How we work
The model, the phases, the people, and what happens if you decide to stop. Everything we cover in a first call, written down.
180+ experts 40+ countries
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Senior food and beverage operators on the ground in your target market. Fee based, execution forward.
GourmetPro matches your brief to senior food and beverage operators who have run businesses in the market you are targeting. You work directly with the named expert. GourmetPro runs the engagement around them: scoping, quality, continuity, and a single point of accountability. The work is execution: opening doors to distributors, retail buyers, and co-manufacturers, then staying through negotiation and follow-through. Not handing over a report and leaving.
One boundary worth naming: GM Immersion, our executive coaching program, is a separate offer with its own format and entry point. This page describes the advisory engagement model.
Six stations, from first conversation to in-market execution. This is what you are actually signing up for.
What does entering this market involve?
Bring the market and the outcome you want; that is enough. No preparation is demanded, and a question as open as what entering your target market would involve is a fine starting point.
What exactly would we be buying?
You get itemized deliverables, named target accounts where relevant, and a timeline anchored to your own deadline, whether that is a tradeshow, a launch window, or a season. Never a bare price against a vague scope.
Do we incur costs if we decide not to continue?
The framework agreement sets terms, confidentiality, and ownership before any work begins, and signing the framework agreement triggers no fees. Fees start only when you commission a scoped phase of work.
Who would we actually work with?
Within days of agreeing terms, you receive named profiles with full credentials and the rationale for each match. You speak with the expert directly before anything is commissioned.
How do we commit without betting the whole budget?
A 4 to 6 week roadmap with fixed deliverables: the channel map, the target list, the localization and compliance read. It ends in a go or no-go decision that you own.
What happens after the roadmap?
The expert works the plan: opening doors, sitting in the meetings, driving negotiations, and following through. Continuity is part of the engagement, so the work does not end when the roadmap does.
Every expert in the network is a senior operator with real P&L or channel history in the market they cover: people who have run the category, sold to the buyers, and negotiated with the distributors you are trying to reach. We select for operating history, not advisory polish, and we turn down generalists.
Matching is category-sensitive. A premium single-origin brand and a mainstream grocery brand in the same category need different rooms opened, and the same is true across every category we staff. We match on category depth in the target market, not on availability.
You see the reasoning, not just the profile. For every proposed expert we share full credentials, relevant past projects, and the specific rationale for the match, so whoever is defending this internally has the evidence in hand.
Before your first call with the expert, we brief both sides: the expert on your product, channels, and constraints; you on the expert's background and how to use the session. First conversations start at working depth.
Four shapes cover nearly every engagement. Each one starts the same way: a scoped Phase 1 you can judge on its own.
Phase 1 engagements typically start between USD 5,000 and 10,000, depending on market and scope.
Ongoing in-market retainers typically run between USD 2,500 and 10,000 per expert per month, scaling with the expert's seniority and days per month.
Milestone-weighted searches typically start from USD 10,000, staged across the search.
Fees carry a success-weighted component at signing; totals depend on scope and are quoted per engagement.
Compliance reviews are fixed-fee per SKU, typically between USD 450 and 950 depending on the market and the depth of the review.
Tradeshow packages are priced per event, with group pricing for delegations.
We are asked in most first conversations whether this can run on commission or success fees alone. It cannot. We do not offer pure commission or success-fee-only structures: the expert's time and network are the product, and they are paid for the work whether or not a given buyer says yes. Milestone-weighted structures are the hybrid we do offer, with real weight on results and a fee that keeps a senior operator working your market properly.
You should never have to wonder whether the work is happening. Every engagement is built to be inspected.
Each phase has deliverables agreed in the proposal. You measure progress against a list you approved, not against reassurance.
Where the work is outreach, you see the target list with named accounts and named contacts, and what happened with each one.
Regular reporting covers who was contacted, what came back, and what happens next. You never have to ask whether the work is happening.
An engagement owner at GourmetPro works alongside your expert. Continuity and quality are GourmetPro's responsibility, not one individual's.
No. You can sign the framework agreement and meet the expert without incurring any fees; costs begin only when you commission a scoped Phase 1. If you decide not to continue at any point before that, you owe nothing. Station 3 of the engagement path above covers this in full. See the engagement path.
Within days of agreeing terms you receive named expert profiles with full credentials and the rationale for each match. You meet the expert, align on the Phase 1 scope, and work begins on the roadmap. See the engagement path.
Neither. We do not buy or resell your product, and we do not take a margin on it. GourmetPro is an advisory firm: a senior in-market operator works on your side of the table, and GourmetPro runs the engagement around them. See the model.
No. We do not offer pure commission or success-fee-only structures, because the expert's time and network are the product. Milestone-weighted structures are the hybrid we offer, with staged fees tied to defined milestones. See engagement shapes.
Within days of agreeing terms. You receive named profiles with credentials and match rationale, and you speak with the expert directly before committing to any scoped work. See vetting and matching.
You are never locked into a person. Tell your GourmetPro engagement owner and we propose an alternative match, with the same transparency on credentials and rationale. Because nothing is owed until a scoped phase is commissioned, saying no to a proposed expert costs nothing. See accountability and reporting.
You do. Roadmaps, target lists, channel maps, and the introductions made in your engagement belong to you, and the framework agreement records that before any work begins. See the engagement path.
Directly. We do not staff one expert across competing briefs, and category conflicts are checked before a match is proposed. Confidentiality terms sit in the framework agreement, and match rationale is shared openly so you can see exactly who would be working with you. See vetting and matching.
Our model fits companies with a defined market objective and the budget for senior in-market work: established brands, manufacturers, and ingredient companies most often. If your budget will not support a scoped Phase 1, the honest answer is to wait rather than to stretch. The first conversation costs nothing, and we will tell you plainly whether this is the right time. See engagement shapes.
No. GM Immersion is an executive coaching program with its own audience, format, and entry point, built for leaders developing in a market rather than for a market-entry brief. This page describes the advisory engagement model: a named in-market expert working your brief through a scoped Phase 1 and execution.
The first conversation and the agreement itself cost nothing. Fees start only when you commission a scoped Phase 1.
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