Insights — Channel Creation & New Revenue Streams — 3 min read
Should You Sell Direct or Through Distributors?
The right route to market depends on who needs to be convinced to buy, and how much feedback you need from them directly.
In short
Sell direct when the product needs active advocacy or explanation to convert, when you need fast and accurate feedback from end customers, or when the margin a distributor would take undermines the channel's economics. Sell through distributors or partners when reach, local relationships, logistics or credibility would otherwise take years to build, and the product is well enough understood that a partner can represent it properly without constant hand-holding.
The direct-versus-distributor question comes up whenever a business is building a new route to revenue, and it's often answered on instinct — 'we've always sold direct' or 'everyone in our sector uses distributors' — rather than on the specifics of the channel being built.
Both routes work well in the right circumstances, and both quietly underperform when used for the wrong reason.
Start with how the sale actually happens
The most useful question isn't 'what does our industry usually do' — it's 'what does a customer actually need to happen before they buy this'. If the answer involves specification, technical explanation, negotiation or a trusted relationship, a route that puts distance between you and the buyer is working against the sale. If the answer is closer to 'it's available, it's priced right, it's in front of them at the right moment', a distributor's existing reach does most of the work for you.
| Factor | Favours direct | Favours distributor/partner |
|---|---|---|
| Sales complexity | High — needs explanation or advocacy | Low — product is well understood, sells on availability and price |
| Need for customer feedback | High — product or market still evolving | Low — proposition is mature and stable |
| Geographic/segment reach needed | Limited, or achievable with existing resource | Wide, fast, beyond current resource |
| Margin sensitivity | High — distributor margin would undermine economics | Lower — margin is affordable at the volumes a partner brings |
| Existing relationships in the market | Few — direct effort is needed to build them | Partner already has them |
The hybrid answer most businesses actually land on
Few channels are purely one or the other in practice. A common pattern is direct sales to the largest or most strategic accounts, where the relationship and feedback matter most, combined with distribution or partners for the long tail of smaller accounts and territories that aren't worth a direct sales effort. This needs clear rules about which accounts belong to which route, agreed up front, to avoid conflict later.
Why this decision should follow validation, not precede it
Deciding the route to market before testing whether the channel has real demand at all tends to lock in an expensive structure before it's earned. It's usually better to validate demand in whatever route is fastest and cheapest to test, then make a deliberate decision about the long-term route once the channel's basic economics are understood.
The Channel Creation Programme works through this decision as part of building a new channel properly — including, where distribution is the right answer, a structured search for the right partners rather than the first one that responds. From £1,995 + VAT/month over six months.
Could your business support another route to revenue?
Evans Channel Creation identifies, validates and builds additional revenue channels from capabilities a business already has — B2B to D2C, D2C to B2B, product to service, recurring revenue or partners — and says so plainly when a channel should not be built. Programme from £1,995 + VAT per month over six months.
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