The meeting that catches the drift before the year is lost.
On a schedule, in their language, written up.
Almost no distributor resigns. They go quiet. Orders slow, then stop, and by the time anyone in your company notices, the shelf space has gone to a brand that called them every quarter.
On a schedule, in their language, written up.
The problem
By the time a distributor looks like a problem, it is usually too late.
Silence is the failure mode, and silence is easy to miss from four thousand miles away when nobody owns the relationship.
The slow fade
Reorders get smaller and further apart. No single month looks alarming. The year does.
Nobody owns it
Your export manager has thirty accounts and speaks to the loud ones. The quiet ones are the ones losing you money.
The unasked question
They needed a spare part policy eighteen months ago, never got an answer, and stopped quoting you for service work.
The honest part
They will not tell you the real problem in an email.
Distributors raise issues in person, in their own language, once. If that lands badly or gets no reply, they stop raising them and start replacing you.
- Bad news travels badly across a language gap and a time zone
- A written complaint is a last resort, not a first signal
- Your competitor is in their office every quarter and you are not
- The reason they went quiet is often something small you could have fixed
What we do
A real review, on a schedule, that produces actions.
Not a status call. A structured conversation about what sold, what did not, and what they need from you next quarter.
The numbers
What sold, in what mix, to which kinds of buyer, against what was agreed.
The blockers
What is stopping them selling more. Usually lead time, price, a missing certificate, or support.
The market
What competitors are doing, what buyers are asking for, what is changing. Intelligence you cannot get any other way.
The actions
Written down, owned by a named person on each side, checked at the next review.
How a round runs
Four times a year, and you always know where you stand.
We run the meeting, take the notes, and chase the actions so the next review does not open with the same list.
Prepare
We pull their numbers and last quarter actions before the meeting, so nobody arrives cold.
Meet
In their language and their time zone. In person where it matters, on a call where it does not.
Write up
A short report in English and Chinese: what was said, what was agreed, who owns it.
Chase
The actions get followed between reviews. That is the part that changes the outcome.
They had asked for a spare parts price list twice, a year apart, and never got one. So they started quoting the competitor for service jobs.
Questions
Answered plainly.
Can we not just do this ourselves?
You can, and you should if you have someone who speaks their language, works their hours, and will do it every quarter without fail. The reason it usually does not happen is that nobody owns it.
Do the reviews have to be in person?
Not all of them. Once a year in person, the rest on calls, works well for most channels. The discipline of the schedule matters more than the format.
What if the review shows the distributor is failing?
Then you have found out with time to act. Sometimes the answer is more support. Sometimes it is to reopen the territory, which is much easier if your contract has a review mechanism.
Will you talk to them without us?
We can, and often the most honest conversation happens that way. Everything gets written up and reported to you either way.
The first move
When did you last really talk?
Tell us who carries your line and when you last had a proper conversation. We will tell you what a review cycle would look like.