Building a Network of Relationships in China

To have a good network of relationships in China is critical for your business success.

To build a network you need time, this won’t come true overnight and in most cases it requires something around 6 months up to a year for a network to consolidate.

The kind of approach and the effort require will vary on the kind of relationship to be built. Below you will find how to build relationships between your organization and manufacturers, distributors and costumers. All of them have their own twists and they will require different strategies, but will be very helpful in you next visit to China.

Relationships with Manufacturers/ Suppliers:
This is one of the easiest relationships to establish but to maintain in is the difficult part, these relationships are today based more on an economic and practical basis than on anything else.

To make first contact in now easier, this is thanks to the Internet as many websites will provide you with directories of thousands of manufacturers and trading companies. Also fairs and industry specific conventions take place everyday so suppliers are more accessible and in one trip you can get your self many potential suppliers.

Relationships with Distributors:
Building a strong relationship with a distributor is often more difficult to make than those with manufacturers, and for almost every company these contacts are more important because you can train up a manufacturer but a good distributor is priceless to obtain.

The role of a distributor is a very important one, and these relationships must be managed in a very careful way because some distributors are very powerful in some markets.

It is a good advice before you make relationships with distributors to know which ones are the strongest or have the best track record in the market you want to enter. Once you identify them the second most important thing to do is to understand their portfolio, their capabilities and their network.

Relationships with Customers:
Relationships with customers, is one that there are probably the most resources for depending on who a target customer is.
If you are selling to foreign customers you can find many resources and to build the relationship is just a matter of time and patience. But maintaining these relationships strong it will come down to having a proper team, good pricing, and stable quality.
However, in China, one area that sets the winners apart from the pack are those companies that commit to the product development process of their customers

In conclusion some relationships in China are important, no question. However, more than that, making sure the right relationships are developed and maintained is even more important.

In the end, it is the business model that will dictate what relationships will be required, and once those are determined, the course of action will be dictated. Once that course of action has been dictated, it should be followed. Unfortunately, there are no short cuts and it will require time and patience, but once established relationships in China can bring real mutual benefit to both parties in business and on a personal level.