Case study · Medical device · dialysis
A distribution network built one relationship at a time
Twenty-plus qualified distribution partners, KOL endorsement and a working demo-to-installation chain for a dialysis data technology entering China.
What they asked
SINED wanted to reach the Chinese dialysis market through local partnerships rather than by building a Chinese organisation. It needed a real reading of market potential and of how business is actually done in the dialysis sector — and endorsement from clinicians whose opinion carries.
What we did
- Market and business-practice research in the dialysis sector
- KOL engagement and endorsement
- Distributor mapping, qualification and network management
- Demonstration, installation and after-sales coordination
How it ran
Read the sector before mapping it
We researched how the dialysis market actually operates in China — procurement behaviour, machine fleet composition, who decides what — and found a specific unmet demand: hardware able to collect data across different brands of dialysis machine.
Build the relationships that qualify a partner
We met key opinion leaders and prospective distributors in person. In this sector a distributor list is worthless without the conversations that tell you which names on it can actually install and service equipment.
Open the network
More than twenty distribution partners were connected and actively mapped across China, and collaboration was established with large domestic manufacturers — Weigao, SWS, Jihua and JMS among them — to give the product presence inside an existing installed base.
Prove it in a hospital
We coordinated demonstrations with hospitals, then supported installation and after-sales so that the first sites became references rather than one-off sales.
Outcome
- A working distribution network with more than twenty qualified partners.
- KOL endorsements that gave the technology credibility in a conservative clinical community.
- Demonstrations converted into installations, with after-sales support in place.
- Presence alongside large domestic manufacturers rather than in competition with all of them.
What it taught us
In a hardware category where the buyer is a hospital and the installer is a distributor, market entry is a logistics and relationship problem long before it is a marketing one.
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