Service
Commercial representation
A single counterpart working in Spain on your behalf. Finds the buyer, runs the negotiation, and stays there once the order is placed.
01 / Definition
What exactly is a commercial representative in Spain?
A resident person who represents the manufacturer in the Spanish market, finds buyers, runs the negotiations and follows the sale through. The manufacturer keeps ownership of the goods, holds no stock and is not required to incorporate in Spain. The representative does not buy and resell on its own account. It works in the manufacturer's name for commission on sales, with a monthly retainer where terms call for one. The manufacturer signs the contract with the buyer, and the representative takes no authority to sign. In Spain this relationship is governed by Law 12/1992 on Agency Contracts.
What representation covers
- Building a named target buyer list in Spain: distributors, purchasing groups, chains, project contractors
- First contact in Spanish, telephone follow-up and setting up meetings
- Recasting your offer into the format a Spanish buyer reads: price, delivery, payment, warranty
- Bringing the buyer to your factory and you to Spain, and working the stand at trade fairs
- Relaying sample, certificate and labelling requests in line with local expectations
- Running communication between the parties on complaints, delays and payment after the order
- One written report a month: who was called, who said what, what they are waiting for
Work run with specialist partners
- Incorporation in Spain, tax number and accounting, with legal and tax partners
- Contract drafting and legal opinion, with a Spanish commercial lawyer
- Customs clearance and freight, with your own logistics provider or a local partner
- Certification and testing, with accredited bodies
- In every case coordination stays in one pair of hands and you deal with one counterpart
02 / Process
Six steps, in order
- 01
Product and price reality check
Which price band your product falls into in Spain, what the local competitor is quoting, and whether you remain competitive once freight and local costs are in. If the answer is no, the process stops here and you are told so in writing.
- 02
Target list
A named list of 40 to 80 companies depending on the sector: decision maker, telephone, region, current supplier. The list is yours and stays with you even if the engagement ends.
- 03
First contact and screening
Telephone and email in Spanish. The aim is not to sell but to screen: who is a real buyer and who is a waste of time. This is the work of the first 90 days.
- 04
Offer and sample round
The offer is recast into local format, sample and document requests are gathered, and technical questions reach the factory in a form it can act on.
- 05
Face to face
Buyer visits, an invitation to the factory, meetings at the fair stand. In Spain a first order almost never closes on a screen.
- 06
After the order
Delays, damage, returns, payment. Communication between the parties is handled here. Debt collection and guaranteeing payment are outside the scope of this service. For a Spanish buyer, someone picking up the phone is the real reason a second order follows.
03 / Decision
Commercial agent, distributor, or your own company in Spain?
| Criterion | Commercial agent | Distributor | Your own company in Spain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner of the goods | You | The distributor | You |
| Who sets the price | You | The distributor | You |
| Whose customer it is | Yours | The distributor's | Yours |
| Set-up cost | Low | Low | High |
| Fixed monthly cost | Yes, limited and known in advance | None, but you hand over the margin | High and permanent |
| Visibility of the market | High, you receive a monthly report | Low, the channel is closed to you | Complete |
| Opening up the EU | Moving into a neighbouring market is your call | Depends on the distributor's strategy | Your call |
| When it is the right choice | When you do not yet know the market and want to keep the customer | When volume is small and you accept handing over the channel | When turnover and stock require a resident structure |
The three are not alternatives so much as stages. Most manufacturers start with an agent and move to a local structure once volume settles. When the time comes to move into the third column, we set that up with you.
04 / Fees
Three engagement models
Low retainer, high commission
The monthly retainer is deliberately kept low and the weight of the earnings sits in commission on sales actually made. For a manufacturer opening the market from zero this is the only realistic model, because the first months carry work but no sales. It also splits the risk across both sides.
Commission only
No retainer, only a share of sales actually made. This works where the product is already known in Spain and demand is in place. The rate is written into the contract. No published agency commission table exists in Spain, and the reason is in the FAQ.
Market scan
A four to six week report before representation begins. You decide whether to proceed on the strength of it, and if you do, the fee is set against the retainer for the first period.
Fees are set in a written proposal once the scope has been discussed. The approach is settled: low retainer, commission weighted. No rate band is published here because Spanish professional colleges are barred from publishing fee scales or recommended rates by Article 14 of Ley 2/1974, as amended by Ley 25/2009. The model agency contract issued by ICEX leaves the percentage blank as well.
05 / Method
Why sending emails does not open Spain
Most Turkish manufacturers have already tried Spain, and usually by the same route: find a distributor list, write an English introduction email, attach a catalogue, wait. The replies came in at close to zero, and the experience got read as "Spain is closed to us". What was closed was that channel, not the market.
How it looks from the other side
- Dozens of similar offers land in the purchasing manager's inbox every week, most of them opening with the same sentences
- On a first offer from an unfamiliar country the question is continuity, not product: will the delivery hold, will there be a second order, who do I call when something goes wrong
- In Spanish business culture the relationship is built before the correspondence, the reverse of the northern European order
- Silence in Spain does not mean refusal, it means you have been put in the queue
What makes the difference
- First contact made in Spanish and by telephone
- The same name on the line at the fourth call
- A local address and a number that can be dialled
- Sample and document requests met within days
- The same person answering the phone once the order has shipped
This section is field observation, not statistics. If your own attempt produced results, you may not need a representative, and saying so in the first conversation is part of this work.
Let us talk about where to start in Spain
Tell us your product group and which countries you sell to today. We will work out together which channel sells it in Spain, who does the buying and which documents get asked for.