You might be looking for an agent or distributor for your company in a particular country, or for a Joint Venture assembly partner, an outsourcing partner or even an acquisition. GMS provides a service for each of these requirements that is focused not only on finding and securing the right partner, but also on building the business relationship in the crucial early stages, with concrete and short-term business opportunities. The above areas are divided into four groups, each of which has its own distinct properties and the services to match:
Click on any of the following areas to expand:
Finding agents and distributors
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Finding, researching, interviewing and short-listing agents or distributors. In most cases, a guaranteed a minimum number of short-listed candidates matching an agreed profile. |
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Post-contract training and induction, (both agent and company staff) - bridging cultural divides, motivation, communication, support requirements, building trust, handling the first dispute. |
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Internal roles and responsibilities, skills gap |
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Key customer prospecting activity - very important to feed the new working relationship with serious business leads from the start. |
Joint Venture Operations (manufacturing/assembly/service)
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Discrete partner search, including research, anonymous approach. |
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Screening for conflicts of interest, (contract relations, shareholders/investors, development strategy). |
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Confidential key person screening. |
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Compatibility analysis (culture, technologies, business strategy, market reputation for standards of quality and service etc.). |
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Opening discussions, finding and building common ground. |
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Proposed JV objectives, structure, management, resources, responsibilities. |
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Contract negotiations. |
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Post-contract formation. |
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Financial control instruments |
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Forging the management team, bridging cultural divides, motivation, communication, support requirements, building trust. |
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Training and induction of key staff members. |
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Handling the first dispute. |
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Risk analysis |
Offshore outsourcing
International acquisitions
If your company is a larger business, it is tempting to try to do much of the above work internally, but using an outside resource with experts in the target country or region is often the most cost effective solution. Finding new partners in international markets can be a time-consuming and costly diversion from core market activities and as such, it is very difficult for very busy managers to plan and execute in enough detail.
Finding the right partner in this process is not without risk and getting it wrong costs an inordinate amount of time, money and lost opportunity to put it right. On the other hand, effort invested into the early stages of search and selection and initial induction almost invariably pays off through much quicker sales build-up and the effectiveness of a highly compatible and well trained and motivated sales channel.
GMS excels at this task because the Associates in each country can produce a well filtered candidate list very quickly, based on the quality and range of their existing contacts, their objective attitude, business experience and access to local business information.
The GMS approach is based on RESULTS. In most cases, where it is possible to define an accurate profile of the ideal partner, GMS will not only guarantee a minimum number of pre-qualified and pre-vetted candidates, but also, in the case of a new agent or distributor, a minimum number of sales leads with which to feed the relationship right from the start.
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