How to Doing Business in China? (part 2, During-Meeting)

Summary

(In this article, I will use the word "Senior" and "Highest rank person" interchangeable, but it mean the same.)

• As entering a meeting or any setting, the highest rank/seniority person will always step in first and the others follow.
• When you greet a group, you should always greet the highest rank person first.
• Do try to greet everyone in the group. For example, if you shake the first person's hand, you should shake everyone's presents in that meeting.
• When sitting down, the Chinese people will sit in order of rank as well. Highest rank person on one party should sit in front of the highest rank person on the other party.
• Tea will serve at the beginning of the banquet.
• At the beginning of the banquet, the Chinese people tend to talk something other than business. Often, the people may ask some personal questions. Do not be alarm.
• Do not discriminate, sexist, and ignore the women in work place. In China, women do play a big role in decision making.
• Meeting mostly will take along period of time.
• Even when cell phones ring constantly, you should not ask people to turn off their phones.
• In a meeting, there will only be one representative on each side that has permission to speak. Most of the time, the representatives are the two senior people present in the meeting at the time.
• If for some reasons, the Chinese representative is not the senior person in the meeting, then you should not be offended. This just means that the smaller rank person understands the world more than the senior. In turn, know how to communicate better.
• Interrupt a conversation while other is talking is considered inappropriate and rude. If you like to talk, try to raise your hand before doing so.
• Sometimes, the senior may lean over to the representative and whisper in his/her ear, and vice versa. It is normal, and you should not be alarm.
• Each person will take turn to dominate the floor for a period of time to appeal his/her case.
• There are times a person, who will dominates the floor for a very long time, but does not say anything to explain or contribute to the nature of the business. Please, be patient and listen because the speech sometime contains a subliminal message.
• When you are preparing for the presentation, you should concentrate on providing the long term goal rather than short term.
• Be careful about using color in your presentation because color has special meaning to it. For example, not use red as a highlight, underline, or font color, because it considers being bad luck.
• Black on white background is very acceptable.
• It is appropriate for you to take notes during meeting; however, it is inappropriate for you to record the meeting.
• Even when the contract is already being signed, the Chinese people may still ask you to change it so be prepare.
• You should not tell the Chinese company when your return date is going to be, because they may force a deal on you at the last minute or change the contract.

Hello, my name is...

Congratulation, you have finish the 1st part of business and now ready to step inside the meeting. First off, just want to let you that China use hierarchy system in the society. Meaning, that everybody will follow ranks to process daily normal life. Let me explain.

A group of people stepping into a business setting, the leader or person with the highest rank/seniority will always enter first, then the next person in rank, and so forth. With that in mind, you should always greet the first person enter the room.

Do not make a same mistake that I have make. The mistake is when my boss greets the first person entering the room; I start to greet the person that is next in line. Don't.

Every time when this occurs, you should wait for your turn to greet. Think of it this way, imagine yourself on a soccer field, you always greet the other team in line. You should apply the same manner here.

Being a good host/guest, greeting to everybody is a must. Instead of just shaking hand and greet with the first couple of people in line. You should try to greet everyone. This gesture shows you willing go far and beyond to earn the respect of each and everyone coming that day.

Majority of the time, guest will be escort to his/her seat, which is a descending in order of rank. The highest rank person of one group will sit in front of the highest person of the other group.

After being seated and proper introduction, tea will be serve as refreshment. For the first couple of minutes, the Chinese people like to talk about something other than business. People just speak randomly about anything; for example, it could be the weather, about your flight, what you eat for dinner, and what did you do yesterday.

Often, Chinese people may ask you some very personal information. This is a culture thing, so please, do not be alarm. Just answer the question generally; you do not have to go into details. Please check the conversation article to learn more.

Um... You talk like a woman

When doing business in China, do treat the women as equal. Please, do not be sexist, discriminate, or ignore the women while they are talking. Remember, their opinion do count as much as the men. If you are a woman, there is no need to worry about not being treated equal. Chinese people will treat you with honor and respect that you deserve.

The meeting itself could take quite awhile. During this time, cell phones will probably ring constantly, which could get annoying; however, this is acceptable. Definitely, you should not ask anyone to turn off his/her phone. This sometime is considers being rude, and it may cause you to lose face.

In Chinese society, it is not a social norm for everyone to speak. So, when negotiating a business deal, there will only be one representative on each side speaking with each other. Traditionally, the representative of the group tends to be the most seniority member during that meeting.

However, in the modern day, the most seniority member will probably only be sitting there, he may let a smaller (rank) person to be a representative. When this happen, please do not be offended and think that you not important enough for the senior person to talk to you.

It is just saying that the smaller (rank) person may have more education, or he/she could have study abroad. Which in turn, translates to that he/she has better understanding of the world and can communicate with you a little easier? In this case, the most senior person will just be considering as a figurehead.

For time to time, the senior may lean over to the representative and whisper in his/her ear, and vice versa. It is normal, and you should not be alarm.

Because trying to fit in with the world, some Chinese companies do permit more than one representative to speak; however, this is still rare.

"It has been awhile, should I say something..."

To me, the people that will have the hardest time adapting to this rule are those from the West. Interruption in a conversation happens more frequently, and it is more accepted in the West. When you interrupt other people and ask questions mean that you are engage and interest in the conversation.

However, this is not the same with Chinese people. So, when you have Chinese clients, do not be upset when they are not participant in the conversation and just sit there. They are simply just being polite and let you finish your side of the story, and then they will talk after that. But when they are speaking, and you interrupt their speech, they may just stop talking completely.

Also, keep in mind that Chinese people do not like to give out negative responses. So definitely word your questions carefully. Check out conversation article for more information.

Yeah, story time...

While speaking about the deal, a Chinese representative might tell a story, which goes something like this.

There is a small village. Since the village is small, the people in the village never have any money to buy anything. They found a solution, instead of everyone goes out and cannot buy anything; everyone should put all the money together. So, when they go out to the market, they can buy one good thing that everyone can use.

The village comes together, and builds two piggy banks. One piggy, they decorate with stone and silver, and the other they leave it blank because they run out materials to decorate.

Over the time, people tend to put money into the decorated piggy than the blank one. Once the decorated piggy is full, the village breaks it and goes to the market with the money. And, everyone forgot about the other piggy.

3000 years later, archeologists found the other piggy. That piggy becomes a priceless treasure.

After listening to this story, what do you think? There are a couple interpretations to this story. The simple explanation is you should not only concentrate in the short-term goal and forgot the long term goal. Yes, there are times the short term goal looks more appealing; however, the long term can be just as rewarding or sometime even more.

So, when the Chinese representative tells this story, he means that your proposal looks very promising in the short term, but he needs to see what it can do it a long term.

As you speak in front of the meeting, it is best not to use joke and slang. So, you should never tell a "knock knock" jokes or use the phrases like, "Who let the dog out? Ugh." Hehehe.

Um... 3 points shot or 2 points layup

As you know, the each color have it special meaning, so you should be careful. For example, do not use red as a highlight, underline, or font color. The reason is that when the words on the family tombstone are fainted, people tend to use red ink to reface it.

So if you use red ink for anything else, it considers of being a sign of bad luck. Be simple as you can, black on white background is very acceptable.

As you take your time to speak, you may not see a lot of eye contact, because everyone tries to write as much as they can. That's right; the Chinese people will take notes, and will take a lot during the meeting.

However, it is impolite or inappropriate to record the meeting into a tape, mp3, or digital recorder, etc. If you like to do so, you can ask before the meeting. But if you can avoid it, you should.

Let's say you finish the meeting, and somehow you get the other party to sign a contract. Congratulate, but unfornately, your happiness will not last for long. In China, the final decision may not be final.

Even after the contract has been signed, both parties agree and shake on it. Do not be surprise if a couple weeks later you receive a call for a request to make some changes on the contract.

So, if you are selling something, unlike in the West the clients are bound to the contract, the people in China will back out. My advice is for you to be clear about your motive, information, and goal. Definitely, NO tricks.

One important note that a couple people have mentioned it to me as well as in a few books I have read. Definitely, you should not tell the Chinese company when your return date is going to be, because they will force a deal on you at the last minute or change the contract.

Personally, this has never happen on me before so I'm not sure; however, I thought it is better for me to mention it.

Thank you for staying with me this far, and hopefully, my article clear some questions you may have. From where I am and wherever you are, good night and good luck everybody.

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