With the year-end performance review approaching, are there still gaps in your project tasks?

Business development managers, you need to go over your current leads one more time:

Projects from field visits, trade shows, and those brought back by overseas teams.

There are also companies referred by business associations and resources promoted through industry-academia-research collaborations at universities.

Recently, in an interview about investment promotion efforts in a coastal county, the challenges facing projects were highlighted.

—Information is scattered, the baseline is unclear, and progress is slow.

When the local government restructured its investment promotion system, it made the centralized collection, screening, and evaluation of leads—along with assigning dedicated personnel to follow up on them—a key priority.

Faced with a shortfall in investment promotion targets, is a list of companies the only thing government-run industrial parks are missing?

We believe the answer is clearly no.

Do these companies have investment needs? Do the projects meet local requirements? What is the progress of their investment plans? And how should we connect with the project leaders?

The key lies in sifting through corporate investment leads to identify projects worth pursuing.

01 Investment Targets Fall Short: Insufficient Viable Project Leads

Whether it’s proactively “reaching out” to potential investors or “inviting them in” for in-depth engagement, localities are extending their investment promotion efforts nationwide.

However, what’s more frustrating than the long journey itself is the difficulty in finding viable project leads, coupled with low match rates and engagement success rates.

The chairman of a state-owned industrial park in Zhejiang also noted that they are seeking third-party partnerships to expand investment promotion channels.

Investment promotion efforts must continue, and existing sources of projects need to be constantly replenished.

Whether it’s seeking new channels for project information or conducting in-person visits to companies, the goal is to expand the pool of potential leads.

However, even with a list of companies in hand, how far are investment promotion teams from actually engaging in negotiations?

Information such as the industry and company size can be looked up; however, verifying whether a company has expansion plans, which city it is targeting, and what kind of factory space it requires often takes a significant amount of time.

Suppose the investment promotion team obtains information on an equipment manufacturing company whose industry aligns with the park’s focus and whose business performance warrants attention. When preparing to make contact, however, one key piece of information is still missing: Does the company actually intend to expand its operations outside its current location?

If the company has no immediate plans for site selection, this initial contact can be used to establish a connection, but it is still a long way from securing a project. In reality, a list of companies must undergo confirmation of their investment needs before it can become a viable investment lead worth pursuing.

Even if it is known that a company is “currently looking for a factory,” its investment requirements must be probed in greater detail.

Do they need a 10,000-square-meter or a 5,000-square-meter facility? Are they looking to lease or purchase? What are the equipment requirements regarding lifting height, span, and overhead cranes?

Without clarity on these conditions, investment promotion specialists will find it difficult to determine which facilities in the park are suitable; they can only send a general introduction first and wait for the company to provide additional details.

Another issue that’s easily overlooked is whether the project information obtained aligns with the company’s plans.

During the site selection process, companies may adjust their preferred cities, required floor area, or production schedules. If you continue to prepare materials based on the initial requirements and only discover during discussions that the company’s needs have long since changed, you may have to redo all your prior preparations.

Whether there is a need, whether the facility can accommodate it, and whether the requirements have changed will directly influence which companies the investment promotion team prioritizes. The value of expanding project channels also hinges on addressing these specific issues.

On investment promotion networks, projects can be searched by region, lease or purchase intent, and facility type. By reviewing project details, you can gain insight into a company’s reasons for site selection, preferred regions, and production needs, and then follow up by contacting the company via phone or extending an invitation to engage further.

For government-run industrial parks seeking to expand their project pipeline, this provides an additional channel for identifying companies’ site selection needs on a daily basis, as well as for continuing to understand and engage with them. Once leads are identified, this also serves as a starting point for discussions centered on the companies’ investment needs.

02 Connecting with Enterprises: Understanding Project Needs

In an interview regarding investment promotion efforts in a coastal county, the team leader of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Task Force stated:

“Often, after the investment promotion team goes to great lengths to obtain a lead and follows up on it, the deal ultimately falls through due to factors such as an industry mismatch, poor timing, or the company having no intention of expanding production.”

Such outcomes are common in external investment promotion. In fact, at some large-scale investment promotion events, certain localities go to great lengths to showcase their region, yet the feedback from companies they approach is often unfavorable.

The core reason for this is that investment promoters lack a clear understanding of the project’s investment requirements.

Take, for example, a company that expressed a need to “expand production by leasing a satellite plant.” Why the company needs a satellite plant, how the new production will be divided from the existing factory, and when it plans to move in—all of these factors influence the investment promoter’s judgment regarding follow-up negotiations.

The investment promotion network provides a platform for initiating invitations, and members can also contact project leads directly by phone. Once a promising project is identified, discuss the company’s specific investment requirements with them.

When initiating an invitation, the project card displayed during online communication provides a reference for the discussion. Details such as the type of facility the company is seeking, the regions under consideration, and the required floor area can be linked to the specific issues both parties are discussing.

If the company adds, “The new plant will primarily handle new orders, while the existing plant will continue production,” the investment promotion specialist can gain further insight into the new plant’s production plans; if the company is still comparing several regions, the specialist can also understand which site selection criteria are currently most important to them.

This feedback helps investment promotion officers continue to assess whether local conditions are suitable and determine what information to provide to the company in the next interaction.

Phone calls offer another channel for gaining a deeper understanding of the project. By entering the call armed with the known investment requirements, investment promotion officers can focus the conversation on the issues that influence the company’s site selection decision.

For example, if a company states it hopes to move into the new facility within three months, is this timeline derived from existing production schedules, or is it a preliminary target within its expansion plans?

During the call, the investment promotion officer can link the planned move-in date to the equipment schedule to gain a clearer understanding.

If the company has already ordered new equipment and the delivery date is confirmed, it is necessary to further understand the sequence of site preparation and equipment installation; if the scale of the new operations and equipment investment are still under discussion, it is also necessary to clarify how far along the expansion plan has progressed.

Even if the statement “move in within three months” is the same, the level of preparation behind it may vary. By clarifying what has been confirmed and what still needs to be finalized, investment promotion professionals can determine what information to seek next and arrange follow-up communications and negotiations accordingly.

Regarding the right to initiate invitations on the investment promotion network, free users are entitled to 40 invitations. If no response is received within 7 days of sending an invitation, that invitation credit is refunded and can be used again.

03 Identify Projects Worth Pursuing and Address the Company’s Core Needs

During the investment promotion process, companies often prioritize factors such as land, funding, the business environment, and market conditions, and articulate corresponding needs.

For example, they consider factors such as land prices and the level of land preparation, the availability of financing support, the quality of the business environment, the synergy of upstream and downstream industrial chains, and the size of the market. This places higher demands on investment promotion staff in terms of their expertise and familiarity with industries and policies.

Regarding the production space discussed previously, identify suitable facilities; for supporting conditions of concern to the enterprise, promptly notify them of any new developments. Only then can both parties build on the previous discussion and move forward during the next contact.

This also requires the investment promotion team to create individual files for each project worth pursuing, assign dedicated personnel to each, and document the issues raised by enterprises, matters requiring coordination, and agreed-upon deadlines, while reviewing progress on a weekly basis.Issues that can be resolved should be addressed promptly, and those requiring coordination should be clearly scheduled, ensuring that the principle of “no matter left unresolved for more than a week” is applied to specific tasks—guaranteeing a response to every matter and follow-up every week.

As the year draws to a close, it is essential to have someone continuously monitor which projects are ripe for breakthroughs, which require coordination, and which can be scheduled for the next round of negotiations—all to drive substantial progress on existing leads.

On the Investment Promotion Network, investment promotion specialists send their business cards online; once accepted by a company, the exchange is complete, and both parties obtain each other’s contact information. The name, company, and title listed on the business card ensure both parties clearly know who they are communicating with and whom to contact in the future.

Received business cards can be managed in the business card folder, and cards can also be exchanged and managed directly on User Link.

User Link also provides a separate address book that centrally displays contacts. While the business card folder manages received business cards, the address book provides a list of contacts; these two features respectively support investment promotion professionals in building their personal and corporate contact networks.

Investment promotion professionals maintain ongoing contact with companies in key industries and can gradually get to know the relevant company contacts while learning about their site selection plans. The professional networks built during this process ultimately center on these corporate contacts.

If you’d like to learn how the Investment Promotion Network can be used for daily project coordination and contacting companies, be sure to check out the exclusive experience package for this year’s China International Import Expo (CIIE).

Key Point! Exclusive experience pricing for Investment Promotion Network members is available only for [purchases made on-site at the CIIE].

Interested park managers and investment promotion professionals can leave a message to learn more about project matching and membership details.