LILIN aims to expand in Vietnam with a local office

For quite some time, the Asian economy story has revolved around the explosive growth of China and the unexplored potential of the Indian market. But things have changed a bit lately, as the Sino-American trade war and rising labor costs in China have prompted global companies to look for manufacturing options outside the communist country.

This is one of the major reasons Vietnam is increasingly becoming a major topic of discussion for global economists. The country’s GDP had grown 7.31 percent year-on-year in the third quarter with the manufacturing sector being the major contributor.

Seeing this potential Merit LILIN is making significant investments in Vietnam. Speaking to asmag.com recently, Charly Wang, Sales Manager at the company said that according to some studies, Vietnam may be the fastest growing economy in the world, and this will definitely result in an increased demand for surveillance cameras.

“Due to the rising demand, Merit LILIN decided to increase our presence here locally by opening a local branch, hiring local staff and offering direct support to our distributor, SI and end user,” said Wang noted.

What’s LILIN doing in Vietnam?

To LILIN, which has been in the security industry for decades now, the importance of consistent efforts to strengthen brand image across the globe is clear. And this is one of the primary goals of their decision to expand in Vietnam.

“By being present here we wish Vietnamese customers may remember they can contact us for their future project because we are locally present to share them our almost 40 years expertise,” Wang said.

Delving into the details, Wang explained Vietnam has two kinds of market segments. The first one is the most traditional, which includes cameras and devices for recording and playback. This is the most in-demand segment. This market is heavily saturated with low-cost products as the customers are not introduced to the benefits of premium products.

“Then comes the second type, which is the one we focus on,” Wang said. “In this segment, the customers have specifics demands and issues that need to be addressed. Projects in this segment usually take time to design and long hours of testing before it is ready to be the final solution for the customer. And this is also one of the reasons why LILIN we decided to be present locally because most of those projects need our direct expertise.”

LILIN’s partner strategy

The company has taken a conventional approach in terms of business channels in Vietnam, but Wang said that they try to maintain a close relationship with people at each step of the sales journey.

“Our difference is that we try to be close to all layers of business hierarchy,” Wang said. This means that regardless of whether we start a project from an end customer site, systems integrators (SI), or distributors, after we finalize the project our distributors are still the ones who will provide the material to the SIs and then SIs will work with the end user for the installation.”

To ensure that their partners are able to provide the best services to the end customers, LILIN also has several education programs. But since providing them a chance to experience the products first-hand is the best form of training, a local office is expected to make a difference.

“We do training to our partner as all suppliers do, but there is no better training than offering our partners the possibility to try our products and even borrow them for project testing,” Wang said. “This is possible thanks to our local office.”