A scorecard I use to pick distributor partners

A scorecard I use to pick distributor partners. The same 4 criteria my RSMs and I used at Omnicell to grow the network from 20 to 35 partners and take the business from $5M to a record $15M year in 18 months.

1. STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT. Does their portfolio fit with ours, or compete? Are their priorities the same as ours over a 3-year window? Most failed partnerships die here, not on execution.

2. COMMERCIAL CAPABILITY. Do they have real sales people, or order-takers? Do they have a defined process? Can they show me a deal review from last quarter? If they can't, your RSMs end up doing their selling for them.

3. OPERATIONAL FIT. How do they handle order management, returns, technical support? Bad ops on the distributor side becomes your customer's problem, which becomes your retention problem.

4. ACCOUNTABILITY. Are they willing to sign to quarterly targets? Are they willing to be reviewed? A distributor who won't be measured won't perform. Full stop.

I score each on a 1 to 5 scale. Anyone below 16 out of 20 gets one quarter to improve or we replace them.

Most companies skip this. They pick distributors on existing relationships and gut feel. Then they wonder why the channel underperforms.

The wrong distributor costs you 18 months of opportunity. The right one builds your business for a decade.