channels run at the same time: they find and check you in search, and we approach the companies on the list. Apart, presence loses time and calling loses interest
How we find your distributors in Central Asia
Your future distributor is already in business. The company carries somebody else's product in your category, has a warehouse, sales reps and customers who pay it. It has never heard of you, and you do not yet know which company it is. We close both gaps with two channels that run at the same time: we build a presence through which they find and check you, and we approach the companies on the list ourselves.
The two channels we work in
Site, social accounts, listings, structured data, ads from month two: the buyer checks the name and finds the answers.
from month one
We call and write in your name, in Russian, and meet in person where a meeting moves the deal.
from month two, down the list we build in month one
Each channel works on its own, but with losses. Calling without presence loses the interest at the moment the person on the other end goes to check an unfamiliar name in search and finds nothing. Presence without calling loses time: a buyer writes when the need arises, and that can be months away. Together they cover each other's weak spot: after the call the buyer has something to find, and some companies from the list come to you on their own.
The list is shorter than it looks
A new project starts with the profile of the partner you need: warehouse, volumes, sales channels, related brands in the portfolio. Then we collect the country's companies against that profile. The sources are open: exhibitor lists of the sector's trade shows, platform directories, 2GIS and map services, social accounts where companies write what they carry.
In our experience, the companies able to take on your category number in the dozens in a country, at times a hundred. A search for the word "distributor" turns up thousands, but most of them carry something else, work in a different channel or cannot handle your volume. The real list is finite, and we read it to the end.
How many companies stay on the list
- Thousandsturn up in a search for the word "distributor" in directories and on maps
- A hundrednow and then, in a wide category with several sales channels
- Dozensas a rule: they carry your category, work in the right channel, can handle your volume. Those are the ones we talk to
Orders of magnitude from our own projects, there are no industry statistics for this. Bar widths are indicative
With dozens of addressees, one email to all of them makes no sense. We prepare each conversation for the company in question: what it carries today, who it buys from, which channel it sells in. The list is closed by the end of the first month, alongside the build of the presence.
Calls and meetings in your name
A manager from our team in Almaty calls and writes, in Russian and in your company's name. The person on the line hears your brand, and from there they talk to someone who studied your product before the call: minimum order, production lead time, shipping terms, and what sets your product apart from what the buyer carries today. The conversation starts with their purchasing; they hear about your company after that.
Where a meeting moves the deal, we go and meet in person. The presentation is in Russian. In our practice, negotiations, specifications and contracts with distributors here run in Russian, and material in English gets set aside.
Whom we look for depends on what you sell. An inexpensive product bought again and again goes through a distributor. Equipment, production lines and turnkey plants go straight to the buyer: the buyers for that in a country number a handful or a few dozen, and we approach them with no distributor in between.
What they find when they check you
After the call, the person you spoke to does what you would do. They type the name into search.
The work of those who sell calling alone ends at this step. The call happened, interest appeared, the person went to check and found a site in English they will not open, no mentions in Russian and empty social accounts. In our experience the interest fades in silence, and a call report does not show it.
After the call, the buyer types your name into search. What they find there is decided a month before the call.
So the first month goes on making sure that emptiness is not there.
A regional site in Russian, built for search. It answers the buyer's first questions: where the product is made, minimum order, production and delivery times, shipping and customs, certificates, wholesale terms. Why a translation of your corporate site is not enough for this, we covered in the Journal.
Your accounts for the market, with your material and with what we shoot here: we hire the film crew and the actors on the spot.
The markup through which AI assistants find your company and name it when a buyer asks them about suppliers in your category.
From the second month, advertising comes on top: search ads on purchase queries, and targeted ads at the directors and purchasing staff of the companies in your sector. The campaigns are run by our partner agency, which holds official Google and Yandex partner status.
What it looks like month by month
What starts when
The partner profile and the list of companies. The site, the social accounts, the listings, the structured data, the shoot, the marketing plan. Nothing is visible from outside yet.
Calls and emails down the list in your name, the first meetings. The partner agency launches the ads. Inquiries from search are counted from this month on, and the first written report arrives on day fifteen.
Some companies from the list come in on their own, from the ads or from search, before their turn for a call comes. The conversation with them starts from their questions. With those who answered the call, meetings and negotiations are under way.
What changes when the channels run together
A page in English, or an empty results page.
A site in Russian with prices, lead times, certificates and customer reviews.
Only the agency itself, down the list, company by company.
Some companies do, from the ads and from search, in the second or third month.
The number of calls and replies.
Inquiries, meetings and the status of each negotiation, in writing every 15 days.
Observation from our own projects; there are no industry statistics for this
What you get in hand
Every inquiry goes through a call from our manager. They find out what the company is, what it buys today and from whom, its volumes and what it came with. Random and unsuitable requests do not reach you.
You receive the company name, the person's name and role, what they buy now, their volumes and their question. From there your representative leads the negotiation. We stay alongside: we provide an English to Russian interpreter for the talks whenever you need one, and we keep the correspondence going between meetings.
Every 15 days you get a written report with figures: inquiries, screened requests, meetings held, the status of each negotiation. Any report outside that schedule we send on request, and you can see the table of all negotiations on any day.
What goes through partners
Some questions at the entrance to the market are closed by lawyers and certification firms. Legal questions go through partner law firms; the certification body we pick for your product when it comes to certification.
An EAC certificate or declaration obtained for Kazakhstan is valid in all five countries of the Eurasian Economic Union: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Belarus and Armenia. Uzbekistan is not a member, it holds observer status, and it needs its own conformity assessment; the same goes for Azerbaijan and Tajikistan. Only a company inside the union can be the applicant for an EAC document. If the distributor became the applicant, the certificate belongs to the distributor, and a change of partner means a new document; an authorised representative inside the union can hold it in your name. We raise this question at the start.
If it comes to a legal entity in Kazakhstan, bookkeeping and contracts, that is work for specialised firms. We do not take it on ourselves and do not put it on the invoice.
A dispute under the contract can be taken to the Court of the Astana International Financial Centre: its jurisdiction covers "any disputes transferred to the Court by agreement of the parties", so companies with no connection to the centre itself can choose it too. The court's procedural rules, by its own description, are modelled on the principles and procedures of English common law, and the judges come from common law countries. The jurisdiction clause goes into the contract with the distributor before signing, and the lawyer we introduce you to writes it.
What it costs
We work for a fixed monthly fee and take no commission on your sales.
What the invoice for the first three months is made of
- Month one, building the presence$5,000
- Month two$10,000
- Month three$10,000
- Ad budget for two months, paid to the platformsfrom $2,000
Our published terms. From the second month the fee starts at $10,000 and depends on the number of countries and the volume of work. The ad budget, from $1,000 a month, goes to Google and the social platforms for the impressions and is not part of the fee
For the first month you pay $5,000, and it covers everything listed above: the site, the social accounts, the shoot, the listings, the structured data, the marketing plan and the first list of companies. Nothing is visible from outside during that month, so it costs half the rate. From the second month, $10,000 and up, and the calls, the ads and the handling of inquiries run every day. The ad budget is counted on its own, from $1,000 a month, and goes to the platforms for the impressions.
Exclusivity is your call: we look for one partner per country or build several in parallel.
What we do not do
We do not promise a signed contract in the first month. A distribution agreement here takes longer to sign.
We do not hand over contact lists: we have no database for sale, the list is built for your sector, and only companies one of us has spoken to go into the report.
We do not buy your product or hold it in stock. Warehouse, credit terms and shelf you discuss with the distributor yourselves.
How many companies on the list will reply and how many calls will lead to a meeting, I cannot say in advance: the spread between sectors is wide, and we count those figures on your project. They appear in the 15-day report from the first week of calls.
This is how we at Artifact look for distributors for foreign manufacturers in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. If you make a product and need a partner here, write to us.
Galina Sorokina