Dr. James Chan, in addition to teaching classes at the University of Pennsylvania and Villanova, is the Founder & President of Asia Marketing and Management (AMM). He has decades of experience successfully exporting durables such as published materials and precision-engineered components.

Export is hard. And exporting to Asia has very specific challenges, among them is rampant counterfeiting (or “import substitution”), fixed-pie mentality, and an underlying complex that he explains as if British annexation left China with a perennial posttraumatic stress disorder.

“I have to make you understand: for some mysterious, inexplicable, irresistible reason, Asians, particularly now the Chinese, have a deep-seated psychological, emotional need to be respected, to be accepted, and to be acknowledged– particularly by America.”

Dr. Chan boils down the complex challenges and murky waters of the Asian market, specifically China, into a five point pneumonic strategy–appropriately abbreviated C.H.I.N.A.

Confidence

The first key to sales success in China is confidence. Confidence has always been the litmus of sales success, but in China, it’s not simply a cerebral art. Confidence in the the asian market only comes when you’ve gotten your hands dirty. To achieve catalytic success, you must win a tough hard-fought battle early on.

“Once you do it, you’ll know you can do it.”

Chan argues that, to be a confident manager, executive, or department head, you must have the ability to report to your CEO, VP, or business owner with what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

The ability to communicate with your management will be critical to answer the inevitable question: ‘why does it take so long?’ Very few owners are willing to recognize that it may take months, or even years before they see revenue from their international venture.

Your confidence, like a gravitational field, must extend up and down your chain of command, pulling your leadership and employees along with you, as well as your suppliers and business partners. What you’re selling actually does have a market. Time will vindicate your confidence.

Hunger



In the game of Risk, it is easy to get arrogant with a strong army stationed in Alaska. There is an important lesson learned, repeated, by children on rainy days: regardless of how many troops you have, Asia is just too big to take by force. And just like that stack of tiny painted blocks, a billion-dollar marketing budget will easily and ineffectively run dry without penetrating the continent. What is an exporter to do? Where can you start?

Do not promote to anyone who isn’t hungry for your product. In China, promotion is not the first step in marketing. Step one is always smelling out those that are hungry for your product. Focus on quality clients in the short-term, and trust that quantity will come over time. Educational marketing is at the core of building a quality clientele, not direct mail.

There is a second kind of hunger that Dr. Chan refers to — why do exports average the equivolent of 200% of Hong Kong’s GDP, when US exports only equal 12%? Hong Kong is a small, densely-populated island with few natural resources, and their companies are hungry.

A company that is fat and happy will not have the brass to make connections in the Chinese marketplace. If you aren’t starving for a breakthrough in development, you won’t take the kinds of risks or make the investments necessary to be successful in the Asian market. Focus on hunger.

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