Establishing a distributorship is a long and difficult process because you must research this person with the idea that you may be together for quite some time. An excellent resource for checking out distributors is the World Traders Data Report . Dun and Bradstreet's cannot really be given a lot of trust overseas. The best mechanism, however, is to engage ask a prospective company about the names of companies they represent as references and to see if you like the person. You can also utilize the local Chambers of Commerce if you are going to be dealing with someone in Europe.
Information is more nebulous in other parts of teh world such as the Middle East and South America.
Another very important question is how much you will be competing with competitors represented by the same distributor and what share they have of the market. Mr. Portieles emphasized the need to give distributors great incentives so that they will work with you to make a lot of money, suggesting that the greater the incentive the harder they will work. Keeping the distributor motivated with additional commission or other incentives will help your company do far better. Within six months they will come and ask for a credit line for 90 days, at the end of which you will receive no payment and will never see them again. This is a relatively common practice happening to novice exporters.