How to Find the Right International Partners (1)
The practical business of finding highly productive agents/distributors and joint ventures in the foreign market for many still remains an enigma.(2) Often, US companies are relying on luck instead of strategy in identifying their international reprentation.梦见房屋漏雨
Many companies get into exporting almost by happenstance: Most export sales are simply a spin-off from domestic contracts.（3）Similarly, most agent and distributor relationships are born from random inquiries or chance meetings at trade shows. When asked how they obtained their international reprentation, many companies have no recollection whatsoever of how or why the relationship began. Strange as it may em, the same is true of joint venture relationships.
With the growing u of the internet, one could be fooled into thinking the odds of success in finding that elusive, top-performing trade partner will be incread. The key is to remember at all times that promotional materials are not stand-alone, clean “information.”(4) The internet can be ud to provide indicators of activity and reach; howev
er, the benefits in no way eliminate the more conventional, strategic wisdom that highly successful international sales organizations, in one way or another, employ.(5)
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Surprisingly, this hit-and-miss (6) approach to international expansion is not exclusive to small-and medium-sized companies. Many well-recognized large companies spin the same wheel of chance (7). Experienced international executives and substantial budgets for foreign expansion will contribute to success, given the right opportunities. The problem is that the “right opportunities” are rarely “given.” However, you may find your “right opportunities” by focusing on your international objectives and by defining your ideal international partners.
If you consider export sales to be nothing more than “icing on the cake，’’ (8) then that禅的图片’s all they will ever be. Treat international business relationships with the same degree of attention and care as you do your domestic ones. Avoid a soft, non-pragmatic approach (9) to foreign trade partners. Low expectations born of previous poor performance by agents and distributors have led many companies to ttle for figures that in no way refle
ct a meaningful market share. (10) Don’t accept underperformance and mediocrity from your international reprentatives.
Many companies partner with the first emingly viable company that express interest in reprenting them.(ll) Invariably, this is a mistake. When agents and distributors emerge from nowhere and stand alone without comparison, they will always appear to be “golden opportunities.” Avoid the pressure of hasty decisions by taking the time to identify and write down what you consider to be the esntial qualities of a top-performing trade partner.(12)
Explanatory notes on terminology
1. agent代理商
受当事人委托，代表他们或以其名义进行贸易活动（如销售等）的商家。
2. distributor 分销商
为生产厂家向零售商店提供商品或在厂家和零售商店之间充当中间人的个人或组织。
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3. joint venture 合资企业
双方或几方共同投资创办的企业。专科一批
翻译详解
(1) 标题中International Partners如翻译为“国际伙伴”，则意思不明确。因为“国际伙伴”可以是政治上的伙伴、军事上的伙伴等等。根据本篇所谈内容，这里的International Partners指的是“国际贸易伙伴”。另外，right—词在英语中意义多达十几种，如the right answer (正确的回答)，the right side of the dress (衣服的正面）等。此处right —词的意思是“合适的，中意的”。因此，可将标题翻译为：如何找到理想的国际贸易伙伴。
(2) 翻译本句时，难点有二。一是对productive—词的理解，根据美国传统辞典的释义，该词 有 producing or capable of producing; producing abundantly; fertile; yielding favorable or uful results; constructive 等意思。根据该词所处语境，应与 yielding favorable or uful results 的 意思最为接近。因此，highly productive agents/distributors
and joint ventures 可理解为：那些非常有合作前景的代理商、分销商以及合资伙伴。第二个难点是，如果按照原文的句子结构译成相应的汉语，则译文有违汉语习惯。比如把该句译为“对于许多公司来说，寻找到那些非常具有合作前景的代理商、分销商以及合资伙伴的具体做法仍然是个难题。”，就 很难让中国读者接受。因此，需打破原句结构，用地道、顺畅的汉语将原文的意思译出。 请看参考译文：对于如何在国外市场寻找具有良好合作前景的代理商、分销商或是合资伙 伴，许多公司心中无数。
(3) spin-off的意思是指延伸出来的东西，有时也可以理解为“副产品”，即by-product,同时，在 许多情况下它也有从某个整体分离出去的一部分的意思。例如spin-off可以指a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one； a disnting faction of a membership organization； a diversified branch of a large corporation 等等。根据上下文本句的意思是说， 许多美国公司主要做国内贸易，而出口业务仅占其业务量的很少一部分，对于出口业务， 他们仅仅是顺便做做而已。
(4) 本句中的promotional materials指“公司宣传材料”;stand-alone为形容词，通常的意思是“可独立运行的”，例如：We only run Windows on stand-alone PCs becau it’s too d
angerous to run it on networked ones.形容词clean在这里的意思是“纯的，不掺假的”。stand-alone和clean 均用来修饰“information”。整句话的意思是说，公司的宣传材料怎么可能是专门为你寻找 元宵节英语手抄报贸易伙伴而准备的纯信息呢？里面一定有许多以“宣传”为目的的虚假信息，这一点人们一定不要忘记。
运动会(5) 本句中indicators of activity and reach指公司活动以及如何与之取得联系的线索。However 一词后面的句子理解上容易出错，需把句子结构搞清楚才行。该句为复合句，主句中的主月亮像什么的比喻句 语是 benefits,谓语动词是 eliminate,宾语是 the more conventional, strategic wisdom,由 that 引导出的定语从句修饰主句中的宾语。conventional wisdom在英语中是个固定说法， Wikipedia Encyclopedia 对该短语的解释是：Conventional wisdom is a term ud to describe certain ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true by the public。因此，conventional, strategic wisdom指的是：人们长时期积累的智慧结晶以及战略思考。
(6) hit-and-miss或hit-or-miss为形容词，意思是“只靠运气而缺乏有计划、有安排的（做法）”， 常与 affair，business, approach, procedure 等词搭配，也可以作表语。例如：Try
ing something new can be a hit and miss business. / The same DNA profile is hit-and-miss.本句中的 this hit-and-miss approach to international expansion可翻译为：盲目出击开拓国际市场的做法。
