we are here on business and would like to find your administrative office."

  "What business do you have with us? You're a labor service company for a machinery factory, what kind of business do you need to contact us about?" The old gatekeeper seemed to be overly energetic and liked to pry into everything.

  Lin Zhenhua smiled and said: "Old man, this matter is related to you. The new product we developed is designed to reduce the workload of revolutionary veterans like you."

  "Oh, tell me about it."

  Lin Zhenhua stretched out his hand, took a blueprint from Chu Hongyang's hand, spread it on the ground for the doorman to see: "Sir, look, we've designed a new type of gate, which is retractable. In the future, you won't have to work hard to open and close the door back and forth. Just press a button in the duty room, and the door will open. Press it again, and the door will close."

  "Is there such a good thing?" The old man at the door was indeed interested and put on his reading glasses to carefully look at Lin Zhenhua's drawings.

  Lin Zhenhua handed the doorman an effect diagram. Lin Zhenhua's own drawing skills were limited to mechanical drafting, and this vivid retractable gate effect diagram was drawn by Bi Min. Bi Min is introverted but has a bit of spirit, and somehow learned some painting since childhood, and in the labor service company, he is considered a painter.

  "Hey, old man, look, a big unit like your finance department, especially with a revolutionary veteran like you guarding the gate, shouldn't it be grand and magnificent? But now it's just a big iron gate. People who know say it's the finance department, but those who don't think it's a... haha, they even think it's a construction site. This is really damaging your reputation, isn't it?" Lin Zhenhua spoke eloquently, but his words came out too quickly, almost saying that the finance department's gate looked like a prison gate.

  "I've seen this kind of gate in your painting." The old doorman said, patting his thigh, "I saw it on a calendar, some foreign unit, and it's just like this gate."

  "Right!" Lin Zhenhua echoed loudly, "Old man, think about it, we're now learning from the advanced experiences and technologies of foreign countries. For a unit like our finance department, which often receives foreign guests, wouldn't having such high-end sliding doors also be able to showcase the superiority of our socialist system?"

  "Good boy, you're right. What's your name...?" The old man wasn't forgetful, he just never asked Lin Zhenhua his name.

  "My name is Lin Zhenhua, I am the manager of Hanhua Mechanical Factory Labor Service Company. This is Chu Hongyang, he is our company's business director." Lin Zhenhua quickly pulled Chu Hongyang over to introduce him to the old man.

  "Ah, good, you're all young and promising." The old man said with a smile, "Let's go, I'll take you to the administration office. This matter is under Director Liu's jurisdiction, I'll take you to see him directly."

  "Thank you." Lin Zhenhua was so delighted he almost jumped up.

  Chu Hongyang stood behind him and stretched out a big thumb, saying in a low voice: "Gao, the lord is really high."

  Under the guidance of the old gatekeeper, Lin Zhenhua and Chu Hongyang came to Director Liu's office in the administrative department. Before Lin Zhenhua could say anything, the old gatekeeper had already spread out the blueprint on Director Liu's desk and enthusiastically repeated what Lin Zhenhua had just said to Director Liu.

  "Master Chen, I understand. But our gate hasn't broken yet. Moreover, the kind of gate they're selling, doesn't our country not have it at all?" Director Liu hesitated to say.

  Lin Zhenhua took a step forward, first putting a box of large front doors on Director Liu's desk, and then said: "Director Liu, in fact, such big doors have already been used by some units in our city."

  "Oh, what unit?"

  "We visited the Jiangnan Petrochemical Machinery Factory in Jiangsu Province. Their big gate is somewhat similar to ours, but technically it's several generations behind us."

  "Petri?cation device?" Director Liu thought for a moment and nodded, "Now that you mention it, I seem to recall something like that. There might be such a door."

  "Director Liu, look, all the subordinate enterprises are using this kind of gate, but our provincial hall is still using a large iron gate. Isn't that losing face? Think about it, every day when our director drives in and out in his sedan, he has to wait for the security guard... that's Chen Dage, to open this big iron gate. Isn't that affecting the leader's work and mood? Our Hanhua Industrial Company is thinking what the leaders are thinking, and worrying what they're worried about. We've developed this automatic sliding door, and next we'll be promoting it to all provincial-level units. This first unit, we've come to our Finance Hall." Lin Zhenhua said.

  Chu Hongyang stood by, listening to Lin Zhenhua's words, and couldn't help but feel both amused and moved. It had to be said that Lin Zhenhua had explicitly stated many of the unspoken rules in official circles, things that people still didn't dare to say openly in this day and age.

  "You just said that the stone gate is more backward than yours, and it's several generations behind. What's advanced about your gate?" Director Liu asked.

  "Of course, we have this kind of gate, which is called a universal program-controlled automatic sliding door. The big gate at the petrochemical plant, to be honest, is just an electric motor pulling the door open or closed, without any automatic control part. Our gate, on the other hand, has an American-made NE555 computer chip embedded inside, which can control the speed of the gate's opening and closing, making it more stable and not sudden. Moreover, our gate has a remote control function, which can be controlled within a range of 30 meters, so even if Mr. Chen is not in the duty room, as long as he is within 30 meters of the gate, he can manage the gate's opening and closing. To avoid accidental collisions with pedestrians or vehicles when the electric gate opens and closes, our gate is also specially designed with anti-collision sensors, which will automatically stop the gate if there are obstacles in front."

  "Is this advanced?" Director Liu's eyes also lit up, indeed, if the entrance of the Ministry of Finance was replaced with such a large gate, it would be a magnificent thing.

  "These are just standard equipment." Lin Zhenhua said with a smirk.

  "What is meant by 'standard configuration'?"

  "Standard configuration is just the standard configuration, it's what all gates have. We can also add additional functions to the gate according to user needs, such as setting light signal function, delayed opening and closing function, password lock function and so on..."

  "Wait a minute, Manager Lin. If what you're saying is true, isn't the price of this gate extremely expensive?" Director Liu asked worriedly.

  "It's not expensive, with a width like the entrance of your Ministry of Finance, the standard price is only 5,000 yuan."

  "5,000 yuan!" Director Liu's tongue lolled out for a long time. "This is too expensive! Our original big iron gate only cost less than 100 yuan."

  "Could this be the case?" Lin Zhenhua said, "Director Liu, as the saying goes, one penny one penny goods. Inside our big gate, there is a control chip called NE555, which is a computer chip. This is equivalent to saying that our gate has a computer controlling it. Think about it, how much does a computer cost?"

  This is where Lin Zhenhua started to exaggerate, the full name of NE555 is an 8-pin timer integrated circuit, although it also integrates several operational amplifiers, but saying it's a computer chip is a bit too much. The price of NE555 in the US market was only one or two dollars, but domestically it was a treasure. At that time, the country's foreign exchange was extremely scarce, and all products that needed to be imported with foreign exchange were very precious.

  Lin Zhenhua initially added a clause when negotiating the price with Ford, asking Ford to procure a batch of electronic components for him in the US market, including the very popular Z80 and a chip called NE555. At that time, Lin Zhenhua did not think of using these chips in this way, but now he is taking them out to use, mainly to increase the technical content of the product, so as to use high technology as an excuse to charge exorbitant prices.

  "This is also too expensive, our administrative expenses can't afford it either." Director Liu said.

  "Little Liu, we don't even have 5,000 yuan?" The old doorman interrupted, he had already been moved by Lin Zhenhua's words and felt that as a glorious doorman, he should at least guard such a door to match his status.

  Director Liu looked embarrassed and said, "Master Chen, you also know that our department's budget is still quite tight. 5,000 yuan might not get approved by the director. If it can be a bit less, it would be easier to discuss."

  Lin Zhenhua did not expect that the provincial finance department would also be short of money. He chose the finance department as his first target customer, thinking that this unit would never be short of money no matter what. When Director Liu called it poor, Lin Zhenhua quickly took back his words:

  "Director Liu, I wasn't finished speaking. What I meant to say is that the quotation for this gate is 5,000 yuan, but we can install a set for the Finance Department at a trial price and just charge back some material costs, without charging a single cent for labor and technical fees."

  "Oh?" Director Liu's spirits lifted, "How much is this trial price you're talking about?"

  "Just 3,000 yuan." Lin Zhenhua stretched out three fingers and said solemnly.