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This is the cleanest side-by-side we found on what you actually trade away going indirect: margin, customer contact, and control of the message. It is opinionated in a useful way, telling you not to reach for channel sales to paper over a direct motion that is not working yet. A good gut-check before you commit to partners.
Direct Sales vs. Channel Sales: Choosing Your Route to Market in B2B SaaS
From GTM Playbook by James Doman-Pipe Long-form article, about a 12 minute read
- Going indirect trades higher margin and direct customer feedback for reach into markets where partners already have relationships.
- Partners sell what is easiest or highest-margin for them, so if that is not your product, a slide of logos generates little real revenue.
- Channel sales makes sense when buyers prefer intermediaries or you need geographic reach without local hiring, not as a fix for a broken direct model.
