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与中国结缘

　　2000年，一个偶然的机会，美国人samson来到中国，他有个中文名字叫潘尚华，当人们问他为什么叫这个名字时，他说：“这可说来话长，大学时我们学校（潘总的本科大学是常春藤盟校之一达特茅斯学院）跟俄罗斯航天局有合作。我学习的是机械工程学，辅修是俄国语言文学。听起来好像很不错对吧，但其实这也是政府当时的政策，所以我并不是很感兴趣。年轻的时候，我想多尝试不同的东西，于是申请了留校钻研机械工程。但有一回一个大学同学从中国回来，跟我分享了很多有趣的事情，恰好我又有机会，在美国政府的奖学金支持下，申请了纽约康奈尔大学的为期一年的汉语语言文学课程。从学汉语的第一天起，我们就不允许用英语说话和写字，我的一个汉语老师王海文（音，Wang Haiwen）给我起了一个中文名，我费了好大劲儿才理解过来。“潘（Pan）”，跟我的姓Popowitz一样都是P开头，而“尚华（Shanghua）”有两个音节而且由S开头，跟我的名字“Samson”也很像，因此我就一直用着这个名字直到今天。现在人们都叫我“潘总”，不过我的老朋友们还是会叫我“小潘”，因为我18年前第一次到中国还很年轻嘛！”

与CIBES结缘

 

　　在中国，潘尚华没做过英语教师这类的工作!

　　2001年，他在中国的第一份工作是在一所为来华的海外公司服务的咨询公司，主要针对的是斯堪的纳维亚半岛的客户。过了几年，他总算找到了一个真正的工作（终于不是咨询啦！），是在一家瑞典公司，专做针对中国及海外市场的电子消费品。也正是这家公司，后来被一家股权融资公司R12Kapital收购了，同时，这家公司还收购了西柏思家用电梯。2012年，公司将潘尚华先生推介给西柏思电梯集团CEO，Mats Engblom先生，一年以后，到2013年年中，西柏思就打开了中国市场。

品牌之路

 

　　CIBES从不被人所熟悉，到今天的家用电梯市场知名品牌，潘尚华先生是怎么样做到的呢？

　　潘总介绍说，成为知名品牌看似很难，其实诀窍很简单，那就是努力向客户传递正确的价值。不要做中间商，提高警惕，遵守承诺，不要想着抄小路、绕近道。这也是我们CIBES必须而且一直以来在做的事情。”中国的客户是全世界最聪明的买家，他们总能做出谨慎又精明的决定。在欧洲，客户多是购买总经销商推荐的产品，并不在意其他。而CIBES中国的客户真的很精明，知道在产品质量和售后服务上货比三家，而且大部分都喜欢“工厂直销”的产品。CIBES是唯一一个由欧洲工厂向中国供应产品的电梯公司，客户也因此更加信任。潘总很感谢大部分中国客户的对家用电梯的选择如此谨慎，这才彰显了CIBES的优势。

厂家直销

　　“不耍花招，不找中间商，对设计师或第三方不设销售提成。CIBES倾尽心力为客户带来最实惠的价格，让每一笔交易简单真实。”

不埋怨电梯市场竞争，并且加大服务和地区支持的投入，遵守给客户的每一个承诺！另外，采取直销方式也是关键。CIBES的商业伙伴，是作为授权的商业合作者来对待的。他们必须跟CIBES有一致的行动方式、工作风格及商业道德，对此CIBES严格把关。在定价上，授权的合作者也不能随意设定价格，而且服务要跟得上，因为不管哪天，CIBES都必须确保产品和服务。CIBES把商业合作者网络的总数限定在4个，他们带来的销售额不到公司销售总额的30%。这是CIBES跟一般模式不同的地方，一般经销网络的销量会占总销量的70%-100%，而不是B2C(business to customer，企业对顾客、零售)中大于70%这样的比例。

中西文化差异

　　在CIBES公司看来，“所不为”与“所为”对企业的发展同样重要。

CIBES不贪图短期利益，哪怕这样可能会招致其他商业伙伴或建筑行业人士厌恶。潘总的意思是指不做收取中介费或佣金的生意。因为CIBES无法承受这种做法带来的后果，CIBES只想给客户所承诺的最低的价格和最优质的服务，尽管可能会因此减少一些订单。然而，任何一个行业的人都知道，夹杂着中间商的供应链是不会长久的，企业不可能凭借中间商服务做大做强。这也是CIBES公司的特色，也是与其他竞争对手所不同的地方。

潘总的工作主要是做出企业决策，并向总部反馈。CIBES专门有一支由服务与技术专家组成的、精于研究、解决和管理本土化问题的专业化的团队。有一个事情是潘总比较在意的，就是当潘总在场的时候，客户总是会在交易磋商中叫潘总给他最低价。跟中国人讲价真是太难了，中国客户真的非常聪明灵活又善于经营！”

　　产品的情况要真实告知，不编瞎话，不胡编乱造，尽量将客户需要的信息给他们，好让他们做决定。产品信息透明化可以让客户更好地考量自己的决定，同时CIBES公司为他们提供优质的服务。
　　在产品设计和选材上，CIBES有些地方与中国的制造商不同，但是这不应成为一些竞争对手攻击的目标，而应该互相学习、取长补短。

家用电梯市场

　　近几年，家用电梯市场确实在扩张，但是这个市场太小了。很多人觉得家用电梯市场很大，很多人都是一家一台买回去了。但这并不是真实情况。

中国最大的家用电梯品牌来自中国的一家有名的电梯公司的产品和一家位于德国的电梯公司当地的产品。这两家公司一年销量不过千台，业务不大，但胜在有增无减。家用电梯是个小众市场，也是一个客户要求很高的市场，因此也许过个10年、15年，它将成为一个重要的市场（相比美国和欧洲而言），而到那个时候，中国家用电梯市场也必将超越美国和欧洲的家用电梯市场。

西柏思瑞典工厂

责任编辑：张东

 

CIBES export home lift to China

――Samson Popowitz the CIBES director of the asia-pacific

Source：CNLIFT Website　　 Author：Samson,Jade

Samson and China

In 2000, an accidental opportunity, American Samson came to China. He had a Chinese name called pan shanghua. When people asked him why he called it, he said, “For the long answer, I was working in NASA as a Space Flight Instructor for the International Space Station Program, because I studied Mechanical Engineering and Russian Language and Literature when I was in University (there were a lot of Russian components and collaboration with the Russian Space Program). While this sounds like a great job, it was also a government job, which didn’t really feel very exciting. I was young and wanted to do something different, and I applied to go back to school for more studies in Engineering, when one of my university classmates came back from China and said things very interesting. Fortunately, I was able to apply to a special intensive one year program for Chinese Language Study at Cornell University in New York, paid by the United States Government! From the first day, we are not allowed to speak or write English, and it took me a while to understand that one of my instructors Wang Haiwen gave me a Chinese name! Pan starts with the letter P - which is the same as my family name Popowitz and Shanghua has two syllables and starts with the “S” sound, so similar to my first name, “Samson” and I have used it ever since. Now people call me “General Pan” but my old friends call me “little pan” because I was 18 years younger when I first came to China!”

CIBES and CHINA

In china, Samson was never an English teacher or doing those sorts of jobs in China!

He actually got a first job in 2001 in a consulting company for foreign companies coming to China to set up businesses, with a focus on Scandinavian customers. After a few years, He got a real job (not consulting!) doing operations in a Swedish company making various consumer electronics for the Chinese and Export markets. That company was bought out by private equity firm R12Kapital and they also owned Cibes Lift. They introduced Samson to Cibes Lift Group CEO Mats Engblom in 2012 and the Cibes adventure in China started in the middle of 2013!

Factory direct brand

CIBES brand from never been familiar to the well-known brands in china today's home lift market. How did Samson do it?

Samson introduced: It seems difficult but it was very simple. Work very hard to deliver the right value to customers. Don’t have middle men, create awareness, keep your promises, don’t take short-cuts. That was what at CIBES had to do.

Chinese consumers are the smartest in the world, and make careful and intelligent choices. In Europe, customers would just buy whatever is recommended by the general contractor and not care one way or the other. However, all of CIBES customers are very smart, do careful comparisons of different choices in products and service, and they generally like to pick “factory direct”. It is unique for a European factory to have its own presence in China and therefore the consumers trust CIBES more. So really, CIBES have to thank mostly Chinese consumers for being so careful in how they select the products for their home.

CIBES sales characteristics

“No tricks. No middle men, no sales commissions to designers or strange 3rd parties. Work best to give our customers the best price we can, and keep deals simple. ”

Don’t talk poorly about the competition, invest heavily in service and local support and KEEP your promises!

Also it is key to have mostly direct sales, those that we can control. Some business partners but as special authorized business partners, CIBES manage them very tightly. They must have the same behavior, work style, business ethics as we do. They are also not allowed to do random or strange pricing, it must not be too high and service must be guaranteed, because at the end of the day, CIBES guarantee the product no matter what. CIBES also limit our business partner network to just 4 business partners in total, and they contribute less than 30% of CIBES sales in total. This is way different than the normal, which is usually 70-100% through network, instead of >70% direct B2C.

Cultural differences

CIBES think the way you define your business is as much about “what you do” as it is about “what you do NOT do”. CIBES do not take short term gains in our business, which has caused some businessmen or construction industry people to not like CIBES. What Samson mean is that CIBES don’t do referral fees or commissions. CIBES just cannot afford to do this and give CIBES customers a promise to give them the best price and service. So CIBES basically lose some business for this reason. However, if you ask people in all kinds of industries, the business of “referral fees” of unreasonable level is not sustainable long term and will not grow a business to a large level. This is a principle and this defines CIBES company differently than almost all of our competition.

About other cultural issues, Samson main job is working on strategies and reporting systems to HQ, for the local approach, CIBES have a very good team of service and technical staff that are very professional at developing and managing local issues. The one thing Samson mind is being called in by a customer to “get the lowest price” in a negotiation (if they see Samson in the office). It really is too hard to negotiate with Chinese people, they are too good at business and too intelligent!!

Give customer information that they need to make a decision. Don’t make up stories and nonsense about product that are not true. Make everything clear, let customer weigh his or her choices and give good service.

In terms of product design and selection, CIBES is different from Chinese manufacturers in some places, but it should not be targeted by some competitors, but should learn from each other.

China Home lift Market

The Home Lift market is expanding but it is a tiny market. Everyone thinks it is such a large market that everyone will get an elevator in their home. It’s not true. The biggest home elevator companies are a famous Chinese firm and a famous German brand with local production. They don’t sell much more than 1000 lifts in a year each. It’s not a big business but it is growing. It is also a niche market. It is also a demanding market from the consumer requirements, so definitely good market but will probably take 10-15 years to really be a significant market (as compared to United States or Europe) but after that point it should surpass those markets. 西柏思进口家用电梯在中国－－访西柏思亚太总监潘尚华 CIBES Sweden factory

CIBES Sweden factory