Distributor sales vs direct: what actually changes for the rep
Selling through a distributor isn't selling with an extra step. It's a completely different motion, and most CRMs don't model it correctly.
If you've only sold direct, distributor sales feels strange. Your "customer" isn't the end user. Your "pipeline" is influence, not orders. Your forecast depends on someone else's salesforce doing their job.
The two-layer account
In distributor sales, every account is really two accounts: the distributor who carries your product and the end user who buys it. The rep has to work both. Ignore either layer and you'll be surprised on renewal.
Most CRMs collapse this into one record. That's why distributor reps end up keeping side spreadsheets — the tool doesn't model their world.
What the rep actually does
Direct rep: finds buyers, moves them through a funnel, closes.
Distributor rep: trains the distributor sales team, rides along with them, keeps end users aware of your product so they pull it through the channel. You're a teacher, a co-seller, and a brand ambassador. Often all in the same week.
The right CRM behavior
An account record should hold the distributor relationship, the linked end users, and the joint activity across both. A visit note should be taggable to either or both. Pipeline should distinguish "pipeline I own" from "pipeline the distributor owns that I'm influencing."
When these are blurred, leadership can't tell whether a weak quarter was a rep problem or a distributor problem. And those are wildly different fixes.