Doing Business in China For Dummies®

Selling Business-to-Business

You can break down business-to-business (B2B) selling into the broad categories of products and services: The large product categories of B2B sales in China are

✓	Product components
✓	Raw materials
✓	Capital equipment (such as factory machines and telecom equipment)

On the service side, businesses are commonly selling other businesses the following:

✓	Consulting
✓	Software/IT outsourcing
✓	Financial services

Businesses’ purchasing decisions are more complex than consumers’. If you’re selling to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), you have to sell at multiple layers of the same organization. That’s because SOEs have a number of people involved in making purchasing decisions. Therefore, building good and trusting relationships with these people is important.

Private companies’ purchasing decisions are generally all made by one person — the owner. Don’t waste time pitching to middle-level employees. Employees usually have little empowerment in Chinese companies.

In open, competitive industries (such as garment industries), companies are used to and are reasonably receptive to cold-calling. However, in certain industries dominated by large companies that the government highly regulates and protects (such as in oil production), you need introductions to get in the door because they operate in a more “members-only” type of environment.

Here are some tips for courting B2B sales:

✓	When selling to businesses, have a nice, glossy brochure. Fortunately, you can print them in ...