Playing The Trillion-Dollar Chinese Piano

This is a list of sales representatives who work for manufacturing companies in China.

 

This list is inside Alibaba’s messenger app. You tell factories what you want to buy and then negotiate the price.

 

What does each salesperson actually represent?

 

At first, each individual appears to represent a manufacturing company.

 

But, what is a manufacturing company? What is a factory?

 

Each manufacturing company represents a capital investment in machines, workers, process engineers, raw materials, and supply chain.

 

 

In China alone, how large is this investment in manufacturing infrastructure?

 

1 trillion dollars? 7 trillion RMB? 70 trillion?

 

Across a platform like Alibaba, these salespeople ‘represent’ access to this trillion-dollar infrastructure, this highly-complex and expensive manufacturing instrument, for as little as a $50 product sample.

 

Like a very expensive musical instrument, a pianist can play the keys.

 

Combining the notes, you can write music, playing the notes in any combination.

 

Find a high-quality product manufactured in Foshan…

 

• Add some magnets from Dongguan

• Include an adhesive strip from Zhejiang

• Replace cheap plastic with metal from Zhongshan

• Bundle it all in a perfectly-fitting custom bag from Xiamen…

 

You’re no longer negotiating widgets with sales reps. Now you’re writing music!