China is increasingly seen as a technology supplier. Chinese manufacturers of electronic equipment, machinery, automation equipment, medical equipment and many other sectors increase their product quality and were able to realize successfully upselling. Now it wants to open the European market. Many of these companies have developed high-tech products in a niche and want to shape the market launch worldwide at the same time.
Due to its central location and economic size, Germany is probably the most important location to the technology providers from China. Many service companies are directly or indirectly requested by Chinese clients in order to find information and support for their entry into the German Market. German industrial companies are often "cold" contacted for possible cooperation or partnership.
We want to give you our consulting knowledge and help you to find out the situation of the Chinese partners in a practical and easy way. This creates a good basis for the next steps.
There is a simple 3P+S rule: product, process, person and strategy. With these 4 keywords we have created a simple questionnaire. If requested, we will be happy to send you.
Product
Here you should find out for which customer segments the products of the Chinese partners have been designed. Whether these products will receive the same requirements from the market in Europe must be carefully checked. The market positioning of the product as well as information about the number of variants and product generation can help to better understand the technology competence of the partner.
Process
The operation of the business requires market-compliant processes. We recommend that German companies inform themselves in the first rounds of communication about the essential sales processes and market supply processes of the Chinese partner. One should always pay attention to whether customer interactions, quality standards and delivery capabilities in the Chinese market can be transferred to Europe.
Person
Today, high-tech is rarely home to Chinese family businesses with decades of company history. This makes it even more important to understand the background (knowledge, origin, culture and experience) of the entrepreneur or the partner's management team. The management culture of the company is strongly influenced by this. It is not to be neglected that there are also state-owned enterprises that want to tap into the European market as well.
Strategy
German entrepreneurs and Chinese entrepreneurs understand "strategies" quite differently. Nevertheless, it is important to at least find out the partner's vision for market entry. We recommend using simple images to check the strategy of EU activities in the first phase. Possible models can be: "Representative Office", "Trading Partner", "Sales Office", "Development Center", "Logistics Center", "Factory". These images can help to make intercultural communication as focused as possible.
We believe that in the near future there will be even more requests from China to open the German and European market with high-tech products.
All beginnings are difficult. Cooperation often does not come about because the partners from China and Germany are not on a "wavelength". After a "meeting", both sides are not sure how to proceed. A German service company often does not know what support the customer is looking for.
There are many potentials to enable more German-Chinese cooperation. With these inputs, we want to help level the barrier at the beginning. Do you have any further questions? We look forward to hearing from you.