Every leader who has built a brand in a market eventually finds some of that stock being sold somewhere else.
It is frustrating. The first instinct is often to look outward and ask who is to blame.
In my experience, the most useful questions start at home.
Did we ship more than the market needed? If sell-in ran ahead of sell-out for months, the extra stock went somewhere. Loading the distributor to close a quarter is one of the surest ways to create leakage.
Is the forecast built on real patient demand, or on the target? Supply matched to genuine local demand leaves very little to move.
Are our distributor agreements clear, lawful and reviewed by legal? Clear terms, written within the law, prevent a lot of misunderstanding.
Are we working openly with the authority? When there is a genuine concern, it is raised transparently, through the proper channels.
And one line I would not cross: a lawful order is supplied. Protection that depends on anything grey is not protection. It is a new problem.
So every month I look at sell-out and distributor inventory side by side. When the two drift apart, it is the earliest signal I know.
“Stock that matches real demand has nowhere else to go.”
Lesson 15 of 17 in Step 4: Distributors and market access, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.