Portfolio fit: will this distributor actually sell your device?

Read the line card three ways

A line card lists the manufacturers a distributor represents. Ask for it on the first call, check it against the registries, and read it three ways.

• Principals: who they carry, and which five lines make most of the money. That is where the reps spend their week.
• Same buyer: which lines are bought by the person who buys yours. A theatre manager, a surgeon, a dental clinic owner and a lab manager are four different calls.
• Same procedure: which lines are used in the same case as yours. A rep already in the room can bring up your device for free.

Complementary, competing or unrelated

The test is always the same: same buyer, same procedure, same job.

A competing line is usually a deal breaker. When a surgeon asks for a plate, the rep reaches for the line that pays best or the principal who calls every week. Partial overlap, such as a different price tier, can work if you write down which accounts each line covers. If the distributor wants to drop a competing line, ask why, and what happens to any registration it holds for that principal.

Attention arithmetic

What matters is how much of one rep's week your line will get. An example in round numbers: 6 sales people and 30 principals means one fifth of a person per line if time were shared evenly. It never is. The top five lines take most of the hours, and a new line starts at the bottom.

Do the same with money. A €300,000 first-year target at a distributor turning over €8 million is under 4 percent of its sales. That works if a named person owns your line, and fails if it is just added to everyone's bag.

Among the 3,187 independent distributors in the Index that name at least one other manufacturer on the register, the median carries 3 lines and about one in ten carries 18 or more (Bastion Hale Distributor Index, build of 25 October 2026). Registries show only part of a line card, so treat these as a floor.

Find who carries a brand in a country

Some registries publish which manufacturers a licensed company imports or holds registrations for. Each Index profile lists them as the manufacturers the establishment is linked to in the registry.

1. Open the country and segment page, for example orthopaedic distributors in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 18 independent distributors name the manufacturers they represent.
2. Read the principals on each profile. Note who carries your competitor and who carries the complementary lines you want next to yours.
3. Mind the wording. A registry entry means the company is registered for, or imports, that maker's products. It does not prove a current authorised or exclusive relationship.
4. Fill gaps from the competitor's where-to-buy page, tender awards and trade show exhibitor lists.

Worked example: dental implants in Israel

A European maker of dental implants (fictional) wants one partner in Israel. The Israel dental page lists 119 independent distributors with dental devices on record. Half carry 6 or fewer other manufacturers' lines on the register, and 8 carry 50 or more (Bastion Hale Distributor Index, build of 25 October 2026).

The maker works in three passes. It strikes every distributor whose principals include another implant system. It keeps those carrying bone graft, membranes or surgical motors. It asks the broad-line houses the attention questions below, and the small specialists about capacity, stock and credit. It ends with five names to call, not 119.

Questions to ask

1. Which five lines make most of your revenue, and what share is each?
2. Do you carry anything that does the same job as ours?
3. Who will sell our line, how many other lines do they carry, and how much of their week will we get?
4. Which principals have you gained and lost in three years, and why?

Red flags and common mistakes

• Too many lines, no named person. If nobody will say who carries your bag, nobody will.
• No specialist for your segment. Implants and many surgical devices need someone in theatre who knows the product.
• A major line lost recently. Spare capacity, or a principal that left for a reason. Find out which.
• One principal is most of the business. It gets served first.
• Choosing the biggest name. Size is not attention.
• Checking once. Line cards change, so look again in every quarterly business review.

Portfolio fit is one criterion of several. Score it next to licence, coverage, service and finances in the distributor selection scorecard, then check the shortlist with due diligence before you discuss exclusivity.