Sales Channels · Route to market · Component

The trade

Reach, margin, control and learning, per route — because no route is good on all four.

The deliverable

What it is

Every route trades reach against margin and control. An indirect route buys access at the cost of margin and of knowing anything about the customer.

The learning cost is the one consistently underestimated, because it does not appear as a number anywhere.

One level in

What it is made of

Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.

  1. The reach

    What access the route provides.

    3 attributes: Incremental reach · Geography · Genuinely incremental

    Learn
  2. The margin

    What the route costs in margin share.

    3 attributes: Margin share · Effective margin · Annual cost

    Learn
  3. The learning

    What the organisation knows about customers from this route.

    3 attributes: Customer identity · Purchase reasons · Direct contact

    Learn

An organisation growing through indirect routes learns progressively less about its own market.