Scoped engagement · both directions
Registration gets you approved. The right partner gets you paid.
This engagement runs from the route decision to a signed agreement. Two questions decide it: which candidates are actually solid, and what the contract says about who owns the market if the relationship ends. Both are answered before you sign, not after.
Engage us for this if
- You need distribution partners and cannot tell which candidates are solid
- You are choosing between cross-border e-commerce and general trade import
- You have signals in the market already — grey imports, daigou, an early reputation — and no control of them
- You are a Chinese brand looking for European channel and a Responsible Person
This is not the right engagement if
- You want a broker who is paid by whoever you end up signing with, and would rather not know
- You want a list of names without the qualification work behind it
- Your product has no regulatory route yet — start with the pathway assessment
- You want us to run the relationship after signature — that is a separate mandate, and it is the next page
What you get
Named deliverables, not a scope of intent.
- A qualified shortlist with the reasoning, the references we checked, and the candidates we rejected
- Route comparison: cross-border and general trade, with what each costs in margin and in reversibility
- Registration or filing pathway and the importer-of-record question resolved
- Channel design across pharmacy, clinic, hospital, offline retail and platform
- Pricing architecture that will not sabotage the general-trade launch later
- Negotiation support through to signature: territory, exclusivity, registration ownership, price control
- A signed agreement whose exit terms you have read before you needed them
Why this is hard
The route is a commitment, not a preference
Cross-border looks like a low-risk test and behaves like a decision. It caps which channels you can reach, and leaving it later costs more than entering it did. Which route your claims and category permit is settled first because everything downstream inherits it.
A long list is easy; the work is in cutting it
Any agency can produce twenty names. What decides your next three years is financial standing, the portfolio a candidate already carries, the segments they genuinely cover rather than claim, and what the brands they already carry say when someone calls them.
The clauses that matter are the ones nobody negotiates
Territory and margin get argued over. Registration ownership, price control and exit terms usually do not — and they are what decide who owns the market if the relationship ends. If the partner holds the certificate, the partner holds the market.
Signature is the end of this engagement, not the end of the job
Most distributor relationships fail after signature. That is a different kind of work, on a different economic model, and we keep it on its own page so you can buy one without the other.
Duration. Three to six months from brief to signed agreement.
Cross-border e-commerce
- Marketplace and bonded-warehouse setup, and what each model costs you in margin
- Category rules: what may be sold cross-border without local registration, and what may not
- Claims discipline — the same sentence can be legal on one channel and not on another
- Pricing architecture that will not sabotage the general-trade launch later
- Reading the data the channel gives you back: who actually bought, and where
General trade
- Registration or filing pathway, and the importer-of-record question
- Distributor identification, qualification and negotiation — with a shortlist no candidate has paid to be on
- Channel design across pharmacy, clinic, hospital and offline retail
- Contract terms that keep brand, price and registration under your control
- Ongoing distributor management, because signing one is the easy half
Where we are independent, and why it matters
You will always know what we stand to gain.
Much of the distributor-search market runs on undisclosed commission from the partner side, and that arrangement decides which names appear on a shortlist. Ours are disclosed. Search and qualification are fee-based, no candidate pays to be listed, and where an engagement continues into business development the success-linked element is written into the Scope of Work before the work starts. A stake you can see is a different thing from no stake at all, and it is the claim we can stand behind.
What this costs
€30,000 – €60,000 from brief to signed partner, quoted in stages so you can stop after the shortlist.
Why we publish it
Because you need to know which internal approval route to open before you spend half an hour finding out. A range is not a quote, and nobody has ever been offended by a range. Yours is quoted line by line — named people, day counts — so you can remove anything you do not want.
What you can hold us to
You always know who pays us
Some engagements are fee-only; business development can carry success-linked compensation. Whichever applies, the structure is agreed with you in writing before the work starts and it is in the Scope of Work.
Priced before you commit
A detailed, line-by-line quote — named people, day rates, day counts — so you can remove anything you do not want and benchmark what is left.
A partner replies, not a salesperson
The partner who scopes the work is the partner who does it. Expect an answer within two working days.
All three appear in every Scope of Work. If we are not the right firm for the question, we say so — and, where we can, say who is.
Who leads this
Delphine Yan
Partner · Consumer Health
Today, Delphine brings over 13 years of experience in strategy consulting and cross-border project management across healthcare and luxury between Europe and China. Her focus is on helping outstanding European consumer health brands build trusted, sustainable businesses in China — combining strategic market entry, strong local partnerships and a deep understanding of Chinese consumers.
This work, already done
A distribution network built one relationship at a time
Twenty-plus qualified distribution partners, KOL endorsement and a working demo-to-installation chain for a dialysis data technology entering China.
Read the case → Therenva · Medical device · endovascular softwareSix years running the China business of a French SME
A market that was not ready, a partnership with a stentgraft manufacturer, and a distribution network we have managed on the client’s behalf since.
Read the case →What people ask us
- How exactly are you paid on this?
- Search and qualification are fee-based work, and no candidate pays to be on your shortlist. Where an engagement extends into business development, compensation can include a success-linked element. Whatever the model, it is written into the Scope of Work before the work starts, so you know what our incentive is while you are reading our recommendation.
- Why does that matter?
- Because a shortlist is only worth reading if you know what the person who wrote it stands to gain. Much of this market runs on undisclosed commission from the partner side. Our arrangement is disclosed, in writing, in advance — which is a different claim from having no stake at all, and it is the one we can actually stand behind.
- How many candidates will we see?
- Fewer than you expect. We would rather present four names we can defend than twenty we cannot.
- Cross-border or general trade first?
- Cross-border is faster and lighter on registration but caps which channels you can reach and is harder to exit than companies assume. General trade is slower and opens everything. The right answer depends on your claims, your category and how long your patience is.
- Can you do this the other way round?
- Yes. European channel design, Responsible Person and CPNP notification for Chinese consumer health brands is the same work in the other direction.
The next step
Discuss your route to market.
Tell us the market, the product and the decision in front of you. A partner replies within two working days with either a scoped, line-by-line quote — or the reason we are not the right firm for it.