Common causes
- Overlapping territories. Two distributors cover the same area without clear rules.
- The same lead sent to several partners with no agreement on who gets it.
- Direct sales competing with partners, for example the manufacturer's own team or online shop selling to customers a dealer is already working.
- Price differences between channels, which push customers to shop around.
- Unclear ownership of customers that partners found themselves.
Why it matters
Conflict costs more than one lost deal. Partners who feel undercut stop investing in your products, stop following up on your leads and may move to a competitor. Customers who are contacted by several sellers with different prices lose trust in the brand.
How to prevent it
- Define territories and use the same definition for routing and reporting.
- Write down the rule for shared leads before you use them, for example that the first to win takes the deal and the others are closed.
- Separate key accounts handled directly from customers handled by partners.
- Use deal registration for opportunities partners find themselves.
- Make ownership visible, so each partner knows which leads are theirs.
How Kumulator relates
In Kumulator leads are assigned by region, each distributor sees only their own copies, and when several distributors received the same lead, the first to win closes the others as "closed, won by another dealer". See the distributor network overview and lead distribution to dealers.