How to find a distributor abroad

1. 1

   Discover

   Step 1: Choose the market and define the territory

   Pick the country on evidence first: who imports your product there, how fast that is growing, and what duty applies. Then write a one-page partner profile: the territory, the channels you want covered (retail, wholesale, industrial, government), and the warehousing, service and credit terms the partner must offer. Government export roadmaps put this after market research and before any search, because it is what you will measure each firm against¹.

   What this step produces

   • A partner profile
   • The terms you could accept

   Common mistake: Starting the search before deciding the territory and whether you will offer exclusivity.

   With Promote:Global

   The Demand explorer ranks countries by how much of your product they import, how fast that is growing and how hard the market is to enter, from UN Comtrade and WITS data, and says the year of every figure. A run uses 1 AI action. Your distributor project then opens with Define your target territory as one of its steps.

   The Demand explorer

2. 2

   Connect

   Step 2: Build a long list of possible distributors

   Good sources are your national export promotion agency or trade commissioner, some of which prepare contact lists for a fee, industry associations, trade shows and trade missions, and the commercial sections of embassies^5,6,8. Aim for five to fifteen firms with reach in your category, and note which competing brands each already carries⁶.

   A directory listing or a list from an agency is a starting point, not an endorsement of the firm².

   What this step produces

   • A long list of five to fifteen firms

   Common mistake: Choosing the one firm that approached you at a trade show without looking at any others.

   With Promote:Global

   On the project, Search for possible buyers with the buyer type Distributors looks on the open web for in-market distributors and wholesalers, ranked by fit to your product and route, for 1 AI action. Each result says where it was found, and is a lead to check before you make contact. If your trade agency or chamber works with you on Promote:Global, you can also ask it for an introduction, and the other side decides whether to accept.

   Finding connections Introductions and consent

   

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3. 3

   Connect

   Step 3: Contact the firms and compare their answers

   Introduce your company, your product line and your export experience. Ask each firm about its ownership, the brands it represents, how it launches a new product, its bank and trade references, and its own view of the market. How well a firm answers that last question tells you how well it knows your sector². Speak to several before you meet any of them⁶.

   Keep the answers on one comparison sheet, a row for each firm and the same columns for all of them, taken from your partner profile: the territory it really covers, its channels and customer groups, the competing brands it carries, its references, its warehousing and delivery reach, and the sales it proposes for the first year^2,6. A blank cell is a question for the next call. The checks and the meetings that follow fill in the rest, so the finalists are compared on the same evidence.

   What this step produces

   • A comparison sheet, one row for each firm

   Common mistake: Not asking for the firm’s view of the market, which is the quickest test of how much it knows.

   With Promote:Global

   Save each firm you contact to the project as a lead, so the project’s Buyers & leads list shows who you are talking to, and keep the comparison sheet as a note on the step. Your notes on a project are what Meridian reads when you ask it about that project.

   Projects

4. 4

   Connect

   Step 4: Check references, finances and conflicts

   Get at least two business or credit reports from different providers, call the bank and trade references, and ask other suppliers what the firm is like to work with^2,6. Ask for the size of its sales force, its sales history and the lines it carries, and find out whether any of them compete with yours⁶. Some government agencies offer a background check on a foreign firm for a fee².

   What this step produces

   • A due-diligence file for each finalist
   • Two credit reports
   • Reference notes

   Common mistake: Relying on one report, or treating a directory listing as proof that a firm is sound².

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not check firms. Search results are found on the open web and service providers list themselves, so order credit reports and take references yourself. The plan holds a Reference & financial check step, which you tick when it is done.

5. 5

   Connect

   Step 5: Meet the finalists

   Visit the offices and warehouse and meet the sales team, not only the owner. Where travel is hard, meet at a trade show or by video². Ask each finalist how it would sell your product in its first year: who it would call, at what price, and with what support from you.

   What this step produces

   • A ranked shortlist

   Common mistake: Skipping the site visit and hearing only from the person at the top.

   You do this step yourself

   Meetings and visits are yours to arrange. Write what you learn on the project’s step as notes, where your team can see them and Meridian reads them when you ask about the project.

6. 6

   Prepare

   Step 6: Check the local law before you draft

   Find out whether the country protects distributors, requires the agreement to be registered, or limits exclusivity, and whether those rules apply even when your contract names another country’s law. In Belgium, for example, a supplier that ends an exclusive distribution agreement without a serious breach by the distributor can owe reasonable notice or compensation instead, and possibly compensation for goodwill and expenses⁷. Saudi Arabia has no statutory compensation scheme, but requires distributors to be Saudi-owned and the agreement to be recorded in the Commercial Agencies Register⁹.

   Inside the European Union, what a supplier may restrict, such as where and to whom a distributor sells, is limited by the vertical block exemption regulation of 2022¹⁰.

   What this step produces

   • A short note from local counsel

   Common mistake: Assuming the governing-law clause overrides protections that the distributor’s own country makes mandatory^3,7.

   With Promote:Global

   The plan’s contract steps (Agree a term sheet, Sign the distributor agreement, Register the agreement if required) each carry Find an advisor for this market, which opens advisory firms with experience of the market. Find service providers lists legal and corporate firms that list themselves on Promote:Global. Neither is legal advice, and the advice itself comes from the firm you choose.

   Advisors and service providers

7. 7

   Prepare

   Step 7: Agree the terms

   Put it in writing: the territory, whether and when the appointment is exclusive, the term and renewal, minimum purchases with a growth target, your price and the distributor’s discount, payment terms, the use of your trademark, rules on competing products, and what happens to stock and customer records at the end³. Government guidance suggests a first term of one year with annual renewal, and exclusivity only once the partner has proved it can sell³.

   The ICC Model Contract on Distributorship, revised in 2016, covers a distributor that buys and resells, and works as a drafting checklist that local counsel then adapts⁸. Choose the governing law and how disputes are settled; many suppliers choose arbitration, but the distributor’s country may not let its own courts or rules be set aside³.

   What this step produces

   • A term sheet
   • Price list and discount schedule
   • Minimum purchase schedule

   Common mistake: Granting exclusivity with no minimum purchases and no review date³.

   With Promote:Global

   Before you agree a price, Export check gives the duty your product pays in the market, with its source and year, and Landed cost adds goods value, freight, insurance, duty and tax to show what a unit costs by the time it arrives. Both are free, and both open from the project’s Confirm duty and landed cost step already filled in.

   Export check and Landed cost

8. 8

   Grow

   Step 8: Sign, register and make the first shipment

   Sign the agreement and, where the country requires it, register it in time: in Saudi Arabia, generally within three months of it taking effect⁹. Then train the distributor’s sales team, hand over product and marketing material, and agree the first order with its Incoterm, its named place and the payment terms.

   What this step produces

   • The signed agreement
   • Registration, where required
   • Proforma invoice for the first order

   Common mistake: Signing before anyone has checked the agreement against local competition rules¹⁰.

   With Promote:Global

   The plan carries the shipment through: the document pack for your route, booking freight and the first order. Export documents fills a commercial invoice, a proforma invoice or a packing list from the project, to check and print.

   Export documents

9. 9

   Grow

   Step 9: Manage performance, and plan the exit

   Compare sales with the minimums every quarter, look at stock levels, pricing and complaints, and meet once a year to renew, adjust or replace. Agree in advance what happens to stock, customer records and spare parts when the agreement ends; in some markets service and parts obligations continue until a successor is appointed⁹.

   What this step produces

   • Quarterly sell-through reports
   • An annual review

   Common mistake: Letting an exclusive distributor that misses its targets run to the end of a long term with no trigger to change the terms.

   With Promote:Global

   The plan ends with Set a sell-through reporting cadence and Run an annual performance review. The Revenue tracker adds up the revenue you log by market and by project, against the goal you set for each market.

   The Revenue tracker

The duty, origin and certificate steps are looked up from your product’s HS code and the two countries, so their number depends on what you sell and where. A step with a condition in brackets appears only where it applies. In your own project, each step names your product and your countries. Building the plan uses no AI action.

On a project, Search for possible buyers looks on the open web for in-market distributors and wholesalers, or for whoever you describe, ranked by fit, for 1 AI action. A result is a lead to check before you contact anyone, not a confirmed buyer.

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