What It Is
An indirect sales channel is when you sell your product through partners instead of doing it all yourself. These partners, like resellers, agencies, or system integrators, manage the customer relationship and own the sales process on your behalf. Companies often build their channel partner strategy around an indirect model to scale faster, reach new markets, and reduce customer acquisition costs without increasing headcount.
When to Use Indirect Sales Channel
Build indirect sales channels when you need to scale market coverage faster than hiring internal sales teams allows, when entering geographies where local partners have established presence and credibility, or when your product requires implementation expertise that partners provide better than you can. Indirect channels work best after proving product-market fit through direct sales and establishing repeatable sales processes that partners can execute. Use indirect channels when serving mid-market or SMB segments where deal sizes don't justify dedicated direct sales resources, when customers prefer buying from trusted local vendors, or when channel economics support profitable partner margins.
How It Works
Indirect sales channels rely on partner programs that recruit, enable, and support channel partners. Companies provide partners with sales training, product documentation, demo environments, and marketing materials. Partners receive territories, vertical focus areas, or customer segments to prevent channel conflict. Revenue flows through various models: partners purchase at wholesale prices and resell with markup, earn commissions on sales they facilitate, or receive referral fees for qualified leads. Successful indirect channels include deal registration systems to track partner-sourced opportunities, partner tiers based on performance, marketing development funds for partner campaigns, and partner relationship management platforms to coordinate activities.
Benefits for Partner Programs
Indirect sales channels accelerate revenue growth by leveraging partner sales capacity, customer relationships, and market knowledge. They reduce customer acquisition costs by distributing sales expenses across partners rather than bearing full internal sales team overhead. Indirect channels provide instant market presence in new geographies without opening offices or hiring local teams. In B2B partner marketplaces, companies with established indirect channels attract more partners because program maturity signals opportunity and support. Indirect sales enable companies to serve broader customer segments simultaneously while maintaining focus on strategic accounts through direct sales. For many B2B companies, indirect channels contribute 60-80% of revenue while requiring less infrastructure than equivalent direct capacity.
Indirect Sales Channel vs Direct Sales Channel
Indirect sales channels use partners to sell your product with partners owning customer relationships. Direct sales channels use internal teams to sell directly to customers with you owning relationships. Indirect channels scale through partner networks without proportional headcount growth. Direct channels scale by hiring more sales reps. Indirect sales requires building partner programs and managing partner relationships. Direct sales requires recruiting, training, and managing sales teams. Indirect channels offer less control over customer experience but faster market coverage. Direct channels offer complete control but limited scalability. Most B2B companies use hybrid models: direct sales for strategic accounts, indirect sales through channel partners for broader market reach. Partner marketplaces help companies recruit channel partners to build indirect sales capacity.
