Is this the same as your distributor search?

No, and we separate them deliberately. Search is a scoped engagement that ends at a signed agreement. This begins there, runs annually, and is priced as a mandate. You can buy either without the other, and clients often start with the search and add the mandate a year later — sometimes after finding out why it was needed.

Do you replace our distributor?

Rarely, and never as a first move. Replacing a distributor in China is slow, expensive and sometimes impossible if they hold your registration. The mandate exists to make the current relationship work, and to tell you honestly and early when it cannot.

A monthly fee for the mandate. Where the scope includes business development, part of the compensation can be success-linked. Whichever applies is agreed with you in writing before the work starts and appears in the Scope of Work.

Who is actually doing this?

A named partner is accountable, and the field work is done by our own people in China. This is not a report assembled remotely from a distributor’s own numbers.

Ongoing mandate · China

Signing the distributor was the easy half.

A distribution contract does not produce a market. What produces a market is somebody watching the price, the channels, the coverage and the sell-out every month, from inside the country, with the authority to raise a problem before it becomes a renegotiation. That is a standing mandate, not a project, and it is priced as one.

Book a 30-minute discussion Request the procurement pack

Engage us for this if

You have one or multiple distributors in China, but no independent view of what is actually happening
Your pricing is drifting, or your products are appearing in channels you did not authorise
You lack a consolidated view of the market and an aligned strategy across distributors, channels and regions
Your HQ team has limited resources and bandwidth to manage China, but you want the discipline of a local operation without opening one
You lack ongoing visibility into market developments, competitor moves, channel dynamics and emerging opportunities

This is not the right engagement if

You have not signed a partner yet — start with the search engagement
You want a monthly report and no intervention
You want us to replace your commercial team rather than hold your partner to account

What you get

Named deliverables, not a scope of intent.

Measurable KPIs for each distributor: sales targets, channel coverage, marketing execution, payment discipline
A structured onboarding framework and a performance dashboard, not a spreadsheet nobody opens
Monthly performance tracking against the objectives, with a corrective action plan when it slips
Price discipline: monitoring for channel conflict, parallel imports and grey-market leakage
Sell-in and sell-out tracking, so you know what moved rather than what shipped
Competitive intelligence and structured market feedback from the field
Bi-weekly operational visibility meetings and a quarterly strategic review on site
A quarterly KPI dashboard: commercial performance, channel development, marketing execution, risks, forecast

Why this is hard

A partner who is not measured is not managed
Most distribution contracts contain a sales target and nothing else. Coverage, channel mix, marketing execution and payment behaviour are where the relationship actually succeeds or fails, and none of them is visible from Europe.
Price is the asset that erodes quietly
Parallel imports and channel conflict do not announce themselves. By the time a European head office sees the price drift, the market has already formed its opinion, and recovering a positioning costs more than defending it.
Sell-in is not sell-out
A good quarter of shipments can mean a distributor filling a warehouse. What matters is what left the shelf, and getting that number reliably takes someone local who is not the distributor.
Reporting is a governance tool, not a formality
The quarterly dashboard exists so your board can make a decision in the room rather than commission another study. It is written for that meeting.

Duration. Annual mandate, reviewed at each renewal.

Where the mandate can go further

Managing the importers and the daily operation

Where you would rather not build a China team, we can carry the operational relationship with importers and distributors day to day, under your brand governance and your pricing rules.

Exclusive licence holder

Case by case, and only where it is genuinely in your interest. It is the strongest form of control available without an entity, and it is also the one that needs the clearest exit terms — so we write those first.

What this costs

€4,000 – €9,000 per month on an annual mandate, sized by how much of the operation you want us to carry. Where business development is in scope, part of the compensation can be success-linked — agreed in writing before the work starts.

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.

Full profile

This work, already done

Therenva · Medical device · endovascular software

Six 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 → More engagements

Nine case studies, described in full

What was asked, what we did, what it produced, and what it taught us.

All case studies →

What people ask us

Is this the same as your distributor search?: No, and we separate them deliberately. Search is a scoped engagement that ends at a signed agreement. This begins there, runs annually, and is priced as a mandate. You can buy either without the other, and clients often start with the search and add the mandate a year later — sometimes after finding out why it was needed.
Do you replace our distributor?: Rarely, and never as a first move. Replacing a distributor in China is slow, expensive and sometimes impossible if they hold your registration. The mandate exists to make the current relationship work, and to tell you honestly and early when it cannot.
How are you paid?: A monthly fee for the mandate. Where the scope includes business development, part of the compensation can be success-linked. Whichever applies is agreed with you in writing before the work starts and appears in the Scope of Work.
Who is actually doing this?: A named partner is accountable, and the field work is done by our own people in China. This is not a report assembled remotely from a distributor’s own numbers.

The next step

Discuss a market mandate.

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.