Author: Saad Ali Khan
According to the Chinese Zodiac, “Monkey” (猴) tends to be curious, intellectual and creative with a touch of playfulness and prefer urban to rural life, while, “Fire” (火) on the other hand, is dynamic, strong and, persistent with a touch of aggression. When “Monkey” and “Fire” combines, it triggers leadership with strives for growth and, displays restless creativity with high degree of confidence in accomplishing new things as a challenge. Hence, according to Chinese Zodiac, this year will be blessing in disguise for the businesses who will be trying on new things and strategies for their business development.
If we go a bit more factual then discussing Zodiac, then stats also reveal the steady growth in revenue generation of Chinese SMEs.
According to the stats, the Chinese SMEs have increased their share of revenue to an average 60.54% in this decade and, the growth acceleration is expected to cross the 2000% mark this year, taking the relative growth from 0.41% to 9.93%. Further to add up, last year in 2015, the SMEI (Small Medium Enterprise Index) of China remained almost stable on “56” despite the stock market condition and, Chinese laws are encouraging companies to go for an IPO activity.
If we overview the external factors that will help the Chinese SMEs to grow, then we shall view the very statement of Chinese Premier Mr. Xi Jinping he made in Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2015:
“The Belt and Road and the AIIB are both open initiatives. We welcome all countries along the routes and in Asia, as well as our friends and partners around the world, to take an active part in these endeavors”
– Premier Xi Jinping
Yes, the first and foremost factor is the development of Belt & Road (B&R) or One Belt, One Road (OBOR). This project was announced in late 2013 by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping as a program for a faster and stronger Eurasian Trade. This project consists of a land–based route; Silk Road Economic Belt and, a sea–based route; Maritime Silk Road. These belts will give out huge amount of supplies from China and not only that, this project envisions China to move–up the chain by branching out some of its industries outside China and mainly, in ASEAN and, SAARC chain. It is estimated that Chinese economic growth will rise above 50T$ by the time it will become completely operational. Minister of Foreign Affairs China, Mr. Wang Yi, states about this initiative as:
“We are confident that Belt and Road initiatives will win even more supporters and deliver more early harvest”
– Minister of Foreign Affairs China, Mr. Wang Yi
Next, big thing that will be favoring the Chinese SMEs growth is the Chinese-led-envisioned Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), founded on 16th January this year, and has a vision support the development of infrastructure in Asia-Pacific region. Along with the New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS Nations, this bank is not only said to be rival of U.S. led World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), but, also marks the dominance and “say” of China in the regional and global politico-economics. Currently, the capital of this bank is 100B$, half of the capital of World Bank (200B$) and have provided its first loan to TAGP (Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline) and TAEG (Trans-ASEAN Electricity Grid) worth of 13B$ (13% of AIIB’s capital).
Now, after viewing these scenarios and cases, we shall view how Chinese SMEs can increase their business.
Normally, Chinese SMEs prefer to use traditional B2B methods over newly proven ones but, if we see what the non-Chinese SMEs are doing to increase their business to grow their business smartly, the scenario is quite different!
There are many new B2B techniques that are traditional and old yet being used by suppliers worldwide. The way the world is reforming itself rapidly, the techniques and norms of each industry are also rapidly changing. The two best techniques that are surfaced in the B2B domain and, will be playing major role in development of SMEs in 2016 and beyond are: B2B Brand Management and B2B Intelligent Content Marketing. Using these techniques the Chinese SMEs will take on a major share of export with the flow of Belt & Road project:
1. B2B Brand Management:
If we see the current era, there are more than 10000s of companies making a same product. How will you differentiate your product from 1000000s of same products as yours that are being made by other supplier? How will buyer recognize your product from Millions and Billions of products?
You will name it different that buyers will remember. You will create an image of your product that buyers will make it as a part of their lives. iPhone, Samsung, they all make smart phones but their name and image differentiates them from each other. Why don’t you make a different name and image that people will remember?
According to a Forbes survey, buyers consider B2B brand as a main element in their purchasing decision-making. They say that brand image is as important as the sales persons giving confidence to buy.
Now how would you create a brand? Following are some of the points that will be helping you out:
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Define your vision in your industry, values your company has built upon and mission statement to serve your customer.
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Search... Research... Research... and Research... about your industry changing trends, ideal profile of your buyer and, ofcourse about target audience.
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Spread your unique selling proposition, which will be basic yet unique and covers the needs of the buyer.
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Tell about the story of your company and your products, how it was built, how it was re-formed, grown and matured.
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Instill the good value of your company in your own working staff.
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Make a different brand name for each of your product line and create a brand name of your company which acts like an umbrella to the brand names of your product line.
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Do some intelligent content marketing which is also the next technique to be introduced.
2. B2B Intelligent Content Marketing:
People like to read about what and how they like, whether it is your company or your products or even your industry. So, how would you engage people with your company and drive sales from them? Of course, by telling about your company in a way they like to read. The best and the most “intelligent” solution is B2B content marketing. Studies show that following tactics are a very much a part of content marketing and will grow your ROI to many folds because, their effectivity factor lies between 185% and 140%, depending upon how “intelligently” you play with the content.
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Social Media Content (Not Blogs!)
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Blog Posts (Not on website but somewhere else on a different website)
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Articles on Your Website
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Case Studies about your company decisions and products they offers in the market
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e-Newsletters
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In-Person Event Working
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Product/Company Videos
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Illustrations/Photos about your company, its products and its activities
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White Papers
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Online Presentation
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Webinars about your industry and products
Now how intelligently you have to play with the content, will be defined by the below definition of an intelligent content by Ann Rockley:
“Intelligent content is content that is structurally rich and semantically categorized and therefore automatically discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable, and adaptable.”
– Ann Rockley (Founder and President of The Rockley Group)
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