To win B2B clients in Europe from a Chinese company, first define the type of buyer you want in each country, find the person who actually decides the purchase, contact them in their own language by email and LinkedIn while respecting GDPR, and run an organised campaign with follow-up. A serious campaign needs at least 3 months to give reliable data on which markets respond.
Why aren't a trade fair or Alibaba enough?
Platforms and fairs bring contacts, but mostly passive ones: you wait for the buyer to find you. B2B prospecting is the opposite: you choose who you want to sell to and go after them. The two channels complement each other, and for the first you can read our article on trade fairs in Spain for Chinese manufacturers.
Europe is not a single market. Each country has its own language, distribution channels and way of buying, so a generic campaign «for Europe» usually performs worse than a separate campaign per country.
How do I define the ideal client per country?
Before writing a single message, answer these questions for each market:
- Who buys your product? Importer, distributor, wholesaler, installer, a manufacturer that needs a component, or a retail chain.
- What size and profile are they? Approximate turnover, headcount, whether they already work with Asian suppliers.
- What do they need from a supplier? Stock in Europe, lead times, samples, certificates, after-sales service, support in their language.
- Where can you find them? Company registers, trade associations, directories, fair exhibitor lists and LinkedIn.
We have a specific guide for this step: ideal B2B client (ICP): how to define it before prospecting. A well-described ideal client saves weeks of messages sent to people who will never buy from you.
How do I find the person who decides the purchase?
Writing to a general `info@` address rarely works. Look for the role that really decides: purchasing manager, product manager, sales director or, in small companies, the owner or managing director. On LinkedIn you can filter by role, country and sector; company websites often list the team or a purchasing contact.
Record the company, the person, their role, the source of the data and the date of first contact in a spreadsheet or CRM. That record will help with follow-up and, as you will see below, with data protection compliance too.
Do I need to write in the buyer's language?
Yes. A Spanish, French or German buyer responds much better to a message in their language than to a generic one in English, and a badly translated message costs you credibility. A good first message is short and covers four things:
- Why you are writing to them and not another company (real personalisation, not just their name).
- What you offer in one sentence: the product, a concrete advantage and what sets you apart.
- Credible proof: certifications, clients in Europe you can name, years of experience.
- One single action requested: a short call, a sample or sending the catalogue.
Avoid attaching heavy catalogues to the first email and avoid identical mass-mailed messages: besides performing poorly, they raise the risk of your domain ending up in spam.
What does GDPR say about contacting European companies?
Even if your company is in China, if you process data of people in the EU you must take GDPR into account. These are the basics, as of October 2026 and using Spanish law as the reference; this is not legal advice, so check it with a lawyer or your data protection adviser:
- Professional contact data. Spanish data protection law presumes it lawful, unless proven otherwise, to process the name, job title and professional contact details of people who work for a company, provided this is limited to what is needed to deal with that company (article 19 of the LOPDGDD).
- Exclusion lists. Before sending personalised advertising you must check advertising exclusion systems, such as the Lista Robinson, and not write to anyone registered on them.
- Email. The Spanish information society services law (LSSI) prohibits, in its article 21, promotional emails the recipient has not requested, and its text does not expressly limit the ban to private individuals. For that reason, treat cold email in Spain with caution and check each country's rules.
- Transparency and objection. Say who you are, where you got the data and how to stop receiving your messages, and act on any opt-out immediately.
Cold-email rules are not the same in every European country, so review each market before launching a campaign. A common way to start with less risk is to combine LinkedIn, phone contact and trade fairs with a well-segmented, traceable email.
Why does a campaign need at least 3 months?
A single mailing almost never delivers results. The real cycle looks like this:
- Month 1: define the ideal client, build the list of companies and decision-makers, write the messages in each language and prepare the materials.
- Month 2: first contacts and follow-ups; adjust subject lines, messages and segments based on the replies.
- Month 3: open conversations, samples or quotes sent, and analysis of which countries and profiles respond best.
Importers and distributors take time to reply, compare suppliers and often ask for samples before discussing price. Judging a campaign after two weeks leads you to abandon markets that could work.
Common mistakes when prospecting Europe from China
- Sending the same English message to all of Europe.
- Buying databases without knowing where the contacts come from.
- Asking for an order in the first message instead of a conversation.
- Not replying within hours when someone shows interest.
- Not having clear prices, lead times and terms before starting. If you don't yet, begin with finding a distributor in Spain as a Chinese company.
How Vycte helps you
We help Chinese companies find clients, importers and distributors in Spain and Europe: we define the market, build the list and run B2B prospecting campaigns with a minimum of 3 months. Our team speaks Chinese and Spanish, and we back the campaign with Exporta.ai. We do not offer legal or tax advice.
Frequently asked questions
Can I send cold emails to European companies from China? It depends on the country and the type of recipient; in Spain the LSSI generally requires prior consent for commercial emails, so consult a legal adviser before starting and combine email with other channels.
Is LinkedIn enough for prospecting? It is a good channel for identifying decision-makers and opening a conversation, but it works better combined with segmented email, calls and presence at industry fairs.
How long does a campaign take to deliver results? Plan for at least 3 months: the first is spent preparing the list and messages, and reliable results arrive from the second and third months.
