Glen Balzer is a Management and Forensic Expert Witness involved with
Domestic and International Marketing and Sales. He advises parties involved with contracts between manufacturers' representatives, suppliers, global customers and industrial distributors. Currently at
New Era Consulting, he promotes conflict resolution between parties involved in representative agreements and distribution agreements. During the past 30 years, he has been involved in establishing and managing marketing and sales organizations throughout America, Europe and Asia.
From 1994 to 1998, he served as Vice President, North American Sales and Marketing at Philips Semiconductors. At Philips, he managed a team of 420 people generating $870 million in revenue annually. While at Philips, he negotiated all representative agreements with 21 manufacturers’ representatives in Canada, America, and Mexico, annually.
Mr. Balzer is available to testify at trial, arbitration and deposition as an expert witness in cases between global suppliers, manufacturers’ representatives and industrial distributors, on behalf of attorneys both plaintiff and defense.
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Equality between distributor and supplier is the hallmark of a sound distribution agreement.
Relationships between manufacturers' representatives and their suppliers are rarely static. Those relationships proceed through a life cycle.
Relationships between distributors and suppliers range from highly tactical to extremely strategic. A wise distributor constantly attempts to calibrate the relationship with each supplier and makes adjustments to the energy it applies to each relationship.
When distributors and suppliers are courting one another, several priorities emerge: greater sales, better profit margins, enhanced market share, expanded geographic coverage, and more. The often tedious and boring details of a distribution agreement capture the attention of neither distributor nor supplier.
Throughout history, a manufacturer was a self-contained entity. A company would design, develop, manufacture, and market a product in a single facility.
Leaders in companies operating only in the American market or in a limited number of global markets understandably worry about entering a new foreign market. Risks are many. The opportunity for problems is enormous.
Suppliers and manufacturers' representatives often seek to gain advantage over their partners by incorporating a bias into the representative agreement favoring the author, placing the other party at a disadvantage. This technique rarely enjoys the benefits intended.
Economic uncertainty in America and around the world has heightened awareness that there is risk associated with expanding into foreign markets. A supplier thinking about launching a sales and marketing presence in the global marketplace must exercise caution. How can a supplier wishing to generate sales from beyond its home market proceed while simultaneously minimizing its risks and maintaining control over costs?
Many factors go into the creation of a great distributor agreement. Mistakes in a distributor agreement are almost invisible during the courtship between a distributor and a manufacturer. Unfortunately, those same mistakes grow into glaring errors at the end of a distribution partnership.
