Sell fifty units a month through one distributor for a year, and you can end up with six hundred orders on the books and not one buyer's name.
That feels like a business. It is a lease.
The distributor holds the list. You hold the stock and the risk. The day they take on a cheaper brand, your sales stop, and nothing you did caused it. You start again from zero, in a market you have already sold six hundred units into.
Your sales figure hides this. It can rise every month while your position stays exactly where it was.
A second number tells the truth: how many of last month's buyers could you contact tomorrow, without asking anyone's permission?
The fix is not to cut the channel. It does a real job. The fix is to build your own way back to the buyer alongside it: a warranty card in every box, a spare parts list, a reason to register with you directly. Each one is a buyer handing you their name.
Then write the two numbers side by side every month. Units sold tells you how busy you were. Buyers you can reach tells you how much of the market is yours.
Busy is rented. Reachable is owned.
What is your second number? Reply with it, one line is enough.
Nazem
P.S. Chapter 3 of my book, Do not be fast to sell, starts exactly here: the cheapest names you will ever find are the ones you already have, and how to turn them into a pipeline. See the Complete Edition.
