Mid-Atlantic Consultants Network

submitted by: James Chan, Asia Marketing Management

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The following video is a talk I gave on December 9, 2008 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia at which I first coined the acronym, “The C.H.I.N.A. Formula” to guide companies that want to export American-made products and services to China.

Below the video, you will find a transcript in both English and Chinese.

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Transcript of James Chan’s speech on December 9, 2008 at The Entrepreneurs’ Forum of Greater Philadelphia, The Federal Bank of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

My name is James Chan. I live and work in Philadelphia. I’ve been in Philadelphia for 25 years. And I also have been running a consultancy based in Center City (downtown Philadelphia) for 25 years. The name of my consultancy is Asia marketing and management; and the focus is to help companies build business relationships in China. And more specifically, my specialty is to help American companies export 100-percent, American-made products and services to the Chinese market.

I have tried over the past 25 years to balance our trade deficit with China (laughs from the audience) and you know that I’m succeeding slowly, but I am not giving up (more laughs from the audience.) Well, that’s what I want to do.

But, I’m very happy doing what I do because the first thing I’d like to share with you in terms of my 25 years helping companies export (to China) is that it can be done. There is money to be made. But for companies that want to do that, and want to be successful, people really need to, kind of, know five (5) very important pieces of the Chinese mindset, which I, for the ease of making it easy for you to remember, call “the China formula,” which is the acronym ‘C.H.I.N.A.’

Now, I’m going to use my next four (4) minutes describing what is C.H.I.N.A. and why it is important to keep this in mind, if you want to succeed in making the Chinese spend money on you.

The first one is C, which stands for Confidence. All my clients who do export and are very profitable have confidence in their products and services. We all know, when we walk into the China market, that there are “pirates,” there are people who want to duplicate our products, and my clients are people who either invent their products or they invent their services. And no matter how hard people are trying to “pirate” our things, our procedures, our know-how and our technology, they just don’t do it very well. So, this is confidence. So, if you don’t have that confidence, you are not China-ready in terms of exporting to the Chinese market.

There is another thing about confidence that you need to know. When you are an exporter, you need to find distributors and agents and salespeople in China who want to work for you … who have to work for you. But it’s not enough just to find people and throw money at them. Because you can always throw money at people but what if they don’t have confidence that your products can sell? So the word confidence here also means: you have to find people and make them feel confident that helping you is not a one-year or two-year deal.

It’s not enough to have confidence. The next word is H, Hunger. H stands for hunger. My clients, the best clients that I have, are people who feel hungry. They are motivated to sell to China. When companies are fat and happy, they don’t go overseas. So, if you don’t have the hunger, you’re not ready. The word hunger also refers to customers in China. We don’t sell to anyone in China. We only sell to people who are “hungry” for our products. When I say “hungry,” I mean people who really desire what we can do, and price normally is not a barrier.

Let’s go to the third one for the ‘I.’ ‘I’ stands for “Insider.” Any company that succeeds in selling to the Chinese has to have one or more “insiders.” An insider can be a customer, can be your agent, can be your friend, can be your employee’s mother in-law’s husband’s brother … somebody who is trusting of you, who feels comfortable with you, who is willing to tip you off. Without an insider in that marketplace, you are going nowhere. And so one of the things I do for my clients is to help them find and then groom those “insiders.” We don’t call them spies, because we are not in defense and military. But, you know, they are “insiders.”

The next word in the formula for N is ‘NO!’ To succeed selling to the Chinese, you have to have the courage and ability and the timing to say “no!” to your customer. If you keep saying yes, if you are only willing to sell to anybody who throws money at you, you get pirated. You won’t be able to establish your brand recognition.

Finally, ‘A’ for Acceptance. ‘A’ stands for acceptance. There is one thing many Westerners don’t think about when they walk into China. The Chinese have … what they really, really, really, really want from the West is acceptance. If you want to sell anything to the Chinese or, for that matter, build relationships with the Chinese, you must make your customers, your contacts, your associates, your partners feel you are not walking in as a marauder, as a barbarian. You are walking in, you are accepting them; and that will help you tremendously in finding the “insiders” in building relationships.

And, there is one more thing, the final note about acceptance is: while you have to make the Chinese feel that you are accepting them, there is one thing about acceptance that only depends on you: you have also to be able to accept the Chinese as they are. You only want to do business with China; you don’t want to change China! The moment you want to walk into that market, looking like you want to change the way they run their lives, you will be resisted; and that it is not a good strategy. So that is my C.H.I.N.A. formula and I thank you very much! (Applause)

Transcript in Chinese translated by Mr. Feng Wu in Beijing, China.

我是 James 陈，我生活并工作在费城。我来到费城已经有25年了，同时我在费城市中心创立的咨询公司也已经有25年的时间了。我的咨询公司名字叫 Asia Marketing and Management (亚洲市场营销及管理)，目的是帮助一些美国公司建立在中国的贸易关系。更具体的说，我致力于帮助美国公司将百分之百的美国造产品和服务出口到中国，以满足中国市场需要。

在过去的25年里，我曾经尝试 (帮助美国政府) 扭转美国同中国的贸易逆差，并且大家都知道，收效甚微。我并没有放弃，因为那就是我这些年来工作的目标。

但是，我对我的付出感到很满意，因为在25年里我帮助了很多美国公司向中国出口商品，并且还赚了钱。向中国出口美国的产品和服务是件能做到的事. 但是对某些想要向中国出口谋利的公司来说，想要成功就必须知道5点非常重要的中国心态。为了使大家更容易记忆，我管这5点叫 “中国式原则”，取首字母过后是 C.H.I.N.A。

现在，我就用我接下来的4分钟来阐述什么是 C.H.I.N.A，为什么当你想要成功的让中国人为你花钱时就不得不时刻牢记？

首先是 C ，指的是 Confidence 。我所有的出口盈利的客户都对他们的产品和服务有信心。我们都知道，当我们进入中国市场的时候会有复制现象；会有人想要完全复制我们的产品。而我的客户们则会发明新产品、创造新服务。这样一来，无论别人花费多大力气来复制我们的产品，复制我们的生产程序，复制我们的诀窍和技术，他们还是做不好，这就叫 Confidence 。所以如果你没有信心，你就还没有准备好向中国出口商品。另外还有一点你应该知道，这同样涉及到 Confidence。当你准备向中国出口商品，你应该首先找到你在中国的分销商、代理商、以及愿意为你工作甚至不得不为你工作的销售人员。但仅仅是找到人并把钱丢给他们还不够，因为你可以总是把钱丢给他们，但是如果他们也对你的产品能够销售出去没有信心呢？所以这里的 Confidence 同样意味着你不得不找到人，并且还要让他们对长期销售你的产品有信心。

但是，仅仅有信心是不够的。接下来的这个字母是 H ，Hunger。H 指的就是 Hunger 。在我的客户当中，尤其是哪些最大的客户，他们能感觉到一种渴望，他们渴望向中国出口商品。一些公司既肥又满足, 他们就不会向海外发展。所以，如果你们没有感觉到那种渴望，你们就还没有准备好。Hunger 这个词也指向中国的消费群。我们向中国卖东西不是要所有中国人都买的，我们仅仅卖给哪些渴望得到我们产品的人。当我提到 hungry 的时候，指的就是哪些渴望我们能为他们做点什么的人，你们给出正常的价格并不会成为销售的障碍。

接下来就是字母 ‘I’ 了，指的就是 “Insider”。任何一个成功向中国卖出商品的公司都具有不止一个的 “业内人士”。业内人士可以是客户，可以是你的代理商，也可以是你的朋友，甚至可以是你的雇员的亲戚。只要他们信任你，感觉和你合作很舒服，愿意时刻提醒你的。如果你没有在相应市场的业内人士的话，你就不知道你将何去何从。所以我的工作之一就是帮助我的客户找到并且培养他们的所谓 “业内人士” 。我们并不会将他们称之为间谍，因为我们并不是在防御什么或者在军队当中。但是，他们只是熟悉市场的人。

接下来这个原则的当中的字母就是 ‘N’，指的是 “NO!”。为了成功向中国销售产品，你得有有胆量，有能力，以及能把握好时机向你的客户说 “NO!”。如果你老是同意他们，或者你见钱就卖，那么你的产品就会被剽窃，你就不能建立起属于你自己的品牌知名度。

最后，字母 ‘A’，指的就是 “Acceptance”。在西方的商人进入中国的过程当中，有一点被他们都忽略了。中国人最最最最最想得到的就是西方的认可和接受。如果你想在中国卖东西或干别的，你就得与中国人搞好关系，培养自己的客户，找好自己的门路，让你的同行和伙伴不觉得你是作为一个外来者来掠夺他们。当你进入中国市场时，你得接受他们，同时他们也会极力的帮助你找到自己的业内人士来建立属于你的关系网络。

最后还有一点，关于 Acceptance 你们要注意。当你们让中国人觉得你们已经承认和接受了他们，有一点将决定你们的胜败: 你们得像中国人接受你们一样接受他们; 让他们觉得你只是想和他们做生意而已；你并不想改变中国。从你想要进入了中国市场那一刻起，如果你们都看起来像想要改变他们的现在的生活方式的话，这将使你们的产品被抵制；那绝不会是一个好的计划。以上就是我提出的 C.H.I.N.A 原则，感谢各位！