10 Secrets to do business with China successfully

  • Posted by MurrayClarke in Expert Blogs
  • 2008, February 28th

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1. Know the market. There are tremendous business opportunities in China, but don't assume that Chinese buyers aren't looking at other options. Your product or service may need to be altered to fit local needs or interests. Senior executives in Asia are quite accessible, and time spent meeting people before entering the market is essential. Government and quasi-government organizations have considerable influence in Asia and can assist you. Additionally, there are consulting and free services available to make introductions.

2. Use Hong Kong as your base to enter China. The most notable advantages of using Hong Kong as a starting point into China are: the availability of a reliable legal and financial infrastructure; a 15 percent flat tax rate; the ease of establishing a business entity; and experienced local tri-lingual (English, Mandarin, Cantonese) executives and consultants that can be hired.

3. Learn about Chinese culture. American and Chinese negotiation styles are dramatically different. Properly handing your business card (with two hands) and using a Mandarin or Cantonese greeting will go a long way toward showing and earning respect. Contrary to the American style of working deals, negotiations in China are largely dependent on relationships and consensus decision-making. One American executive she knew nearly killed a deal in Hong Kong when his Chinese counterparts allowed three signing deadlines to pass. By allowing additional time for consensus building, making some minor contractual changes and offering a price that ended in the "lucky" number "88," the deal was finalized.

4. Leverage an existing relationship. Work with a company who already has a Chinese presence; however, be aware that international marketing partnerships are only effective in Asia when you build relationships and work directly with your partner's local staff. Cultivate 'zhongjian ren' (the intermediary) because a gifted Chinese go-between is indispensable even after an initial meeting takes place.

5. Assist your family of companies. Many Chinese companies would like to enter the American market. If you can come up with a way to assist them, they may be more willing to bring you into their network. The person with the best 'guanxi' (personal connections) thrives.

6. Take care of the people who make introductions. Maybe someday you will help them out. Or, if you can justify paying a referral fee up front, mention it. They may say no, no, no. If you think it's a good idea to thank them in such a way, insist on it. Chinese are not as straightforward as Americans are -- no doesn't mean definitely no. Two Chinese can carry on the insisting and refusing game for a long time before one party gives up.

7. Bend the rules while sticking your neck out. Most rules can be bent for special situations for special people. If one is persistent, has endurance and is patient, one is more likely to affect the outcome. And, although the Chinese might not respond to your communications and may act as if they are disinterested in what you are offering, remember this: It is your effort that gets noticed, and oftentimes the effort is far more important than your offering.

8. Slow your pace. Meetings with potential partners over lunch and dinner are also occasions to recognize the slower pace of Chinese business. Meals in China are usually longer than what foreigners are accustomed to. Be patient and flexible. The time spent with people is a worthwhile investment that will pay off in the future.

9. Be courteous. Courtesy and discretion are paramount. No Chinese would be eager to deal with people -- whether online or offline -- who do not respect their way of living and conducting business. Also, be careful with your opinions on politics and government. The Chinese may not want to share with you what they really think about the government policies unless they are very close friends of yours.

10. Create desireability. Building a large and profitable presence in China requires top-quality products that are affordable to the masses. Creating desirability is an absolute must. You have to get to know your customer in order to determine which of your products offer the greatest consumer appeal and fit best with the local culture.



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Top 6 Customer Service Strategies

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If you don't treat your customers well, you can lose your business, even though you have products that your customers want. Studies show that it costs more to acquire new customers than it takes to retain existing ones.

Use these six service strategies to keep your customers coming back for more:

Strategy 1: Stay in Touch
Let your customers know you value their business by reaching out to them. Use newsletters, postcards, individual letters, or e-mails to deliver news about products, special promotions, and store events. (Allow customers to sign up for these missives in the store, and never send an e-mail without their express permission.) Send a thank-you note after a major purchase, inviting the customer to contact you with questions, feedback, or to discuss additional requests. Focus all these communications on letting customers know that you can solve their problems and meet their needs.

Strategy 2: Make Great Service a Priority
Excellent customer service requires training your staff and constantly reinforcing the message that customers come first. Start with the little things, such as a standard way of politely greeting people on the phone or asking that sales staff courteously greet anyone who enters the store.

Strategy 3: Store Collective Wisdom
One of the most important customer strategies is to set up a system for responding to customer inquiries or complaints. The last thing you want is for your employees to provide inaccurate information to your customers. Neither should they fail to provide a solution to a problem or quote policies that may not accurately address the situation.

Your goal should be to resolve issues during the initial customer contact, or, when that's not possible, within one business day. Whenever necessary, make sure employees let customers know that they may need some time to locate the information. Do not leave customers hanging.

With that in mind, staffers need to know exactly where to look for answers. While it's natural for new employees to rely on the wisdom of more experienced ones, you don't want all that wisdom to walk out the door when someone quits. Develop a "knowledge base"; that is, a store of information with answers to common questions, methods for solving problems, and standards for resolving disputes. Your knowledge base can be as simple as a notebook where staffers or the store manager jots notes; a searchable text file on a computer; or a database.

Strategy 4: Empower Your Staff
In some cases, where there is no policy -- and occasionally in cases where the policy needs to be flexed -- you need to empower certain people to make decisions, use good judgment, and bend the rules. Ask them to document these special cases; you can provide a pad of paper forms, let them enter information into the computer, or simply leave you a voice mail. Depending on the size of your operation, you may want to designate one person per shift as chief problem-solver.

Strategy 5: Know Your Customers
Instituting a formal way of tracking your customer interactions will help you identify your best customers, as well as those who may not have frequented your business in a while. You can also see if someone has needed repairs or is due for servicing on a product.

There are many software applications designed to do this, ranging from powerful -- and expensive -- "enterprise software" products to simple Web-based applications that cost less than $20 a month. As you gain new customers, you enter their contact information and notes about the transaction into the software. Later, you can sort this data or analyze it to uncover useful information.

But you don't have to use a computer to track customers. A small shop could simply prepare an index card for each customer and file them alphabetically. If the customer returns, sales staff can pull the card from the file, review the history, and note the latest interaction.

Strategy 6: Manage Customer Relationships
Once you have some history on your customers, whether from written notes or via a database, you can identify your best customers and reward them. Perhaps you'll offer a special discount to frequent customers or make a follow-up call to those who have needed recent repair work.

Use the information you've gathered about your customers to make customer service a science. Give them a quality experience and complete satisfaction, and they'll keep coming back for more.




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Beginners Guide to Exporting Products

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1. Register your business ensuring that all requirements have been complied with.

2. Choose the products that you are going to export and ascertain from the difference governmental agencies that these are not banned items. Where necessary, obtain a list of all the documents that are required especially for regulated products. If you produce or manufacture your own products for export, know your production capacity. If you subcontract the production of your goods, know the production capacity of all your subcontractors.

3. Open an account with a bank with international connections or one with correspondents in the locality of your customers.

4. Where necessary, obtain a background check of all your would-be customers through the aid of your bankers.

5. From new buyers, always insist on prepayment before you ship your goods.

6. If you agree on payment by Letter of Credit (L/C), ensure that the L/C is irrevocable and at sight.

7. Try to understand the different modes of payment for international trade, as discussed above, under Importation. This is a simple step-by-step guide on import and export procedures. While requirements may vary from country to country, the general and basic procedures are essentially the same.  



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Three Tips to Avoid Receiving Inferior Products

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1.Make sure you do a thorough inspection of the company before you trade with an International company: a Factory Audit; Production Inspection; and a Pre-shipment Inspection conducted by a third party company are very important if your company is ordering a large quantity of goods from a company. This is the best way to protect your interests and reduce the risks involved in international trade. This is why, currently, more and more big buyers seek assistance from local inspection companies.

2. To protect your financial interests, use a secure payment method, such as L/C. You should also sign a business contract with your trading partner. You may also ask for a written guarantee ensuring that the products you order will be of the same quality as the samples you received. If you do have to request a refund or take a company to court, this will be strong evidence.

3. If a trade dispute occurs, try better communication with your trading partner. Most disputes are solved after discussing problems directly. Negotiate with your partner and try to find a reasonable solution. If the dispute cannot be solved after negotiations, try to get legal support to aid mediation.



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Smart E-Mail Marketing Without Being Dumped As Spams

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E-mail is just another medium for direct marketing. But it requires you to make a dramatic shift in focus from quantity to quality in your marketing efforts. It requires you to get explicit permission prior to its commencement, and then exercise a certain adroitness and agility in responding to the opportunities brought about by this truly interactive process.

For the first time you can, for an affordable cost, ask your individual customers exactly what they want from you, and then provide them with a solution that fits them perfectly.

Here are 14 common-sense tips to help you fight the good fight against spam and stay on the right side of the law.

1. Make it obvious why you are sending the message.

2. Make it easy for the recipient to opt out or unsubscribe.

3. Provide a valid, working reply address in the "From" line.

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Ten Tips to Selling in China Successfully

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1. Know the market.

There are tremendous business opportunities in China, but don't assume that Chinese buyers aren't looking at other options. Your product or service may need to be altered to fit local needs or interests. Senior executives in Asia are quite accessible, and time spent meeting people before entering the market is essential. Government and quasi-government organizations have considerable influence in Asia and can assist you. Additionally, there are consulting and free services available to make introductions.

2. Use Hong Kong as your base to enter China.

The most notable advantages of using Hong Kong as a starting point into China are: the availability of a reliable legal and financial infrastructure; a 15 percent flat tax rate; the ease of establishing a business entity; and experienced local tri-lingual (English, Mandarin, Cantonese) executives and consultants that can be hired.

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Risk Factors in China Sourcing

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Risk factors involved in China sourcing are worth taking note off before setting off. It is prudent to build in mechanisms to offset risks in China sourcing from the beginning.

It is natural for companies to consider China sourcing or setting shop in China for obvious reasons such as becoming competitive in the market, staying afloat in recession ridden market and so on. Risk factors increase with more and more companies opting China sourcing.

Risk #1 in China Sourcing – Renewed Competition
As industries flock to China either to for production or outsourcing, they will be invariably competing with one another as well as with dominant local and government promoted companies in the niche. Those companies that sought to beat their domestic competition by China sourcing will gradually find themselves competing with either the China manufacturers or with all those companies which have begun sourcing from China. This is a pretty similar scenario to the one that prompted China sourcing option.

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