1. Beyond BYD's Success

Over the past 20 years, Chinese companies have established themselves in overseas markets through low-cost supply chains and high-value products. Today and in the future, Chinese companies are relying on advanced technology, product quality, and brand image to not only expand globally but also to seek the top positions in the global market value chain.

BYD has set a positive example for China's manufacturing industry, representing the rise of domestic technology. China is no longer just the world's factory; the future of China will be a hub for high-end manufacturing.

On July 3rd, BYD released its second-quarter sales data, showing electric vehicle sales reaching 426,039 units, a 21% increase year-on-year. Around the same time, Tesla's second-quarter deliveries, although reaching 443,956 units, showed a year-on-year decrease of about 5%.

As one rises and the other falls, the media exclaimed: BYD is getting closer to Tesla's global market position!

BYD and new energy vehicles are not alone. Today, China's manufacturing industry is progressing at an unprecedented pace, moving towards high-end markets.

For decades, the weighing equipment manufacturing industry was monopolized and defined by Western giants. Today, this structure is also being disrupted.

As a professional manufacturer of weighing products, Changzhou Lilang Weighing Equipment Co., Ltd. has a vision to pioneer a unique path of branding and internationalization in the weighing field, just like BYD, leading the industry forward!

Interview video with Yang Jin, owner of Changzhou Lilang Weighing Equipment Co., Ltd.

"Indeed, China once held an unparalleled advantage in contract manufacturing, but as the global competition landscape changes, relying solely on contract manufacturing is no longer sustainable. Branding, service, and digital transformation are essential paths for the upgrade and transformation of Chinese enterprises. These are important issues our industry and company must face. Although we still have an irreplaceable global supply chain advantage, in the long run, the rise of supply chains in countries like India and Mexico might challenge our cost competitiveness. Therefore, we must prepare in advance, accelerate the branding process, and consolidate our market position through brand and service enhancement," said Yang Jin.

Interview with Yang Jin

2. From Selling Products to Selling Services

Yang Jin has experienced entrepreneurship twice. From 2006 to 2009, his first entrepreneurial venture encountered setbacks and failures. This experience, though not ideal, laid a valuable foundation for subsequent entrepreneurship. In 2009, reflecting deeply on his previous experience, Yang Jin founded a new company, Lilang Weighing Equipment. This time, he made adjustments, particularly in the company's governance structure.

"In the consumer market, homogenized products are everywhere. How to create differentiated products and services has always been my concern! Therefore, I like to innovate and improve products to better meet market demands and cater to customers' needs. I start by understanding customer needs and provide products that solve their pain points. We don't just offer products; we offer services! For example, in our previous ground scale product, I noticed that the traditional design separated the display from the scale body, making it prone to damage during transport. So, I integrated the display into the scale body, which was well-received by customers and successfully converted into considerable orders," said Yang Jin.

Yang Jin in the factory

"The most challenging time comes after the product becomes a bestseller. You must simultaneously carry out four processes—produce one generation, trial one generation, research one generation, and conceive one generation."

Regarding company development plans, Yang Jin stated, "Our rapid growth since 2016 is due to continuous investment of our own funds, a comprehensive product line, and expanding market channels."

From initial truck scales and ground scales, they gradually expanded to forklift scales, and Lilang Weighing Equipment even established its own electronics workshop, achieving self-sufficiency in electronic products and increasing market influence.

While consolidating existing business, Lilang Weighing Equipment actively seeks a second business track to achieve diversification and sustainable development. Their new track, sensors, has been developed for over two years, with applications extending beyond weighing equipment to automobiles, bridges, and vending machines. This initiative not only optimized their supply chain but also brought new growth points.

Yang Jin believes that the key to Lilang Weighing Equipment's success lies in three aspects:

1. Opportunities brought by China's development momentum

2. In-depth understanding of the market

3. Market-oriented products

"Each product development is based on market demand, not blind pursuit. If I think a product has no market prospects, I won't pursue it," Yang Jin said confidently.

3. Always Stay Market-Sensitive

"Chinese manufacturing must not only compete on price and quality but also on market response speed. You must know what your next product should be and where the next potential market lies."

01 Getting Deep into Customer Needs

"I firmly believe that only by getting deep into customer needs can we accurately grasp opportunities. My project team and I work tirelessly, meeting with customers face-to-face, listening to their needs, and uncovering potential market opportunities. We conduct field research with customers at least two to three times a year. Making products without understanding the market is not feasible. The main purpose of visiting customers is to understand market conditions and customer needs. For example, what products are they selling, what are the pain points of these products. Only this way can our products better help customers."

In the early days, he personally managed business development, traveling across most of China, driving up to 1100 kilometers a day to visit customers. Now, he focuses more on visiting overseas customers, having visited over 20 countries. Each visit aims to understand their market sales and pain points, not just to secure orders!

02 Tools Empowering Clever Market Analysis

"Not to boast, but I think Tendata's data is highly cost-effective. It helps us better understand the market."

"For example, through Tendata's data, we can know the types of products customers purchase and from whom they buy. We also learn whether customers are buying other products alongside ours to provide complementary services. We sometimes sell products at a loss to maintain good relationships with customers, so they order from us first when they have new orders. Customer retention is crucial."

Yang Jin recalled, "Once, by analyzing customers through Tendata data, we found that some customers were buying pallet trucks in addition to our electronic scales. This discovery led us to develop pallet truck products, successfully attracting extra orders from those customers. The use of Tendata data has not only enhanced our market competitiveness but also fostered product innovation and market expansion."

03 Precisely Targeting Suitable Customers

"The right customer is the best customer" is the business philosophy of Lilang Weighing Equipment.

In 2023, Lilang Weighing Equipment, through precise customer development strategies, successfully gained over 30 new cooperative customers. The core of this achievement lies in their clever use of the Tendata iTrader SaaS platform, achieving precise targeting and efficient reach of potential customers. By contacting customers through emails, Lilang Weighing Equipment not only expanded its customer base but also built high-quality cooperative relationships.

Yang Jin further pointed out, "Customers developed through the Tendata iTrader SaaS platform generally surpass those acquired through exhibition channels in quality. This is because their information channels are more centralized, making them more sensitive and receptive to our exclusive price proposals, effectively avoiding price comparisons common in exhibition environments and enhancing our quotation strategy's competitiveness and attractiveness."

Given the relatively small circle in their industry, Lilang Weighing Equipment cleverly uses cooperation cases with well-known customers as market promotion highlights, effectively stimulating potential customers' interest and further consolidating its market position in the industry.

4. The Path of Breakthrough for Chinese Manufacturing

As an important intangible asset of an enterprise, brands play an increasingly prominent role in building new development patterns and participating in international competition and cooperation. The world has entered an era of brand economy, where international markets have moved from price and quality competition to brand competition. In the new era, to achieve greater success, it is imperative to install new drivers for brand management and construction.

"In our industry, there are well-known brands in the US, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and South Korea, but there is no widely recognized Chinese brand in the international market. My goal is to create a Chinese brand that is well-known in overseas markets and recognized by name," said Yang Jin.

According to United Nations statistics, current well-known brands account for less than 3% of global brands but hold over 40% of the global market share and more than 50% of sales. More importantly, these high-end brands have influence in the global value chain.

While some worry about the transfer of China's industrial chain, China has long been upgrading, producing high-quality, technologically advanced products. This is what truly makes China's advanced manufacturing irreplaceable.

We have observed that in the past four years, BYD's employee count has surged by 470,000. As of now, BYD's 700,000-employee scale has officially surpassed that of Japan's Toyota, including Germany's Volkswagen, even considering Chinese joint ventures, totaling 678,000 employees. This means BYD is now the largest car company globally in terms of employee count and job creation.

In the past four years, the top 10 Chinese listed companies with the most employee growth, besides BYD, include CATL, Midea, Longi, TCL, and other prominent names representing advanced manufacturing and intellectual production.

The older generation says, "Without agriculture, there is no stability; without industry, there is no wealth; without commerce, there is no vitality." Today, with high added value and high-profit margins, more advanced manufacturing is enabling more Chinese people to lead far more affluent lives than before!

Yang Jin also expressed his vision: "I hope Chinese manufacturing will have more say in the world, and Chinese companies will have a bigger stage globally in the future!"

Whether it's a large company like BYD or a medium-sized enterprise like Lilang Weighing Equipment, I see common solutions in the current breakthroughs of Chinese manufacturing:

1. Creating service advantages and upgrading from selling products to selling services can help Chinese manufacturing enterprises transition to high-value-added industries, break away from price wars, and achieve high-quality growth;

2. Strengthening brand building, breaking the dominance of foreign brands, and changing the global perception of "Made in China";

3. Using digital tools like Tendata iTrader to maintain market sensitivity, accurately analyze customer needs, and provide strong support for strategic decision-making.