--- title: "Five Channel Truths to Understand Before You Try to Sell" description: "Channels include every participant that sells or delivers an offer; they can determine survival, reshape the product, create conflict, limit brand power, and must be managed as an efficiency system." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2023-10-19" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/five-channel-truths-before-you-sell/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/five-channel-truths-before-you-sell.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YsTHzyYDeIf3IMTclnfY2g" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%9C%89%E5%A5%96%E4%BA%92%E5%8A%A8%E4%B8%A8%E5%B0%8F%E9%A9%AC%E5%AE%8B-%E5%8D%96%E8%B4%A7%E5%89%8D-%E5%85%88%E6%90%9E%E6%B8%85%E6%A5%9A%E8%BF%995%E6%9D%A1%E6%B8%A0%E9%81%93%E7%9C%9F%E7%9B%B8-1d8f9059.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/five-channel-truths-before-you-sell/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Five Channel Truths to Understand Before You Try to Sell > Channels include every participant that sells or delivers an offer; they can determine survival, reshape the product, create conflict, limit brand power, and must be managed as an efficiency system. A product has no commercial meaning until someone can buy and receive it. Strategic marketing consultant Xiao Ma Song organized this reality into five truths about channels. The source article was adapted from his book *The Truth About Selling* and has been cleaned of its book-giveaway and event promotion. ## 1. A Channel Is Every Participant in Selling and Delivery A channel is not limited to a distributor or store. It includes every organization or person involved in bringing a product or service to the customer. For a hotel, travel apps and agencies are channels. For software, app stores, creators, and content ecosystems can be channels. For a beverage, channels include independent stores, convenience chains, supermarkets, fuel stations, restaurants, bars, vending, delivery platforms, marketplaces, and livestreams. Channel power is the ability to make the offer available wherever and whenever the consumer wants it. ## 2. Channel Capability Can Determine Survival Founders often think first about product and postpone route to market. A strong product without distribution may never generate enough learning or cash to survive. Chanel No. 5 illustrates the historical importance of access. Coco Chanel partnered with a perfume operator and the owner of a major department store; the channel partners received most of the perfume company's equity because they controlled production and market access. The exact structure is less important than the question it raises for every new business: where is the channel that can actually reach the target customer? ## 3. Channel Innovation Is Business-Model Innovation Channels change over time. Mobile-phone credit moved from physical recharge cards to e-commerce codes and then to instant payment inside Alipay and WeChat. When the transaction and delivery method changes, the product may need to change with it. Taobao helped create early online-native fashion and snack brands. Shopping centers supported new restaurant chains. Social content and Xiaohongshu enabled a new generation of beauty brands. Livestreaming later combined communication and transaction in one environment. Companies that redesign product, pack, price, service, and supply for a new channel can gain an early advantage. Companies that merely list the old product may miss the channel's real economics. ## 4. Channels Are Difficult to Control Product, price, and promotion are largely managed by the company. Channels are networks of internal and external participants with different incentives. Physical distribution may involve logistics, warehousing, installation, finance, and after-sales service. Selling may involve agents, distributors, retailers, platforms, promoters, creators, and franchisees. Conflict is normal. Regional distributors compete. Retailers negotiate with suppliers. Platforms charge fees and demand promotion. Strong channels may launch private labels that compete with the brands they sell. Even a simple asset such as a branded refrigerator creates questions about deposits, ownership, placement, maintenance, product exclusivity, and loss. Without field-management capability, physical expansion can generate waste. Only exceptionally strong brands consistently hold greater bargaining power than large channels. ## 5. Channel Management Is the Pursuit of System Efficiency Traditional channels often contained national, provincial, city, and local layers before reaching retail. Each layer performed a function but also added cost and margin. Removing every intermediary is not automatically more efficient. A brand serving stores directly may create an organization too large and complex to manage. The objective is to minimize unnecessary layers while preserving the local service, aggregation, credit, logistics, and market knowledge that create value. Internet commerce shortened many routes and enabled direct-to-consumer models. Retailers also continue to improve their own operating systems. Across both sides, more efficient models replace less efficient ones. ## The Strategic Implication Channel design should happen alongside product design, not after it. Companies should ask who creates demand, who converts it, who holds inventory, who delivers, who provides service, who controls customer data, and how each participant earns. Every major channel shift creates new opportunities. The brands that emerge are usually those that use the channel's distinctive advantages and redesign themselves to fit its behavior. --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671