Most partnership failures are not commercial. They are a slow drift: the agreement is signed, the price list arrives, and then nothing happens for four months because nobody defined what “started” means. This is the plan we run with new partners, and it is short on purpose.
Week 1 — the boring essentials
- Price band and model list confirmed in writing for your territory.
- One named technical contact on each side, with direct contact details. Not a general inbox.
- Sizing worksheet installed on your engineer’s laptop and tested on a real past project.
- Your logo, address and service number supplied for nameplate and documentation.
None of this is exciting and all of it blocks progress if skipped. The sizing worksheet in particular: a partner who cannot size a unit independently will forward every enquiry and lose the ones that need a same-day answer.
Day 30 — one live enquiry sized end to end
The single best predictor of a partner’s first year is whether they have put one real enquiry through the full cycle by day thirty: data captured, unit sized, offer issued, drawing discussed with the customer’s consultant. It does not have to be won. It has to have happened, because that is when the partner discovers which of their customers actually has a vapour source and a budget.
Day 60 — training completed, spares on the shelf
Two people trained, three days, on an assembled skid. Filter elements and one vacuum pump service kit in local stock. This is also the point to decide whether a demonstration unit is worth carrying — for partners selling to consultants, it usually is; for partners selling to contractors, usually not.
Day 90 — first order, and a territory review
By day ninety we look at the pipeline together and decide whether the level of protection should move up or down. Partners who have gone quiet usually know why, and it is better to hear it at day ninety than to discover it at month nine.
Five customer types worth approaching first
| Customer type | Why they buy early | Entry product |
|---|---|---|
| Station builders and contractors | They are already on site and can add scope to an existing job | Composite piping, sumps |
| Independent depot operators | Product loss is visible on their own monthly numbers | Small VRU skid |
| Fuel distribution companies | They own both the terminal and the stations it feeds | Terminal skid plus service contract |
| Engineering consultants | They specify, and a good drawing pack makes them specify you | Engineering support, then project |
| Industrial plants with solvent handling | Vapour loss is a cost and an odour complaint at once | VOCs membrane separation |
What we will not do in the first 90 days
We will not sign an exclusive territory before a unit is delivered, we will not quote your customers behind your back while you are working the project, and we will not pretend a first order will arrive without someone knocking on doors. The product sells on measured performance and on the arithmetic of recovered product — both of which require a site visit by a person, in your market, speaking your customer’s language.
That person is the reason we work through partners rather than direct.
Start the 90-day onboarding
Tell us the country, the product line and the customer type you already sell to. We reply with the territory map, the price band and the support package that applies — usually within one working day.
Phone / WeChat: +86 135 2699 0215 | WhatsApp: +86 185 3794 6079 | Email: lixiang@vohon.cn
