In the second part we are going to look at each of the remaining communication channels:

Email

Email communication is one of the preferred ways to communicate with your customers in China, also being the most convenient method to maintain contact with your existing clients. While many Chinese may feel embarrassed of the low level of their oral English communication abilities, they would feel quite comfortable discussing the same issues in the written communication.

In fact, most business people in China today have a very decent level of written English making it preferable to direct phone calls. Email is a great way to follow up on meetings and provide more details after initial contact. Make sure to write your emails in plain language and avoid long sentences to keep it more readable.

Websites

Having a localized website is essential for promoting your business in China, a country with the estimated 400 million email users. Localization of your website requires a well planned effort with the most important aspect of it, translation, discussed in our previous post.

 92% of Chinese internet users use some sort of social media platform making it essential to maintain your presence there as well.

Having professionally designed, modern looking website may also set you apart from most Chinese based competitors that tend to have messy and cluttered sites. Remember, that your website is probably the first place an interested client will go to after meeting your for the first time.

Social Media

92% of Chinese internet users use some sort of social media platform making it essential to maintain your presence there as well. Sina Weibo, Chinese micro blogging platform and WeChat, mobile network, are by far the most popular of those services. The great thing about Weibo and WeChat is the ability to spread your message instantly and directly to your followers’ mobile devices.

Once you’ve setup your Weibo account, make sure to put its URL and QR code on your printed and digital marketing material and encourage your customers to connect (WeChat is different from Weibo in that way).

LinkedIn is currently not as popular in China as the alternative professional networks, we will review those services in subsequent posts.

Face-to-face meetings

Personal connection still rules in Chinese business environment. Taking time to personally visit your customers is one of the best investments you can make.

Insist on accompanying your sales people, your agent or distributor on their visits even if you don’t speak any Chinese. If you make a presentation, make sure that someone from your company, who knows the material, provides proper translation.

Phone calls

While phone calls can be of limited use if your clients have a difficulty understanding your English (or your accent) they still can be an efficient way to keep in touch with those who do speak it well enough. However, with the proliferation of instant messaging, where one can control his/her availability, calling someone’s cell phone directly may seem less considerate.

Great mobile instant messaging services, such as WeChat, could be a great way not only to communicate but also to spread your marketing message as well.

Post (Regular Mail)

Mailing printed material is one of the least efficient ways to communicate in modern times and China is no exception. In B2B marketing settings, mailing information by post is quickly losing its value and I’d advise to avoid it;

Relationship and Networking

Chinese guanxi remains important in Chinese business environment, although the whole concept can be alien to many foreigners. Guanxi refers to one’s network of personal relationships in a business context. The concept of guanxi also implies that business relationships can often transform into personal friendships, and indeed many Chinese business people consciously spend a great deal of time and energy nurturing such relationships. This can take the form of banqueting, evening entertainment or gift-giving – activities that can seem onerous and unnecessary to many Westerners.

As Matthew Harrison and Mark Hedley of B2B International write in their white paper: “Although such networking and relationship-building is clearly important to the sales process in China, there is a tendency among some commentators to overemphasize its importance when trying to penetrate the Chinese market.

As in any market, building strong relationships is extremely important to achieving market success, although guanxi is no substitute for a strong product offering or a trustworthy supplier. What Western companies sometimes have difficulty coming to terms with is the way in which this trust is gained, and the time it often takes to convince the customer that yours is the product or service that meets their needs. The overriding piece of advice for Western companies would be to understand the importance of establishing relationships when targeting Chinese companies, and to be prepared for the patience required for this.”

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Information in today’s digital milieu has always been a double edged sword for sales and marketing. It works for you if you can control it. Information comes from your sales team, your website and your press releases. Outside that – it’s a free-for-all.

As we all know, the latter is the reality. What we often have to deal with is a highly-evolved B2B buyer, someone who’ve searched across several online platforms. And, according to The Digital Evolution in B2B Marketing, a 2014 research conducted by the Marketing Leadership Council of CEB (now known as Gartner) in partnership with Google, this person will not face a sales rep until 57 percent of their buyer’s journey is done.

So, it pays to ask: How do B2B buyers search for tech solutions and how can you ensure you’re there, at every stage of their buyer’s journey?

B2B Buyer Behavior

There have been several studies on today’s buyer behavior, and one stand-out commonality is that B2B buyers go online first before reaching out to a sales team (if ever they do).

A 2014 research by the Acquity Group, a digital marketing company under Accenture, pegs the number of B2B buyers who do online research at 94 percent. This is further broken down to the top go-to sites. Business websites lead at 84.3 percent; this is followed closely by 77 percent who turn to Google search. Other notable online resources include third party websites (34%), such as blogs and industry websites, and online user reviews (41%).

Analytics Advocate at Google Adam Singer confirms this at a ClickZ Live conference in San Francisco and adds that a person, on average, checks out 10.4 online resources before reaching out to a sales rep.

The Digital Age Buyer’s Journey

The fact that a buyer faces a sales rep only at 57 percent into the journey is perhaps not the most disconcerting finding to come out of these recent B2B buyer studies. It also raises a red flag that a lot of people are looking for a self-service buying experience. 31 percent say they prefer an unassisted online purchase, with phone support only as a just-in-case. Another 10 percent say they want zero assistance; while 12.5 percent say they want to be walked through the purchasing process.

You can’t help but wonder where in the digital age buyer’s journey would the sales team figure in?

According to the CEB study, you only get a 12 percent mindshare (public awareness) for each typical buyer who goes through the buyer’s journey. This share spans across a variety of channels.

The Salesforce’s Pardot survey, 2013 State of Demand Generation Report, claims that 71.7 percent of buyers start with a Google search. This is followed by personal networks at 15.6 percent and social networks at 2 percent.

This brings us to a familiar B2B scenario, typical in today’s buyer’s journey: Say that your company is looking for a CTI solution that integrates your phone systems to your CRM. You get on the project and do an online research. This leads you to a variety of business websites, such as Salesforce and Tenfold. You also look into industry forums to see what your peers have to say about the many vendors in the CTI market. You read blogs, reviews and how-to’s to see if the system suits your requirements and has the flexibility that you need. Through your research, you come up with the top 3 vendors, which you then invite to present and bid.

This might sound like a good deal because a sales-ready buyer comes to you. But, consider too that in no part of their buyer’s journey are you able to influence and educate.

Instead, you function only as an order taker. Your buyer already has a preconceived idea of what you offer. It can be hard to sway them otherwise – unless you can overcome the three main hurdles in B2B marketing and sales: ineffective digital integration, unfocused content and an unoptimized mix of online channels.

Know the Modern B2B Buyer

But first, let’s get to know who the modern B2B buyer is.

The Millennial Influence

Forget what you believe in when it comes to the B2B buyer. He or she isn’t middle-aged and working a managerial or executive position. In fact, the B2B buyer is getting younger!

The Pew Research Center has found that millennials are the biggest generation cluster in the American workforce today. There is more than one millennial in every three employees in the job market. And, they are working closer and closer towards positions of influence, when it comes to B2B purchases.

According to a 2014 survey conducted by Google and research company Millward Brown Digital, millenials make up 46 percent of prospective B2B buyers. This data is up from 2012’s 27 percent, which signifies the growing influence of this generation.

Director of Business and Industrial Markets for Google, Mike Miller, says that this represents a “big shift in a two-year time span.” He believes that this is partly due to the retirement of baby boomers. A new powerhouse generation is emerging in the lead.

This requires rehashing old B2B marketing strategies that usually target senior-level executives. While millennials may still not hold positions of power, their influence is clear. They make up 24 percent of non-executives tasked to help in B2B purchasing decisions. This is a generation who grew up at a time when mobile phones and the internet were readily available. You can be sure they will use these access and mobility tools in B2B research and recommendations.

The Multiple-Channel B2B Buyer

The multiple-channel buyer is always connected and researching online through mobile phones, tablets and desktops. They have mobility and access. They read your websites, reviews and blogs; and might have even downloaded one of your demos. They attend conferences and seminars – sometimes online – to learn about industry breakthroughs and innovations. They can cover multiple channels partly because they’ve fully integrated mobility and the internet into their lives.

According to the Google/ Millward Brown Digital study, by 2014, 34 percent of those involved in B2B purchasing decisions use their mobile devices at each stage of their buyer’s journey. This is almost twice the devoted mobile users/ B2B buyers of 2012. Mobile phone usage extends to work places and social gatherings; and includes requests for bids, product comparisons, video viewing and contacting the vendor.

The increase in video viewing is another metric attributed to the multiple-channel buyer. According to YouTube, more than 895,000 hours of videos viewed are those by top B2B brands. In fact, 70 percent of those surveyed by Google say they use videos to learn more about products before making a purchase.

Information Overload

The availability of seemingly limitless information empowers the new B2B buyer. And because they access content at each step of their buyer’s journey, you too must be on this content train.

According to the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs’s 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America, 88 percent of marketers implement content marketing strategies. 76 percent of these say that they will include content marketing allocation by 2015. On average, 28 percent of the marketing budget go to content marketing. However, those who are most effective at it spend around 42 percent.

So, remember that the modern B2B buyer is swimming in a sea information. Your share shouldn’t just be a forgettable drop.

Influencing the Digital Age Buyer’s Journey

Perhaps there are several strategies you can study and implement in order to influence the new B2B buyer. However, at the core of it will always be the actions you take in dealing with modern B2B marketing and sales’ main hurdles: digital integration, content and channel mix.

Comprehensive Digital Integration

Your effective presence online should cease being treated like an annoying fly buzzing and tweeting about. Traditional marketing campaigns have been rendered obsolete by B2B buyers who are empowered with information. Their product learning can’t coincide with your campaign plans because they go about it on their own, online.

Here are a few steps to take to start a comprehensive digital integration program, according to the Marketing Leadership Council of CEB:

1. Document existing campaign architectures. Make sure to take note of effective strategies and their output.
2. Review marketing practices to see what works and what doesn’t. A dialogue with the sales and marketing team is necessary to get to the real score regarding these practices.
3. Observe and analyze external practices that have worked to get you closer to your goals.
4. Select, codify and implement best practices.
5. Recreate the campaign architecture and refine practices that don’t work as expected.
6. Repeat the process until you reach your ideal.
7. Put together an implementation guideline, as well as an accessible resource center for the guidelines, necessary tools and other information regarding your digital integration.

Purposeful and Focused Content

Many B2B marketers have taken on content marketing like it was the latest must-have trend. This has resulted in content that’s highly unorganized and lacks a consistent and purposeful message. You then get a whole slew of problems, such as prospective buyers swimming in a sea of useless information. This type of information does not really teach them well; and, it does not engage them enough to take the next step in their buyer’s journey with you.

There are several realities that might have factored into this situation. For instance, your web team may have been focused on ranking your website in search results, without being consistent and driving your true message. You might have outsourced your social media management, without providing guidelines on your corporate messaging.

It is important to rectify this, as soon as possible, because your customer engagement is centered on your content. It comes in at all stages of the buyer’s journey. It is at the core of your lead nurturing programs, and online and social media engagements. And, it is everyone’s responsibility – not just your copywriter’s.

This is where the so-called “coverage orientation” comes in. B2B marketers pinpoint topics that interest your target audience, and ensure that you consistently offer fresh content for each topic, through content development and curation. This can be a fruitful content marketing strategy, as long as you have a good understanding of your customers.

Make sure that you cover all your customers’ information requirements. This way, even as they learn about your product on their own, the information that they get still aligns with what you truly offer.

Smart, Targeted Channel Mix

Given several online channels, where should you invest in? Which channels will bring the most qualified leads? Should you invest in creating YouTube videos or simply blogging? Does your target audience need whitepapers or an online archive of manuals, issue reports and resolutions?

There are many ways to develop a targeted channel mix. However, the first step is to recognize your traditionally fragmented approach. The marketing team might be taking care of blogs and other creative text content. Your tech team might have been tasked with putting together your FAQs, whitepapers and other support pages. You might have outsourced your video production to an ad company, and your social media management to an SMM company.

However you’re doing it right now, it is important to account for your efforts, and assess your channel effectiveness. The metrics to use here are often readily available with the team tasked with each channel assignment.

Then, invest more in an expert analytics professional, someone who can accurately assess your channel efforts and audience response. Use your findings to put together a model channel mix, one that suits your target market and gets your messaging right.

Chase Davis is Account Executive – CX Consultant at Tenfold

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At the moment, Tianji has established itself as a leader in China’s online professional networking.Launched in 2005 by France-based Viadeo, it claims 20 million users at the moment, although true figures are hard to verify. With its clean and professional design, Tianji continues to attract business minded individuals across various industries and geographical areas in China.

In contrast with relatively limited advertising opportunities on Ushi, Tianji offers plenty of marketing options to marketers. Most placement models are CPM based but there are options for full continuous 24 hours ad display too. There are close to 50 different types of ads that can be placed with Tianji. Here is an overview of some of the options:

Ads on Tianji homepage

Homepage：www.tianji.com/home

Price: CPM based, RMB120-140

Ads on My Information Channel

Price: CPM based, RMB100-140

Ads on Tianji Company Channel

Price: CPM based, RMB100-140 or 24 hours of continuous display priced from RMB 120 to 3,000 depending on the size and location.

The cheapest option is that section (RMB 120 per 24 hours) would be displaying a company logo as shown on the right:

Ads on Tianji Events Channel

Those are quite similar to homepage style of ads but are displayed in the Events panel of Tianji site

Price: CPM based, RMB100-140

Ads in Tianji Newsletter

Ads can also be placed in Tianji Newsletter that is regularly sent out to users. A single placement would cost RMB 4 and minimum 50,000 mailings must be purchased at once. This means that one such campaign would reach RMB 200,000 for just one minimal mailing. Tianji Newsletter with an ad looks like this:

There are several more ads placement in other sections of the site, such as in Groups (similar to Events), as well as in users Inbox page and Weekly Updates.

In conclusion, while advertising options with Tianji are plentiful, especially compared to Ushi, the required budget for any meaningful marketing campaign can easily reach into hundreds of thousand RMB. Unfortunately, CPC advertising model is not available with Tianji making it harder for advertisers to judge the effectiveness of such campaigns and their ultimate conversion rate.

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One of the most popular sites is called “Ushi” (优士 yōushì) which means “outstanding professionals” in Chinese, with a double meaning of “competitive advantage”. The majority of Ushi’s 1 million plus members are concentrated in Tier 1 cities. While 1 million doesn’t sound like a lot in China, Ushi claims to attract higher quality users compared to other networks.

At the moment, in order to be able to advertise on Ushi, signing of a minimum 3 months contract is required. In general, Ushi’s advertising options are heavily geared toward recruitment: the ads can be linked back to a recruitment pages within Ushi where potential candidates can learn more about available opportunities and HR contact details.

Here is how a banner ad on Ushi would look like:

Additionally, Ushi development team will create a customized Company Page for you within the Ushi.com site. This page will be searchable by standard search engines, and Ushi members will be able to “follow” the site to receive updates on new opportunities. Ushi website can be integrated into a broader social-media HR strategy if necessary. The company page would look like this:

In case of advertising jobs, the “followed” companies will appear in the user’s  menu for easy access:

In addition, all Ushi members receive a weekly Newsletter from the network, which includes updates on activity within their profile. This will include a prominent advertisement for you within this newsletter:

For brand advertising, Ushi would typically offer a customized campaign aimed at engagement. An example would be a recently completed campaign for Hilton Hotels. The purpose of the Hilton campaign was to drive high-value brand engagement with Ushi members by having them comment on a key discussion topics. To “qualify” as a successful “interaction” in this campaign, Ushi members needed to leave a substantial comment that was publicly-available to other members:

Another example of brand engagement campaign is the one for British Airways which was organized in a form of a quiz on British etiquette. The participants were quizzed on various UK related topics from golf and business to education and real estate. On a completion of the quiz, the participants would be able to enter a lucky draw :

In conclusion, advertising on Ushi does not follow CPM or CPC based model but instead focuses on customization and engagement. While it’s a promising approach, it currently lacks flexibility and doesn’t take advantage of Ushi’s ability to learn about their users in order to target them more accurately. Also, a 3 month contract would cost approximately 100,000 RMB which isn’t exactly an affordable option for smaller budget advertisers.

Next I will review advertising on Tianji.com, the largest online professional network in China.

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Almost every marketplace is defined geographically and going after the largest market or the one offering the most opportunities is one of the main priorities of any marketing strategy. Since China is a huge country that has been developing so rapidly, various areas differ significantly in terms of development level, income or population size.

When in comes to B2B marketing, the situation is further complicated by the phenomenon of industry clustering, i.e. tendency of an entire industry base to be concentrated in one area or around one city. Industry clustering greatly increases efficiency of the supply chain, local talent recruitment and, in effect, grows into a self sustaining ecosystem of interrelated companies and customers.

If a company seeks to expand its customer base locally it has to make sure to establish its presence within its industry’s cluster.

Industry clustering trend first began under directives of Chairman Mao Zedong in the early 1950s but then the phenomenon tool a life of its own and today, along with Special Economic Zones (SEZ), became one of the major engines of Chinese economy. In addition, intensive government support to industry clusters draws in more companies and investment capital. Even the universities around  each specific cluster tend to adjust their courses to support developing local talent geared for that specific job market.

The implications of knowing exactly where a specific industry cluster is located are very important. If a company seeks to expand its customer base locally it has to make sure to establish its presence within its industry’s cluster. Moreover, in case of capital equipment, the service force location must also match the industry’s distribution. Planning your expansion in advance will optimize your costs and can save some surprises later on.

The following map from China Sourcing Blog provides an overview of major industry clusters in China (click to enlarge):

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A typical purchase cycle by a typical American or European company is a structured and accurately defined and documented process that can be broken down to the following distinct stages:

1. The need is identified and the requirement is raised;
2. Spec is prepared;
3. Potential suppliers are contacted and short listed. The spec may be further refined at this stage;
4. Suppliers’ proposals are received and reviewed;
5. Proposals are negotiated with the suppliers;
6. Decision is finalized;

Western companies expect the same process to be followed universally, however, in China case, things turn out to be quite different. It is important to realize those differences and adjust the approach accordingly.

The main difference is that purchase cycle by a typical Chinese company seems to be much less structured without clearly defined stages. The truth is, however, that there is an underlying structure to the process, it just doesn’t seem apparent enough.

The impression of an unstructured purchase cycle comes from the fact that Chinese companies tend to go through the same stages concurrently rather than sequentially.

Often times, the first contact with suppliers is made even before the need is clearly identified. Western companies who receive request to quote may not realize that they are still very early on the purchase cycle and far from the stage #3 of the Western process.

The reason for an early contact with suppliers is the need to define the spec in the first place and then reconcile it with the technical need that the buyer may have. Clearly, this means that getting request for a quotation accounts to almost nothing in China as the actual purchase requirement may never materialize.

On the other hand, it also means that Chinese businesses expect their supplier to be a part of preparing a spec and may even require them to actively participate in defining the technical aspects of the requirements. To the Western companies, that are not familiar with such approach, this may come across as unprofessional or an indication that the company simply doesn’t know what it wants.

Clearly, in some situations this misunderstanding creates conflict that causes Western company to lose business to a more adaptable competitor, most likely a local one, that understands how things really work.

The impression of an unstructured purchase cycle comes from the fact that Chinese companies tend to go through the same stages concurrently rather than sequentially.

In addition, such approach prolongs the engagement with the suppliers and makes the entire purchase cycle generally longer than in the West. The key to succeed under such circumstances is to be as forthcoming as possible by providing all the help the customer needs in defining the spec and act as an expert in finding a solution to a specific business problem that raises the requirement in the first place.

The importance of listening to a customer can’t be overstated, and, in fact, inability to listen is one of the most common criticisms of Western companies in China. They are perceived to have high quality products but unwilling to customize it in order to fit local conditions. Companies who can turn this situation to their advantage by offering a solution rather than just a product are those who eventually succeed.

The final stage before final decision is the price negotiation which can be a long, back and forth process or can also be surprisingly quick. Negotiating in China could be a whole new topic which I will discuss in the upcoming posts.

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1. Product;
2. Price;
3. Promotion;
4. Place;

Western companies typically run their marketing based on those four principles as an integrated effort. Since Chinese economy started to truly open up to the West only from the mid 80s, not surprisingly, the vast majority of Chinese companies haven’t reached the same level of sophistication and still view marketing only as a single P – Promotion. Traditionally, Product is considered to be the domain of R&D and the engineers, Price is the area of the sales people and Place is something to be decided by the boss.

The traditional Chinese view of a salesman as the most respected and the most important company employee, a true key person that everything and everyone hinges upon.

Although, things are slowly evolving towards more modern approach, most traditional Chinese businesses still view their Marketing department (if they have one) as more of a cost center, mainly in charge of generating brochures, presentations and other material for the sales to use.

Perhaps, one of the reasons that could account for this situation is the traditional Chinese view of a salesman as the most respected and the most important company employee, a true key person that everything and everyone hinges upon.

Another reason is the natural aversion and distrust many Chinese feel towards aggressive over the top advertisement that has been associated with fraud and numerous scams. This is why a personal connection is viewed as the only reliable way to establish trust and maintain good company-client relationship.

A good salesman is expected not only to entertain the customers but also forge a true and long lasting friendship with them, the only perceived guarantee of getting the business.

Does it mean that the famous 4Ps principle of marketing is not applicable in China? No, the theory still holds but the adjustments must be made in order to adapt the theory to unique conditions Western companies encounter in China.

In fact, I believe that better understanding of the 4Ps and their role in the integrated marketing plan may even give an advantage to Westerners as long as they are willing to tailor their methods to account for the local ways of doing things.

Moreover, China continues to constantly evolve and learn faster than anyone could have expected. Fresh MBA graduates and overseas educated returnees take more prominent roles in Chinese companies slowly replacing traditional approaches with moderns and scientifically based concepts.

In the subsequent posts I will discuss the specific strategy adjustments and methods Western companies should consider to their 4P marketing mix that fits best to the Chinese market.

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I’d like to take some time to examine some of those differences and similarities with the focus on B2B from the perspective of marketing in China.

Decision makers

The most often mentioned principal difference between B2C and B2B is the number of individual decision makers involved. In B2C case, it is most often just one person that you have to convince (sometimes two if you are selling your product/service to a household) while in B2B case it is most likely to be a group of decision makers. At least in theory, the final decision is made collectively by various department managers, engineers, executives and whoever else is on the approval list.

In China, B2B marketers often face a situation that, while a decision making process is still collective in theory, the final decision most likely to lie just with one individual. This person could be either a top executive or a business owner or, sometimes, a trusted employee or a subject matter expert.

Carefully preparing and presenting solid data backed by sound logic may be a great approach in the West but it may not work at all in China if the audience is not involved emotionally.

Of course, this situation could happen anywhere in the world, however, it is most likely to be encountered in China and, in fact, is very common with more traditionally run businesses regardless of the size.

What it means to a marketer is that the effort of reaching and winning this individual (provided he/she has been correctly identified) can be achieved with B2C methods.

Emotional vs. Rational

Another classic difference in B2C vs. B2B marketing is importance of emotional vs. rational argument. Consumers are more likely to be influenced by emotional argument vs. traditional B2B process where rational argument takes precedence over emotion.

Once again, things turn out to be slightly different in China. The concept of “saving face”, that is so important in Asian cultures throughout the entire region, is a purely emotional construct that has very little to do with rationality. In fact, I have heard much more often from my local sales  about the “feelings” of their buyers than about rational arguments that were put forward to make a sale.

At times, it was quite frustrating and I did ask myself on occasion: do they realize that it’s just a business and not a religion? Eventually, just like they say, you can’t change China, you just have to adapt. B2B marketing in China still involves high degree of emotional engagement that also makes it more adaptable to B2C methodology. Marketers that understand this concept and take advantage of it are those who prevail.

Selling process

The last concept I’d like to mention is the selling process argument which states that the selling cycle is short in B2C vs. long and multilevel one in case of selling to businesses.

In China case, it mostly holds true but it is further complicated by higher degree of emotional involvement that marketers and sales people encounter at each step. Carefully preparing and presenting solid data backed by sound logic may be a great approach in the West but it may not work at all in China if the audience is not involved emotionally.

Building positive brand image in advance, finding ways to convey a strong and emotional message that speaks to the concepts of prestige and recognition so cherished by the Chinese, should all become critical engagement steps in your marketing efforts at all levels during the selling cycle.

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The Big Shot

By far, the most common type 10-12 years ago in China, the “big shot” is typically a male in his 40-50s, characterized by a typical demeanor of an all-knowing VIP who expects universal respect and admiration. He is all about appearances and authority, however the best thing he excels at is selling himself.

“The big shot” type will give you an impression that he knows everyone in the industry, every customer is his personal close friend and all he needs to do to sell is to dial a phone number. He assures you that there is nothing more important in China than guanxi and his network of connections is his primary asset, the source of his incredible efficiency.

“The big shot” sales type also commands premium salary and will, perhaps very quickly, become one of the most expensive of your employees. Every meal he eats, every karaoke bar he visits ends up on his expense report and, just in case you are foolish enough to ask, he will assure you this is the only way to do business in China.

He knows practically nothing about what he is selling and feels that going into technical details of the product or the intricacies of a business deal is beneath him. He got others to worry about those things while he is busy entertaining his clients.

This type tends to thrive in corrupt industries where deals are done under table and people expect expensive gifts and lavish entertainment. Fortunately, as Chinese business environment matures and companies become more profit and efficiency oriented, the area of application of “big shot”‘s skills is quickly shrinking.

Once examined carefully, after the first year when they still can sell to their few connections, their contribution to your company slips to the negative. They quickly become a major financial drain and corrupting influence to the others. By all means, avoid this type of a salesperson in your organization. If you got them – get rid of them quickly as they are nothing but parasites.

The Junior

“The junior” type is usually a young and ambitious individual but the one who lacks initiative and creativity. He (or she) starts as an entry level salesperson and may stay in your organization for years without changing much of his style and upgrading his abilities. He is a follower by nature and quickly gets “hijacked” by the “big shot” who becomes his mentor and the role model.

“The junior” aspires to become a “big shot” himself one day but lacks the authoritative style and, generally, commands little respect from customers. Eventually, he becomes a personal slave of a “big shot” who expects him to do all the dirty work – preparing quotations, contracts, reports and visiting customers.

Even without the corrupting attitude of a “big shot”, the “junior” is a very inefficient employee. His lack of creativity and mediocre intelligence are the major obstacles in his advancing professionally. He tries to learn the products at the beginning but quickly gives up, feeling that it would do nothing to help him achieving the “big shot” status anyway.

If you have people who fit this description in your organization, first thing you must do is isolate them from the “big shots” and see if there is hope of them progressing to a higher level. If this doesn’t happen, let them go. They’d probably leave anyway once their mentor is not around anymore.

The Loner

“The loner” is another typical salesperson that is common in large number of organizations. He/she is intelligent, reasonably creative but entirely devoid of ambition. His primary objective is to be left alone and let him do his job. He makes everything in his power to become invisible, despises authority and teamwork.

He becomes frustrated at any attempts to control or manage him and truly believes that he is most efficient when he is not bothered by bosses.

Typically, he has his limited but trusted network of connections but his efficiency varies and usually just follows the market trends. His lack of ambition makes him inefficient in building and growing his network but, when the market is up, he can stay a reasonably contributing salesperson.

A “loner” type could be problematic in your organization but, in certain situations, he fits in a niche. He may even thrive when he is given an account allowing a reasonable freedom to choose the sales approach. I would advise to give him a chance but, by all means, he must be monitored and managed despite him resisting your attempts. He must prepare reports and visit the office regularly but don’t force him to become a team player, it would probably never work anyway.

The Challenger

The “challenger” characterizes the new generation of Chinese salespeople and this is what you want in your organization. They tend to be the most successful and efficient employees that quickly gain well deserved respect and trust from both clients and the co-workers.

Lack of experience is irrelevant for this type because he/she is all about the attitude. Their intelligence and creativity is what lies behind “challengers”‘ efficiency. They are team players and could be great managers, especially for like-minded individuals. Their ambition is backed up by the abilities and positive attitude.

They are good communicators, fast learners and tend to quickly advance in the right organization. The “challengers” don’t shy away from conflict which is inevitable with the “big shots”. Your company can quickly become polarized with the “challengers” on one side and “big shots” with their “juniors” on the other. If the conflict is not resolved by removing the corrupting influence of the “big shots”, the organization will suffer greatly.

The “challengers”  must be developed and nurtured because they are the seeds of your success, the true driving force that could skyrocket your sales if properly taken advantage of. Beware, however, that this type craves challenges (hence the name). In a stale environment, they may feel bored and unused and could leave for more interesting opportunities.

The post B2B Sales Force: Four Types of Chinese Salesman first appeared on Sampi.co.

The post B2B Sales Force: Four Types of Chinese Salesman appeared first on Sampi.co.