A lot of the founders I talk to have the same plan. Build something great, sell it themselves, and worry about distributors and resellers “later”.
I understand the instinct. I also think later is arriving faster than they expect, and it’s arriving with AI agents attached.
If you make hardware or business software, there’s a good chance it will end up being sold by someone who isn’t you. Jay McBain at Omdia, who has spent years studying this, puts it bluntly in an interview on Crossbeam’s blog: about two thirds of all IT spending is delivered through partners, and 96% is influenced by them.
Now add agents.
The new buyer in the room
Buyers already ask AI assistants for shortlists. The next step is agents that don’t just shortlist but compare, quote and order.
The catch, which McBain keeps making on the Ultimate Partner podcast, is that a general AI assistant doesn’t know one partner from another. It doesn’t know which reseller has done fifty installs like yours, which one has stock, or which one picks up the phone when something breaks. It only knows what it can read.
Distributors are moving on this. Some of the big ones now let resellers plug their own AI assistants straight into live product, stock and pricing data, using open connectors like MCP, so an agent can look things up instead of guessing. The rest of the channel will follow.
So the question for a founder isn’t “should I use AI in sales?” It’s this: when an agent goes looking for a product like mine, what will it find?
What I’d do this year if I were you
Make your product readable by a machine. Consistent names. One code per product. Specs in a proper table, not buried in a brochure. Clear rules on price and what’s included. If a person has to email you to understand what you sell, an agent will simply pick something else.
Write the one page a partner can repeat. A reseller sells hundreds of products. The one with a short, clear answer to “who is it for and why now?” is the one that gets mentioned. The same page is what an agent will summarise. Write it once, for both.
Choose partners for their plumbing, not just their logo. Ask where your target resellers already buy, and how those systems connect. Being listed somewhere an agent can’t see is like sitting on a shelf in a locked shop.
And keep investing in people. McBain’s numbers say 89% of sellers work with partners every day, and 84% of those who hit their target credit partners for it. Agents will take the admin out of the channel. They won’t replace the reseller who brings your product into a conversation you’d never have been invited to.
The part I’m excited about
For years the channel has been powerful but slow. Price lists, spreadsheets, emails chasing quotes. If agents do the reading, the people in the chain get to spend more time on the relationships. That’s good news for founders who are easy to understand, and bad news for those who aren’t.
Be easy to find. Be easy to explain. Be easy to sell.
If you’re working out how to take a product to market through partners, it’s the conversation I enjoy most. Say hello.
