Practical thinking on distributor selection, agreements, and follow-up, from the field, not from theory.
Distributor relationships rarely fail overnight. The early signs are absences, not events. What to watch before the numbers drop, and where decline starts.
Read more →Most distributors will not tell you what they need from you. Five things they expect from their principal, and why it so rarely gets said.
Read more →Seven distributors can already be too many to manage. Here's how to measure which ones cost more effort than they return, and what to do about the rest.
Read more →Distributors who sell on outdated materials lose deals and look like they're underperforming. How to communicate product changes so updates actually reach them.
Read more →Revenue against target can't tell you why a distributor is underperforming. Here is how to measure distributor performance on both sides, and what to ignore.
Read more →Distributor underperformance rarely comes from low effort. It usually comes from two structural gaps: one on the distributor side, one on the principal side.
Read more →Many manufacturers back into finding distributors through trial and error. Four real channels, and why finding a candidate is the easy part of the process.
Read more →Four signals that separate a distributor in a slow patch from one who's quietly given up, and why pleasant calls alone will never tell you which is which.
Read more →Ten questions to ask a potential distributor in the first meeting, grouped by what each answer actually reveals, plus the one reply that should make you pause.
Read more →Four practical moves (segmentation, cadence, one shared view, and an early-warning check) for running 10 distributor relationships without a channel manager.
Read more →The three quiet warning signs that show up before a distributor relationship goes silent for good, and what to do once you spot the pattern.
Read more →The one question that reveals whether a prospective distributor actually understands your market, and four concrete things to check before you sign.
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