Notes for owners · Channel and customer growth
Medical device distributor or direct sales team: how a small manufacturer decides
A small medical device maker should choose distributors or a direct team product by product and city by city. A decision table, what each route gives and costs, and the records to keep whichever route you choose.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
On this page
A distributor offers to take your whole state. You have one salesperson. Use distributors where hospitals buy often, in small amounts, from someone already in the building. Sell direct where each sale is large, technical and slow. Many small makers end up running both: a direct team for the home city and the few large accounts, distributors for consumables and the towns the team cannot reach. Choose product by product and city by city. Not once for the company. And keep the service records and biomedical contacts yourself, whichever route sells the device.
What a distributor brings to a device maker
A good medical distributor is already inside the hospitals you want. The distributor's people visit stores and wards for other products, know the purchase manager by name, and give credit to nursing homes that would never open an account with an unknown factory. They can keep a demo unit in the city and get it to a ward the next morning. And they can bid for local tenders with your authorisation letter, where the tender allows it.
What you give up is price control, first-hand feedback from users, and knowledge of who bought what. A distributor carrying forty brands will push the one that moves easily. Yours may need a demonstration they have no time for.
What a direct team brings
A direct salesperson, or an application specialist, sells only your device and knows it in depth. They run the demonstration properly, hear the clinician's objections in person, and build the relationship with the biomedical engineer that keeps your installed base loyal. For a device that needs a trial and a committee, that depth wins orders a distributor would lose.
The cost is a salary that has to be earned back from a small number of orders. A rule of thumb: if you cannot keep a salesperson busy with demonstrations and committee meetings on most working days in one city, a distributor there will cost you less than an idle salary.
The decision table
| Your situation | Lean towards | Why | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumables and disposables that wards reorder | Distributor | The distributor already visits the stores and offers credit | Undercutting between territories |
| Capital equipment needing a demo and installation, in your home city and two or three large cities | Direct | Each sale needs a trial and a committee | Salary cost against the number of orders |
| The same equipment in smaller towns | Distributor, with your specialist for demos | Too few orders to justify a resident salesperson | Demos done badly by untrained staff |
| A hospital chain buying centrally | Direct, as a key account | One negotiation covers many sites | A distributor claiming commission on it |
| Government tenders | Either, read each tender | Some want the maker, some accept an authorised supplier | Two distributors bidding the same tender |
| Nursing homes and clinics in a district | Distributor | Relationships and credit matter more than depth | Your brand invisible behind the distributor's |
Service sits outside the table. Installation, calibration and breakdown calls decide whether the next order comes to you. If a distributor services your devices, train his engineers and keep the service log in your own system.
Split territory by segment, not only by state
A frequent mistake is one distributor for a whole state. That distributor is strong in one segment, say dental clinics in the capital, and weak everywhere else. Enquiries from hospitals in other districts reach them and go nowhere, and you never hear about them.
Give territory by segment and district. One distributor keeps dental clinics in the city where they are strong. Hospitals in the same state go to your direct specialist or to a second distributor who already sells to hospitals there. Say in the agreement who receives the enquiries that reach your own website and phone.
For example: a Pune dental chair maker in Tamil Nadu
For example, a Pune maker of dental chairs and hospital examination couches sells to dental clinics and hospitals. It appoints one distributor for all of Tamil Nadu. The distributor is excellent with dental clinics in Chennai and never visits a hospital. Hospital enquiries stall, and a demo unit sits unused for two months. Enquiries from hospitals in Tiruchirappalli and Salem are passed to him and go cold.
The maker splits the state. The Chennai distributor keeps dental clinics in Chennai and its suburbs. A second distributor, already selling theatre equipment to hospitals in the central and western districts, takes hospitals there, with a demo unit and a training day at the factory. The maker places one application specialist in Chennai for the three hospital groups that buy centrally. It keeps the serial number list, the warranty registrations and every biomedical engineer's contact in its own records. The snag: the Chennai distributor resists handing over the dental service contacts, and the maker pays a one-time ₹60,000 to buy back the stock the distributor holds. If either distributor changes, the installed base stays with the maker. The maker, the distributors and the figures are invented for illustration.
Who may stock and sell which devices, and what permissions a distributor needs, differ by device and state and change, so check with your own adviser or the regulator before you sign.
Records to keep whatever the route
Keep the serial number, buyer and installation date of every device. Hold every biomedical engineer's name and number. Record the end-customer price each distributor charges. Log each service call. A maker who holds these can change a distributor without losing the customer; a maker who does not has sold the market along with the stock. The general differences between dealers, distributors and stockists are set out in dealer vs distributor vs stockist vs reseller.
Draw the map product by product
List each product down the side of a sheet and each region across the top, and write "direct", "distributor" or "both" in every cell, with the name of the person responsible. The empty cells show where you are selling by accident. A dealer and distributor programme can then set the agreements, minimums and pricing for the cells marked distributor. The hospital side of the same decision, meaning how a buyer picks one maker over another, is on the medical devices and equipment page. If you want help deciding the split, tell us what you need.
