Good point. The quality has to be there to start with. Several years ago I was offered a position in machine sales for upcoming Hyundai excavators. I remember asking about initial parts stock and hearing "we can get pretty much anything we need over night". Ouch! Wrong answer to me. If I were ever able to represent a new forklift product line, I would be sure to have all the common wear parts inventory I needed along with as much technical understanding and resources I could get my hands on before I ever opened the doors! THAT would give you your best hope for a perceived quality product.

Forkliftt-as Harry Potter would say- I think you're spot on. Appearance is everything. That would spur initial sales on. Quality would show up later in the life cycle. That would make the difference in the follow up sale.

AND, give more thought to your product names for the North American market. It may be wrong- but if the name on the mast sounds Aisan, it's a turn off in our market. I always felt that if you would order a container of Chinese forklifts, have them painted a color that is popular for our culture, use flat bar, not angle iron on the load back rests, and "brand" them with a North American style name- you could charge a higher retail price, and quality would not be in question.

All I am saying is if the parts support from the OEM, parts manuals service manuals, not available especially on new stuff, technical & sales training, unrelaible equipment & parts availabilty dates ain't so hot - the local dealer will have a hard row to hoe. Ask any Clark dealer that survived the Clark Parts distribution move from Illinois to New Orleans (I stand to be corrected on that location but I'm pretty sure) and Cat dealer that lived thru the allocation of of equipment orders in the 1980's. Me thinks many Clark & Cat dealers took on other lines to survive.
It takes all working together with the a common objective and singing out of the same choir book to keep the customer happy & up & running.

Without question many techs (or sales or fiance or financial or rental or used equipment folks) with real life hands-on experience can out gun & hopefully teach the "factory experts".

I've seen local dealer tech's make the OEM & the dealer look good

And the local dealer is only good as the support from their OEM supplier that backs them up.

Speaking as an end user the best brand in the world is worthless without good local dealer support.

Good points ! We used to rep NYK electrics, many moons ago. Parts from Chicago and all Japanese people there. We asked for a service guy to come down and give the techs a class on the trucks.A Japanese genlteman arrived and most of the morning the guys were mystified, where this shell was located. At lunchtime we established that shell meant the SCR controller. We did not learn much and it was a pity as they were good trucks.

You are missing a couple other key elements
1. Local (at least within the same country) E-P parts support & supply to back up the distributors, all trucks break down - getting the trucks back running is a key factor. Customer do want ther truck down waiting for a common service item part for 30 days. I sold E-P pallet truck (once). The controller "failed" twice - no parts in US. Customer thru E-P out & our dealership. Never sold another E-P anything.
2. Local technical support and training to back up the distributors.
It is very helpful taht any local represetnative is knowledgable 7 speaks the local language well. A Japanese forklift company, well known in their own country initially tried to market trucks in the US with all Japanese personnel & did not succeed until they hired & trained locals. They are very well established in the US today.

It's difficult to see if you have a question in your post but let me try to summarize what you are saying. If Chinese Manufacturers pay more attention to the quality and detail , combined with their low price, they will get a significant market share?
Partly true but there is a lot more goes into it than just that.That is like saying because the Chinese Army has a lot of people and weapons we should be able to beat anybody? Didn't work out too well against the Vietnamese in the border clashes did it?
You have to plan and put in that plan all the ingredients, to make you product a success in the market you are going to be selling in.
First find out what brand is popular in Country X and why.
How is it sold,direct or through dealers ?
Can you make your product have an advantage real or imagined over that brand. Can you use the same style of distribution? If not how will you do it?
What kind of program will you need to support this channel of distribution? People, Warehouses, Stock, Brochures, Advertising The Main Theme you will use.
How will you measure your success and at what intervals and what money will be available to change direction and improve.
This is a lot of work but it must be done and the product must be the best available to the price of the market. There is no point selling a Rolls Royce in Africa when a Land Rover ,rugged easily serviceable. would be better.

Quality, design, features, and reliability of the product is always important. But, more than anything else... it is the local relationship a customer has with the dealer that really matters. I have seen strong territories for one brand of equipment due not to the brand but, due more to the quality of the dealership that sells and supports that brand. I worked for a dealership that switched brands and successfully switched over 90% of in process orders over to the new brand. That proved to me the customers were not buying the brand... they were buying the relationship with the dealer.

yeah we don't use negatives to sell in North America....
if we did the Vacuum cleaner commercials like that, they would sound like " A Hoover doesn't s_ck as much as a Dyson! " or "my GM doesn't have to be towed as much as a Ford"
You guys in China should hire someone from Hollywood to sell your products.

true edward, america concentrates on the best and most attractive selling points. They seem to concentrate on the bells and whistles more than anything else it seems.

Why baffle em with bull-crap when you can dazzle em with brilliance ;o)

In America, you will never hear; "quality is not much worse than" as a reason to purchase anything/ sales pitch.

In some degree, details determine a result more than quality. Just keep going