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Inside Channel Intelligence

Distributor Qualification

Before you sign them: what a prospective distributor actually publishes, what they run it on, and which brands they already carry.

Scope
One domain, per unit
Crawl time
Roughly ten minutes
Timeline
2–3 business days
Deliverable
Go/no-go report

The problem

What this is for

A prospective distributor is evaluated on the meeting, the territory, the references and the forecast. The one thing nobody checks is the thing every customer will see first: what they publish. Whether their catalog has four hundred products or forty thousand. Whether it carries part numbers at all. Whether they could take a product feed or co-branded imagery from you if you sent one. Whether they already list three of your competitors in the categories you are about to hand them.

What you are buying

A single-domain crawl and report on a prospective distributor, run on demand. Catalog depth and product range, platform and technical maturity, whether the site could carry a product data feed or co-branded imagery, competitive brand presence, and digital readiness signals — ending in a go/no-go recommendation and a list of integration requirements if you proceed.

The process

How a qualification runs

One domain, four questions, a recommendation. It is short by design — this sits inside a decision you are already making, not alongside a project.

  1. One domain, on demand

    You send a domain when a prospect reaches the stage where it matters. No scoping call, no minimum, no waiting for a monitoring cycle. Roughly ten minutes of crawl time, and a report inside two to three business days.

    You getA single-domain crawl, started the day you ask

    Pipeline

    1. Domain submitted
    2. Crawled~10 minutes
    3. Report in 2–3 days

  2. We measure the catalog they actually publish

    Depth, range, and how much structure is in it: are there part numbers, brands, categories and prices on the page, or is it a PDF and a phone number? Range tells you what territory they really cover; structure tells you what any future data relationship would have to work with.

    You getCatalog depth, product range and data structure

    Catalog

    Products published
    8,400
    Categories covered
    22
    Part numbers on page
    94%
    Prices published
    12%

  3. We check whether they could carry your data at all

    Platform, technical maturity, and whether the site could accept a product data feed or co-branded imagery. This is the question that decides whether the partnership is a catalog listing or a shrug, and it is answerable before the contract rather than six months into it.

    You getIntegration requirements, or the reason there are none

    Technical readiness

    Platform
    Shopify
    Product feed capable
    Yes
    Co-branded imagery supported
    Yes
    Structured attributes
    Partial

  4. We check whose brands are already on the shelf

    Which competitor brands they list, in which of your categories, and how deep. A prospect already carrying two rivals in your core category is not disqualified — but it is a different negotiation, and you should be having it knowingly.

    You getCompetitive brand presence, by category

    Rival presence in your categories

    • SuspensionTwo rivals
    • Brakes38%
    • HangersOpen

  5. You get a go, a no-go, and the reasons

    A recommendation with the evidence under it, plus the integration requirements if you proceed. It does not replace commercial judgement about the territory or the people — it removes the part of the decision that was being taken on faith when it could have been checked.

    You getA qualification report with a go/no-go recommendation

    Recommendation

    Digital readiness
    Strong
    Category fit
    Partial overlap
    Integration effort
    Low
    Recommendation
    Proceed, with terms

Also inside Channel Intelligence

Channel Census

The pilot. It answers a question you cannot answer today, and de-risks everything after it.

How it works

Displacement Mapping

The flagship. Competitor brands per distributor, per category, with evidence.

How it works

Whitespace Mapping

The inverse of displacement, and usually the easier sales conversation.

How it works

Change Monitoring

The retainer. A census is a project; change detection is a standing reason to be in the account.

How it works

Next step

Start with the census.

Thirty minutes, no preparation needed. Tell us how many distributors you sell through and which categories you are contesting, and we'll tell you what a crawl of your channel would actually cover — including when the answer is not enough to be worth it.

Free · 30 minutes · no obligation