There’s no future in producing counterfeit or substandard products. Customers will only be fooled once, and if you only make one-time sales, you’ll never build a successful business. That was my immediate impression after speaking with Mr. Zhao just now.
Mr. Zhao purchased our Yuhui 8566 crack-resistant steel some time ago. Since he needed to place another order, I called him to discuss the technical requirements. During the call, Mr. Zhao told me, “Your 8566 anti-chipping steel really works well. Its crack resistance is far superior to SKH51 and much better than the 8566 anti-chipping steel from Shanghai.”
Mr. Zhao works in the textile machinery industry. He has a component that requires high toughness. He used to use SKH51 high-speed steel, but the needles kept breaking. Later, he heard that 8566 anti-chipping steel had excellent toughness, so he went to Shanghai and bought four batches of 8566 anti-chipping steel. However, the results were not as good as with SKH51—he wasted money on the material, the machining was for nothing, and he received even more customer complaints, which left him very frustrated.
Later, a friend told him, “If you want to buy 8566 die steel, you need to go to Guangdong and find the “Mold Steel King” The 8566 die steel on the market is all fake—it’s just imitations of his product.”
Due to an unsolvable problem with component breakage and persistent customer complaints, Mr. Zhao contacted me in early March on a trial basis. After discussing the matter with him, I realized that 8566 anti-chipping steel was not available for his specific operating conditions. He was currently using SKH51 high-speed steel, which was prone to breaking—a result of incorrect material selection that made the breakage inevitable.
In contrast, 8566 offers four times the chipping resistance of SKH51 high-speed steel, with a hardness of 58–60 HRC. The superior chipping resistance of 8566 is fully capable of meeting the demands of his operating conditions. As for the counterfeit 8566 he purchased in Shanghai that was prone to breaking—he was simply duped.
8566 is a proprietary anti-chipping mold steel developed by Yuhui Mold Steel, primarily designed to address mold chipping. It is not a national grade but our company’s proprietary grade—it is our intellectual property and not in the public domain. However, due to 8566’s high market visibility, strong sales, and customers specifically requesting it, it has attracted “four types of knockoffs” from competitors across the internet—not only Fake 8566” but also “Shadow 8566” products; it has even become a reference standard for certain major steel mills—a truly unprecedented oddity in the industry.
After more than a month, Mr. Zhao told me on the phone today that, after testing it for over a month, your 8566 does indeed offer better crack resistance than SKH51. The parts hardly break anymore, and customers have stopped complaining. Compared to your 8566, the 8566 I bought in Shanghai was indeed a rip-off.
After our discussion today, I’ll need to fine-tune the heat treatment process to ensure your 8566 meets the requirements for Mr. Zhao’s textile machine parts and eliminates the fracture issues. Following our conversation, Mr. Zhao placed another order for 100 pieces of 8566 anti-chipping steel.
After two conversations with Mr. Zhao, my biggest takeaway is that there’s no future in selling counterfeit goods. If you put your heart into helping customers solve their problems, they’ll be grateful and respect you—and they’ll speak to you politely.
If you sell counterfeit goods, you might close one deal, but you won’t get a second one. Customers will only fall for it once, and then they’ll come to dislike you. It’s also not worth it for you. The new customers you worked so hard to attract will be gone after just one small trial order. Where will you find new customers willing to let you deceive them? If they’re all small orders, how can you ever grow your business?!
So, selling counterfeit goods leads nowhere. Treat customers with integrity and sincerity, and genuinely help them solve their problems—only then will small orders lead to big ones.
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I’m Wu Dejian, the “Mold Steel King”, from Dongguan Yuhui Mold Steel. Yuhui Mold Steel is used by three Fortune 500 companies and seven of China’s Top 500 companies. Kyocera has been sourcing Yuhui Mold Steel for seven consecutive years. I’ve helped over 4,000 companies solve complex problems related to mold material selection, manufacturing, and usage. If you’re unsure about which mold steel to choose, or if the mold steel you’re currently using results in short mold lifespans and you don’t know which material to use, feel free to reach out to me. I’m confident that when it comes to mold material selection and application, I can serve as your chief advisor and help you avoid costly trial-and-error. Wu Dejian Tool Steel—the users’ trusted advisor. Everyone who’s tried it is satisfied!