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Hiring in China: Do Your Due Diligence.

Guest post by: Chris Wingo

Article Overview: When doing business in China, you have have to take care each step of the way. Whether your are looking for business partners, involved in technology transfers, selling to Chinese customers or simply trying to hire a manager for your China operation, due diligence is something you have to take seriously. Entrepreneurs must be extremely cautious since we like moving fast and often follow our gut along the way. This generally works but when your gut is wrong on a "China decision" the risks are high and resulting problems can be ten-fold more complicated. Here's my story where in hiring my business development manager, my gut failed me ... don't think I'll do that again!

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Hiring in China: Do Your Due Diligence.

I thought she was the perfect Biz Dev manager for our company, I was sure she could help grow our sales. Acting on gut instinct, I moved quickly to hire her. As it turned, my gut wasn't completely correct this time and we should have stuck with protocol ...
Key Points of Article
  • Always use diligent protocol when recruiting in China whether for your own or a client's company.
  • Ensure you survey candidates for all attributes critical to job success.
  • Being "nice" is a luxury most companies cannot afford during trying economic times.
  • A Chinese employee's inability to say "I was wrong, I am responsible" is a major indication you have or will have problems with that employee.
  • Make sure your incentives support the objectives you're trying to achieve lest employees hurt the company while playing those incentives to their own advantage.
  • Rigid thinking, a common characteristic among older employees in China (35 to 40+), is very difficult to overcome and could create conflict in the company.
A Personnel Story
"You leave me no choice!" .... These were the words that ultimately came came out of my mouth last Friday during a heated meeting with my Biz Dev manager. I had called her into my office to tell her that I had been considering ending our "cooperation" since she wasn't producing at the level we needed, especially needed during these risky economic times (I had other reasons too). I had considered termination but instead decided to tell her, "I will not terminate you, I want to keep you onboard, I know you work hard, you have strong skills in certain areas, but ... but you need to make some improvements starting with listening to direction and following the company plan, may plan".
All had been going well until I said "need to improve" at which point she began sporting an major attitude suggestive of "well its not my fault" and even denying specific instances I mentioned where I know she didn't follow direction. I was losing my patience quickly as I asked her to confirm "so you are telling me you have been doing everything just right and there is nothing you can improve?" ..... she confirmed "yes, that's right, I have done everything right". That's all it took for me. Suddenly I was back on the termination track. Let's backtrack and look at the chain of events leading to this moment ...
It all started last year. I was looking for a strong BD manager when, coincidentally, my now former BD manager, let's call her "Missy" phoned me looking to sell her company's database software. At the time, I was fully impressed by her ability to persist without putting me off since I am notoriously impatient with unsolicited phone sales. We had database needs so I allowed Missy to continue her sales process. There were follow-up calls and an ongoing determination on her part. The more we talked, the more I began to think "this is the type of Biz Dev manager I need". After getting to know her more, though never buying the software, I offered her a job. We made a deal and she came to work for us.
A couple of my senior managers quickly told me, she doesn't seem like the sales type (e.g. she's not outgoing, not a relationship builder, not too personable, a little cool, yaddee, yaddee .... ). I told them, "my own experience with her is positive, I think she's good so give her a break, support her". My instinct proved "correct"; after a month or so everyone in the office was fully impressed with the number of outgoing calls she made without the slightest bit of hesitation or fear, and she was finding companies interested in our services. She was proving herself as a true "cold-caller" and, in retrospect, therein could be the problem. "Cold-caller" she was but not the sophisticated forward-looking master-planing BD manager we really needed.
For the first 4 months or so, Missy did a bang up job. I was happy with the leads she was bringing in, even if 50% or better didn't jive with our focus and business model. But Missy was a volume girl and she managed to score two or three leads that I (emphasis on "I") turned into projects; in other words, Missy gave me the leads and then I executed the full sales and proposal process. Not my original intention but "hey, she was new and needed more time" before she'd be able to execute the full process on her own. She worked through her first year of employment but without much real improvement. Basically, Missy was stuck as a low to mid-quality lead generation machine. She worked hard but not as smart as we really needed. There were issues but I still remained optimistic we could continue using her skills and that she'd improve. The reverse seemed to happen.
Something's Not Right Clue 1: Clue 1 presented itself during the renewal of her original one-year contract. Now I am an fair person and I generally expect others, particularly my employees, to play fair as well ... but, when Missy reviewed her new contract, she took issue with the number of vacation days she was entitled to. Actually, she outright argued about me "promising something else" when we hired her. It really set me back since I had given her extra days the first year as an incentive with the idea we'd convert her to the normal plan at the end of year one. It was all in writing and after an hour of heated discussion, she conceded. I was already pissed off though at her pettiness over a few days of vacation. That stuck with me.
Something is Not Right Clue 2: Several months back, Missy had asked if she could spend a small part of her time on project execution to gain "new experience". I like flexibility in my team and agreed to allow her to manage a project with the condition she was to spend a solid 70% of her time on BD for our company; I told her to use some of our other people to support the effort and help prevent her from from becoming bogged down. After a few months on the project, reality suggested she was spending 50% or more managing the project and BD was suffering. Having gotten to know her, I knew what she was up to. See, each month we allocate 10% of project net revenues to "execution commissions". That 10% is divided among the people who work the project based on their salary level, time with company and project hours worked during the month. Simply put, the more hours she worked, the more money she could pocket. Even though she wasn't earning commissions selling for the company, she was earning a fair commission on project management. Good for her but not acceptable since it was completely against my instructions and not her core responsibility.
Something is Not Right Clue 3: Just a couple of weeks back, I asked her to provide me an updated "project log" defining the status for all potential new projects she was pursuing for our company. The project log is a standard database format we use to track sales projects. When I opened her "latest" project log, it was filled with projects we'd either canned or put on hold several months back. In the past three months, she had not generated any new project leads. I was concerned with the situation, so concerned in fact that it caused me to begin considering maybe I should let her go. But, "I'm fair" and later began to think "maybe I was not clear about expectations, she just needed more serious coaching".
Clues 1 to 3 were engrained in my mind the last Friday when Missy and I began our discussion. Also in my mind, I knew she wasn't very technical and often missed the key points about potential clients' products and value; 95% of what we do is B2B sales for technical products in China. Regardless to say, everything "added up" when her attitude shifted to "not my problem". I had plenty of background thinking and it pushed me over the edge, pushed me to "fine, you leave me no choice but to terminate this relationship". I was pissed but deep inside sad too. I had really hoped our company could help make her a better person (open her up a little, raise her professionalism, offer her new skills) and she could help make our company better (keyword: "more sales"). It didn't happen.
In retrospect, we (maybe I should say "I") didn't follow our own protocol. Our business is to build and manage sales teams to grow our clients' businesses in China through sales outsourcing. If we don't find strong sales and business people to staff our projects, our projects suffer. We know this clearly and always apply a diligent sophisticated approach to our recruiting efforts. Our success rate based on the longevity and results of people we hire has been quite good. With our own BD manager though, I followed my gut too quickly. In many aspects I was right but is a few critical aspects I was wrong. In the end, we may have gotten our value out of employing Missy but barely. Plus, we suffered an opportunity cost since our BD effort has been lackluster; what revenue did we not create under her watch? As a company, we'll pick it up and continue and know our decision was correct. We also have another "case history" of what not to do in China that we'll use to the benefit our clients.

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Article Tags: business development manager, business in china, business partners, china operation, chinese customers, Chinese personnel, doing business in china, due diligence, hiring in China, risks in China, technology transfers

About the Author: Chris Wingo
RSS for Chris's articles - Visit Chris's website

My Mini-Bio

 

I started my career as an aerospace engineer with Ford Aerospace in California back in 1985. From there with MBA in hand, I ventured into technical sales for W. L. Gore & Associates before landing in China in early 1997 to manage Gore's Asia-Pacific business. In 2003, I setup and am now running China Sage Consultants based in Shanghai, China. 


Tops in China Sales Support since 2003!

 

China Sage Consultants offers full sales and business development outsourcing for US B2B engineered product companies seeking to enter China and sell in China. Our China Sales Incubator program provides everything needed to sell, market and establish a long-term China presence - program provides same as own Rep Office in China. China Sales Incubator is minimal-cost, high-results and virtually no-risk. Select recruiting and other consulting support available.

 

China Sage Consultants - Your best first step to sales in China.


Visit www.ChinaSageConsultants.com for more information. See my China Sales Dog Blog for insights on selling, business and other bigger things "China". Visit my Linked-In profile for more.



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