Account Manager 

A company with a head office in Cyprus, operating in a narrow B2B telecom market segment, was looking for an Account Manager to work in Mainland China. They needed a specialist with at least 3 years of experience in telecom, a deep knowledge of the local market, and the ability to both retain existing clients and bring in new ones.

We faced a web of contradictions that made the search nearly impossible: a very small percentage of Chinese specialists speak English; CNY payments and cross-border transfers are a non-trivial task; Chinese specialists have a low level of trust in companies registered in Cyprus; the client had no legal entity in China (making official employment impossible); the budget was only 4,000 USD net, despite high salaries in China; and LinkedIn is blocked in China.

We focused on "manual" networking. Our first step was to find a Russian-speaking specialist who knew Chinese – they became our guide. We monitored LinkedIn via VPN but used it only as a directory. We relied on the agent's personal contacts, word-of-mouth, and closed professional chats.

The process took over three months, but the vacancy was closed. We found a specialist who believed in the project, overlooked the difficulties with the legal entity, and agreed to the proposed budget. The candidate started developing the company's sales in China.