Doing Business in China For Dummies®

Deciding How You Want to Enter the Market

You have to move quickly to keep up with China’s consumer markets, but don’t be sloppy. We discuss a few schools of thought on how to enter the market. Think about which approach is likely to work best for you.

One absolute is to have your distribution network solidly in place before trying to sell. If you don’t have your network set up well before you start to sell, your chances of failure are pretty high. So first dig your trenches and get your (or a distribution company’s) soldiers in them. In other words, first determine where you’re going to need to deploy your salespeople. Then figure out a system for organizing and scheduling their frequent customer visits. Finally, make sure they’re well trained and up for the job.

Building and scaling distribution in third-tier (and sometimes second-tier) cities is easier. See Chapter 7 for more info on location.

Guns blazing

One approach for entering the Chinese consumer market is to target several markets right off the bat, putting all your energy behind the campaign. The rationale is that competition is going to move in like lightning on your customer base, so you need to establish your presence in your target markets immediately. If you’ve set up a solid distribution network in your markets ...