CHINA:

Get Started!

Rain8’s market-facing services are designed to create a step-by-step approach allowing you to build comfort and confidence at each step. This allows you to minimize initial investment until you are comfortable in the long-range success of your new China business. 

 

Market Exploration
If you are interested in early, general market exploration to help you gauge your opportunities for success in China, we can help.

 

This is the starting point for many firms in their journey into this exciting and productive market. We can assist you in identifying key touch-points, potential customers, as well as various types of partners. We will conduct initial explorations with local entities and report back our findings.

 

If these findings are positive in your view, we can arrange initial meetings to assist you in starting business development efforts and for full execution of the critical relationship-building step.

 

 

Understanding China’s 5-Year Plan
Every five years China produces a national 5-Year Plan. This not just a, “piece of paper.” The 5-Year Plan is a powerful document that guides the strategic direction of most major industries in the country.

 

It is important to understand the contents of this plan and the opportunities available to you for competitive advantage as a result of the plan in order to optimize your Brand Value in China.

 

 

Understanding the implications of the plan for your China business model is critical to enhance your success in China.

 

In addition to helping you localize your strategy, we can assist you in incorporating elements into your offer that are well-aligned with the 5-Year Plan that will enhance your China results.

 

 

Building New Relationships
No single factor is more important in China than successful relationship-building. This does not happen over a couple of lunches. It requires time and genuine effort. Building strong relations in China can takes years - but are then extremely rewarding!

 

Over 200 years of mostly negative experience with foreign companies has led firms in China to deeply distrust outsiders. An additional 2,000 years of Confucian culture reinforces the value of relationships.

 

One key factor for new market entrants into China to deeply understand is that these critically important relationship are “personal” – in other words, people-to-people, not business-to-business. Very often, relationship factors will carry the day in China even if a competitor is offering a modestly superior product/service. A modestly superior business offer will rarely win-out in China over a strong relationship.

 

One way to fast-start and shorten the lengthy relationship-building process, to a high degree, is to rely on the relationships of existing of partners. Rain8 brings you direct relationship to multiple individuals in over 300 organizations. In addition to the direct relations we maintain, our direct network will likewise often share their relationships with us, allowing us to leverage their trusted referrals and expand to key firms and people you need to know.

 

We can touch the majority of firms in China.

 

 

Sharp China Strategy Development
China is different. Different strategies are required.

 

As the saying goes:

 

Your brand value is one of your most valuable assets. But to deploy your brand value into China, certain adjustments are almost always required so that your value proposition is more attractive to Chinese clients than your competitors’. One example is that Chinese clients will almost always favor commitment and long-term relationships over other details of your offer. This preference is a much more dominant force than in the West.

 

Chinese senior managers will be quite keen to understand the "big picture" of your firm. Part of this is understanding how your strategy will be applied in China. As a very minimum you should develop a sharply differentiated "China Mission" based strongly on your global strategy to reflect what you plan to do in China.

 

 

We can assist you in sharpening and refining your Western strategy and develop a clear China-mission to fit the unique requirements for success in China.
 

 

Sales and Business Development
Rain8 is connected to over 300 OEM and Tier 1/2 firms in China. We are happy to leverage our connections to help you start the lead and opportunity development process so that you may close opportunities much faster than normal.

 

We can handle business development directly on a temporary basis or in any collaborative way that works best for your situation. One of our strengths is taking full responsibility, as part of your team, for your initial China business development activities. We are fully familiar with cloud-based tools such as Asana and Salesforce allowing us to collaborate seamlessly across time-zones with your team.

 

 

Developing Resale Partners or Distributors
Resale or distribution partners are critical to most small starting businesses in China. These partners know how things work and are often willing to assist in many areas including maintaining extensive relationship networks that are most important to your success. Some can be trusted - some cannot. All must be closely managed. We can guide you and assist your evaluation and provide management of these partners for as long as you require.

 

 

Localized MarCom
A key mistake many early-China-market-entrant firms make is not localizing their marketing communications (brochures, flyers, website etc.) soon enough. This can create a credibility gap.

 

While quite a few junior and mid-level engineers and managers in China are able to read Western languages, and a few are able to speak them, most senior managers in China do not read or speak Western languages.

 

Additionally, localizing MarCom materials demonstrates a higher level of commitment to the market to which most senior Chinese managers are very alert.

 

After Market Exploration and after a decision has been made to engage the market, careful consideration should be given to localizing all relevant MarCom materials.

 

Our MarCom team has about 15 years experience in local markets including localization services experience with prestigious firms such as Apple, J&J, Lufthansa, American Standard, Mattel and many others. We can provide you all the necessary services to localize or develop new MarCom including search-engine optimization, search-engine-marketing, social media marketing, design, translation, site localization and maintenance, and trade-show/events management.

 

 

Local Technical Support
Local technical support is highly valued by most local Chinese firms. Rarely will Chinese firms work with foreign firms without a local technical support footprint.

 

Rain8 currently maintains relations with multiple firms, who are willing to partner with you to provide initial technical support and who have a demonstrated track-record of success with this temporary solution.

 

 

Joint Venture Identification and Negotiation
Many firms in China are seeking various types of partnership with Western technology firms. We understand how to identify these potential partners, how to guide your relationship-building and how to assist you in negotiations.

 

 

Start selling in China TODAY
without hiring a single salesperson!

 

 

   Download our latest Whitepapers on China!