Export Experts: Finding and Managing International Partners

Five experienced exporters share tips on finding and managing international partners, including how to screen for quality, length of time it takes, places to find international partners, how the U.S. Commercial Service can help find international partners and the VIPER method for managing international partners.

Transcript of this video –

0:06 Finding and managing international partners [Jon Engelstad] One of the things that I do

0:27 when I’m looking at a market, and I’ve had great success with this, is I will,

0:31 through our local U S Commercial Service office contact the Commercial Service offices

0:36 in the countries I may be interested in and then start a dialogue that way.

0:40 They’ll start researching that market for me, we can maybe do an Initial Market Search

0:44 or develop it into a Gold Key but, you know, we can sit down and talk

0:48 about what I’m looking for, what my product is, the kind of customer that I’m looking for,

0:53 and they’ll help me research that and kind of narrow things down so that when it comes time

0:59 to make those contacts I have the right people to talk to.

1:02 [Greg Moll] It’s the quality and vetting if these people even have an address,

1:07 and using the Commercial Service was probably our number one way of easily vetting

1:14 down a client rather than, I call it “chasing rabbits.”

1:18 It avoids chasing rabbits or throwing darts on a wall.

1:21 It’s an easy way to find out if a client is valid.

1:24 [Heather Ranck] What I found a lot of times is that small businesses

1:27 and small manufacturers are best partnered with other small companies overseas.

1:32 Sometimes companies make the mistake of thinking that they should partner with someone

1:36 who has hundreds of different products that they represent,

1:40 but a lot of times you don’t get the focus that you need from them

1:43 when the overseas partner is too unfocused or has too much on their plate.

1:48 [Jon Engelstad] Another thing about identifying partners is never second guess

1:52 where you might find them because the world is getting to be a much smaller place.

1:56 A really great example is, I was at a farm show in Kansas one time and I did not talk to anybody

2:03 for three days except the young gentleman from South Africa and is it turns out I was going

2:07 to South Africa about a month later, and that relationship developed into my first sale

2:13 in Soth Africa, which has developed into several other dealers that came from that.

2:19 So never second guess where you might find them, and never, you know,

2:23 close the door on options of where to look.

2:27 [Kent Gibbons] The market’s full of good products, but people buy from people,

2:31 and that’s one thing in the international market, is there is a level of trust.

2:35 Untilyou build that, as I said, can you talk to people on Skype you can talk

2:39 to people all day long on the phone, and until you show up in-country, at a trade show,

2:44 and meet them in person and develop a relationship,

2:47 a lot of times your international sales won’t go anywhere.

2:51 [Doug Hartley] Finding a good partner really comes down to you knowing your business.

2:55 If you can give clear guidance and instructions and you know clearly the kind

3:02 of company you’re looking for, and you can communicate that to me, I can find those guys,

3:08 if they exist, and I can give you a selection.

3:11 Then it comes down to your own judgment as to which one of those is a company that’s for you.

3:18 [Don Aberle] The thing about international sales,

3:21 you never know which one’s legit, which one’s real.

3:26 The key thing is respond to all of them, ask the appropriate questions,

3:29 quickly qualify them, and move on.

3:33 I go back to one guy in the one country that started off with four units.

3:37 That was one email.

3:38 You know, he asnwered their questions correct and we continue to follow-up with them.

3:43 [Heather Ranck] The US Commercial Service can also help screen potential partners.

3:46 Sometimes you’re approached by someone who wants to be your partner and you need

3:50 to mke sure they are legitimate.

3:52 US Commercial Service, with our foreign offices, we’re able to do background checks

3:56 on potential customers to make sure that they are who they say they are.

4:02 We can check their references, we can get financial statements, and prepare a report

4:06 for you called an International Company Profile, which is basically a vetting.

4:11 Our overseas offices can even interview your potential partner

4:15 and ask them specific questions that you want us to screen them for.

4:19 [Chris Harris] Partner management, ongoing partner management,

4:21 is as crucial and I see it as the next stage.

4:24 Once you’ve selected a partner, now you need to move into the role of,

4:29 quite simply put, business planning.

4:32 A proper business plan needs a vision you both need to know where you want to be, and what,

4:37 we use like a three year horizon as to where we want to be with this product in this region

4:42 with that particular partner in three years.

4:44 They also need to know that and that vision then leads to a plan, a fixed plan that’s on a piece

4:53 of paper, it’s got quantafiable numbers.

4:56 Next level, then, is the management of execution.

5:00 So you’ve got a plan, now you’ve got to stay in touch with them.

5:03 And the last thing that is important, on a regular basis, is the review.

5:09 So you’ve got to look at what that plan was all about, how you executed against it

5:16 and execution is never the same as the plan, so that’s ok.

5:21 You know, sometimes you exceeded it, you mustn’t ignore that.

5:24 Go in and find out why you exceeded, why did well and repeat that same, you know,

5:29 great thing you were doing and get rid of the stuff that you you were doing bad.

5:32 So there’s four elements that, there’s a vision, a plan, execution and then review.

5:36 We call it the viper strategy.

5:39 [Doug Hartley] Be flexible and be open minded.

5:42 There is no one way of doing business.

5:45 Don’t insist on one specific mode of payment because that’s how you’ve always done it,

5:53 things may be done differently in this particular market get to know your customer.

5:58 They want to trust you as much as you want to trust them.

6:02 They’re looking for a long term relationship.

6:06 Come prepared with good will, come having done your homework, talk to US Commercial Service

6:16 and any of your business colleges who may have already worked in the market

6:26 so that you know what local conditions are like.