Xiao Qin sells cutting fluid to machining shops. Last month he went to a trade show and also had a friend add him to a few owner group chats. All told he added more than forty factories on WeChat, and each time, right after adding someone, he fired off the company profile, product brochure, and a price list in one go. Two weeks later, only three people had replied: one asked "where are you located," and two said "OK" and went quiet. Only when he scrolled back through the chat history did he realize that the first message he'd sent looked exactly like the sales pitches he deletes without a second thought every day.
First, figure out who's actually on the other end of WeChat
The word "buyer" means completely different people depending on the size of the factory. I pulled active manufacturing factories on Tianxia Gongchang by insured headcount; among those with a recorded insured headcount, there are 1,165,157 in total:
| Insured headcount | Factories | Share | Who's usually on WeChat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–9 employees | 618,932 | 53.1% | The owner himself |
| 10–49 employees | 374,799 | 32.2% | The owner, or a family member |
| 50–299 employees | 142,765 | 12.3% | A buyer — but switching suppliers needs sign-off from the owner or plant manager |
| 300+ employees | 28,661 | 2.5% | A buyer in the purchasing department, backed by a vendor-approval process |
(Shares are rounded to one decimal place and don't add up to exactly 100%; the last column is general experience, not a statistical finding.)
Factories with fewer than 50 insured employees make up 85.3%. The "buyer" you added is, most of the time, the owner: one phone juggling customers, workers, suppliers, and family, spending the day moving between the workshop and customer visits, and glancing at messages whenever he gets a spare moment. If he doesn't reply, it's usually because your message, in that one glance, didn't show him any connection to his own factory.
Factories with 300+ insured employees make up only 2.5% of the total, and the person on WeChat is someone in the purchasing department. Replying to you even once means taking on a bit of responsibility for this within the company, so when he doesn't reply, the common reasons are that the category isn't his responsibility, he has no current need for it, or a new supplier first has to clear vendor approval — something he can't decide on his own.
The two types of people have different reasons for not replying, so the messages you write for them later need to be different too.
When they don't reply, it usually gets stuck at one of these five points
1. The friend request note just says "Hi" or a company name. What the other person sees is a stranger trying to add them, with no stated reason. Getting accepted is already lucky, and even after that, he has no idea what to say to you. The friend request note needs all three things: your name, your company, and why you're reaching out — for example, "Xiao Qin, I sell cutting fluid, I'd like to ask about how your factory handles fluid changes."
2. The first message is "You there?" or a product brochure. "You there?" forces the other person to reply just to find out what you want, so most people choose not to. As for the brochure, price list, or company promo video — an owner won't tap it open on his phone, and even if a buyer does open it, he'll just file it away.
3. The profile photo and nickname look like a spam account. A nickname stuffed with "original manufacturer," "bulk discounts," and a string of phone numbers, with a product photo as the avatar — to the other person, an account like this is indistinguishable from one that mass-blasts ads. Use "name + short company name" as your nickname and a real photo of yourself or a clear company logo as your avatar, so that when the other person wants to find you later, they can search for you and recognize you.
4. Your WeChat Moments feed is all forwarded posters. When someone isn't sure who you are, they'll tap into your Moments to take a look. If it's the same product poster filling the screen, posted several times a day, he'll file you under "advertising" and quietly mute you. Post to Moments sparingly, and when you do, post real, on-the-ground content: what you adjusted for what kind of factory, what problem it solved — without naming the customer.
5. Your timing lands right in his busiest window. A small-factory owner is assigning work first thing in the morning, reconciling accounts and chasing payments at month-end, and buried in the workshop all day when there's a rush order — a message sent during any of these gets buried under new messages within minutes. A buyer at a large factory handles work messages during office hours; send something after hours or on the weekend, and he'll either not see it or think you don't know the unwritten rules.
The first message: one line on who you are, one question about his factory
The first message should do exactly one thing: make replying to you feel effortless. It breaks into three parts, and together they shouldn't run longer than one phone screen:
- One line stating clearly who you are and what you sell;
- One specific observation tied to his particular factory, drawn from his website, a job posting, his Moments feed, or something you talked about at the trade show;
- One question he can answer without having to think, ideally a multiple-choice one.
For a small-factory owner:
Hi Boss Wang, I'm Xiao Qin, I sell cutting fluid. I noticed your factory mainly machines aluminum parts — quick question: do you change your cutting fluid on a fixed schedule, or only once it's gone bad?
For a buyer at a large factory, add one line — "if it's not your area":
Hi Manager Liu, I'm Xiao Qin, I sell metalworking fluids. I'd like to check one thing first: for a consumable like cutting fluid, does purchasing choose the supplier, or does the equipment department raise the request? If it's not your area, could you point me to the right colleague — I won't take up any more of your time.
The second version gives the other person an easy way out. Even if a buyer has zero interest in your product, giving you a name costs him nothing — and that name is often more useful than he is. How to figure out, at a large factory, who raises the request and who signs off, and how to ask for it over the phone, is covered in Factory calls keep getting blocked by reception — how do you find the person who handles purchasing, and the same approach works on WeChat.
This "observation + question" structure is the same logic as a good phone-call opening — Methodology Lesson 5 goes into more detail: The first 15 seconds of a cold call — open with a signal, not a cold pitch.
Don't send an attachment, a price, or a link in the first message. Only move on to talking about the product once he's answered your question.
After that: how long to wait, and what to send
If the first message goes unanswered, don't rush to cross the factory off your list. Here's the cadence I use myself:
| Timing | What to send |
|---|---|
| Two to three days after the first message | Something genuinely useful to him, with a low-pressure invitation he doesn't have to respond to |
| About a week after that | A change relevant to him, or a concrete reason to meet in person |
| Neither message gets a reply | Stop on WeChat and make a phone call |
Example of the second message: "Boss Wang, following up on that question from a couple days ago — once summer hits, the most common trouble for aluminum-parts shops is cutting fluid going rancid and parts rusting, usually because concentration and tramp oil aren't under control. I put together a one-page self-check guide — reply 'yes' if you want it and I'll send it over." Even if he doesn't reply to this one, he'll remember that "this person knows the trade."
For a buyer at a large factory, swap the second message for a one-pager he can forward to the user department: spec comparisons, qualifications, and how it's performed at similar factories. Getting him to forward it once is worth far more than a few polite replies.
Example of the third message (only if you're genuinely going to be in the area that day): "Boss Wang, next Tuesday I'll be servicing two factories in your industrial park — if it's on the way, I can drop off two drums of sample for you to try in one tank in your workshop, and if it doesn't work out I'll take it back as-is." A specific day and a specific action make it easy for him to reply either "sure, come by" or "no need."
Every message should stand on its own: whenever he happens to scroll back up to any one of them, he should immediately know who you are and what you can offer him. Don't send any of the following:
- Greetings like "You there?" or "Morning, Boss Wang";
- Mass-sent holiday greeting images;
- WeChat public-account articles that have nothing to do with his factory;
- "So, Boss Wang, have you thought it over?"
The last one does the most damage. He never agreed to anything, so there's nothing to "think over." If he's gone quiet after you sent a quote, that's a different problem — for how to move the deal along, see Methodology Lesson 9: How to push a deal forward in a long decision cycle — what to do after the quote.
When to switch to a phone call, and when to stop
If two messages go unanswered, call. At this point, WeChat becomes your opening line: "Boss Wang, this is Xiao Qin — I added you on WeChat a couple days ago and asked about cutting-fluid changes. I was worried you were too busy to see it, so I'll just take a moment of your time." Even if he never looked at those two messages, he'll know you're not calling at random.
Two other situations also call for switching to the phone: the other person has only replied with "OK" or "let's talk later," but what you need to ask takes more than a couple of sentences — usage volume, who they currently buy from, who makes the call; or you suspect you added the wrong person.
Adding the wrong person is a common — and easily overlooked — reason WeChat messages go unanswered. The person you added might be a sales rep, a receptionist, or the owner's relative, and none of them can weigh in on your question, so they just don't reply. So take one step before you add someone: confirm whether they're actually the person in charge of this — at a small factory, that's the owner; at a large one, it's the user department and the buyer. On Tianxia Gongchang, over 3 million factories carry direct contact details for the owner or decision-maker, covering 13.95 million key-person mobile numbers and 5.6 million WeChat IDs. First filter target factories by industry, region, and insured headcount, then check "decision-maker contact: yes" — for example, factories with 50 or fewer insured employees and decision-maker contact details — and the person you add will be someone who can actually make the call. You can also just ask the AI on Tianxia Gongchang something like "Ningbo metal-products factories with 50 or fewer insured employees and decision-maker contact details," and it will break the request down into filters and list the results. If you don't have a tool like this on hand, cross-check using the sources in Where do you find a factory owner's phone number? Six sources for industrial sales, and their pitfalls.
There are three signals that it's time to stop:
1. He says he doesn't need it. Reply with something like "Got it, sorry to bother you — feel free to reach out anytime you need this," mark it on your list, and stop reaching out first.
2. He deletes you. That's the end of it.
3. Three messages plus a phone call, and still no response. Stop reaching out first, and move the factory to your quarterly list: if next quarter brings a new, specific reason — say, he's hiring an equipment maintenance tech, or has installed a new production line — send one more message; if there's no reason, don't send anything.
One kind of reply deserves special mention: "We already have a regular supplier." That's a long way from "we don't need it," and there's a whole article on how to respond: The customer says "we already have a supplier" — how should industrial sales respond?
Three bottom lines
1. Tell the truth about who you are. In your friend request and your first message, give your real name, real company, and real reason for reaching out. Don't pose as a customer, a fellow townsperson, a peer, or someone's friend — get caught once, and that factory closes its door to you for good.
2. When he says no, stop. If he says he doesn't want it or deletes you, don't add him again from a different account, don't @ him in a group chat, and don't get his colleague to pass a message along.
3. Use his WeChat for this one purpose only. Don't add him to marketing group chats, don't hand his contact off to someone else, don't include him in mass messages. Very few suppliers survive long-term in a factory owner's contact list, and you stay in it by making sure every single message is worth opening.
→ Filter factories with decision-maker contact details on Tianxia Gongchang | → Get a Tianxia Gongchang membership
Published by the Tianxia Gongchang Research Institute. Data note: factory counts are from Tianxia Gongchang, based on active manufacturing factories, as of September 2026.