Direct sales is the right tool for the wrong job in a lot of mid-market B2B businesses

Direct sales is the right tool for the wrong job in a lot of mid-market B2B businesses. The reflex to hire more AEs hides a more honest question: is the job actually a direct-sales job?

Direct is the right answer when deal sizes are big enough that high-touch motion pays off. When the buyer set is narrow and known. When the product requires deep technical or consultative selling that a distributor can't replicate. When the sales motion involves multi-stakeholder enterprise navigation.

In those categories, direct wins on control, depth, and customer relationship continuity.

It's the wrong answer when the buyer set is geographically dispersed across thousands of accounts. When the category is commoditized and the differentiator is reach, not deep selling. When deal sizes don't support the fully-loaded cost of a direct rep. When you're trying to scale faster than you can hire, train, and retain.

Here's the honest math. A fully-loaded direct rep needs to generate several multiples of their loaded cost to be net-positive. A lot of mid-market B2B businesses are deploying reps into territories where the unit economics never work, then wondering why margins compress.

Direct sales is necessary. It's rarely the whole answer. The operators who win build a portfolio. Direct where it pays off, channel where it scales, and the discipline to know which deals belong where.

Run the math before you hire.