A structure for satellite companies in overseas

Our company is looking to expand its presence in overseas market. Here are some of the facts that we have:

1. Selling a proven product in local market in overseas market.
2. Since the requirements might vary for local and overseas market, one can foresee that there are a lot of customization and further product development that needs to be done.
3. We are thinking about sending our sales staffs to overseas market and let them establish a satellite company over there. The satellite company is just a sales office, which responsible for its own profit and loss. All other activities, like requirement gathering, software development and after sales support will be handled locally.
4. We are selling desktop apps, enterprise kind of sales with salesman knocking from door to door to ask a demo chance. The cost of customer acquisition is very high compared to online sale.
5. We are based in Thailand, and we are planning to expand to other south east Asia countries like Malaysia, Singapore etc.

Now, our the arrangement between the HQ company and the satellite office should be structured, so the benefits of both parties can be maximized?

Likely this is a question outside the startup community, since the costs associated with greenfield ventures or cross-border acquisitions are too dear without significant cash flow / resources.

It also is difficult to advise which approach would be preferable with limited data.. Depending on the market / offering, some techniques used locally may not be immediately transferable or successful in another culture.

One way to approach a overseas market might be to find a partner in the geography who is in the similar business line and can benefit from expanding their business by selling your apps. For example if you are selling anti-virus software, you might look for Computer resellers who can offer your product as a logical expansion to their offerings.

I would strongly suggest you to test the waters this way to learn the market and then proceed on to have your setup.