Successful business meetings in China

When arranging the meeting initially, make sure agenda, (and good details about your Company), date, directions, and attendees are exchanged and confirmed. This will help ensure the right people are in attendance.

If travelling far, leave plenty of time, as this is of course a big country, and extreme weather can frequently upset otherwise excellent transport links.

Preparation and arrival

Punctuality is not just good manners – it’s an imperative. Be ready to start at least 15 minutes before scheduled time.

Business dress – smart; recommend a suit, a tie less essential (unless meeting government), smart dress etc. Be prepared to manage variable temperatures, both warm and cold.

If hosting the meeting, make sure your visitors are met on arrival (at building entrance, or reception), and escorted to the meeting room.

Make sure suitable refreshments are available, and ready to be served on arrival (tea and water).

Entry to the room and seating will typically be hierarchal, with the most senior person entering the room first, and should be sat midpoint and opposite the hosting delegation leader. Other senior people will sit next to them, and others further out. (Experience has indicated that it’s not unusual if the meeting is important for more delegates to attend than originally planned or advised – so have a few spare seats, cups etc!)

On arrival, make sure all are properly greeted (and even if working through a translator prepare a greeting in Chinese). A firm handshake is normal, sometimes accompanied by a slight bow.

Exchange business cards (with everyone), and they must be handed over individually, using two hands, the right way around. (Recommended to get business cards printed with Chinese on one side, clear title, consider including your WeChat contact details, and keep them pristine). Handle and read the cards you receive in the same way.

The meeting itself

The meeting is a key opportunity to establish good relations, for now and the future, and essential for any next stage. Objective: establish mutual long-term trust and respect. Take the time to welcome your guests, (and respond in kind if welcomed by your hosts) and use the acceptable time to establish rapport through small talk.

Suitable topics; family is very important, your travel experiences and perceptions of what you have seen is of interest, as is asking advice.

Meetings will typically start with a short speech or statement by the most senior host person, both welcoming and statement of objectives, strategy and requirement. It is necessary to respond in much the same way, so be prepared.

When speaking through a translator, try and keep sentences short, and if necessary, break down responses into bite size chunks. This is no time for being verbose!

Try and ensure the Senior person on your team clearly leads the conversation, and where colleague experts speak, make sure the conversation is handed back to the senior representative.

Always make sure you are addressing the senior person and not the translator and remain focussed as translator is speaking – an obvious courtesy.

If asking a question, address it to the senior person, even if the response is delegated to the relevant participant. And please don’t interrupt!

Be aware that a “maybe”, or “I’m not sure” or similar prevarication is indicative of a point not agreed, or that may be needed to be resolved at a later meeting – rather than challenged openly.

Equally, try and avoid direct “No” to any response – a “Please let us take this away to look into it” enables progression.

Using Presentation material.

While visual presentation can be invaluable to communicate, don’t forget the slides role is to support and enhance what you are saying. However, it is very important to make sure that the quality of the presentation is perfect, and double checked for consistency, quality and perfect language.

Chinese is a beautiful language with over 50,000 characters to carefully select and craft elegant communication, so your PowerPoint and presentation documents need to be precise and will benefit from careful checking!

(Tip – if you are presenting using a translated presentation, make sure you have the version in your language to hand, running in parallel, to assist with guiding the conversation and keeping to the plan, and prepared to answer all relevant questions).

If providing handouts, be colour conscious, and make sure there are enough copies (including a few spare).

Taking photos via mobile of slides is very common, so be comfortable with what you are displaying!

Meeting end

Finish the meeting in the same good way it started, and make sure your guests are fully escorted all the way out to their car, and or arrange for a car as necessary.

Occasionally the guest party leader may have to leave a meeting before its finished. Don’t be fazed, as the remaining team should be able to fulfil the requirements of the meeting but do make sure the leader is properly escorted wherever needed.

NB: these tips and guidance are written based on direct experience of working with and for Chinese businesses in China and hope they can be of help to you.

If you are looking to do business in China and would like assistance or guidance in developing your business (sourcing, selling or advising) – please contact enquiries@Cygnusbusiness.com

www.cygnusbusiness.com