Distribution channel market sizing that counts the customers beyond your invoices.

Distribution channel market sizing is a count of the customers a manufacturer can reach through its distributors and dealers, broken down by segment, SKU and volume. The count is built bottom up, starting beneath the first tier with the contractors, installers, workshops and trade buyers who buy from distributors. Nextyn builds the count on the ground, drawing on 15,000+ field researchers and interviews with distributors and dealers, and shows which competitors already supply those customers, so the market size rests on customers who exist rather than on invoices.

A Nextyn channel market sizing analysis delivers three outputs: a customer count by segment and market, the addressable volume for each relevant SKU, and a competitor presence map. Each output comes from field counts and interviews in the markets in scope, not from desk estimates, and the addressable volume is built up from the customers counted in each segment:

• Customer count: the dealers, installers and trade buyers beneath your first tier, by segment and market
• Addressable volume: what each segment buys, for every SKU relevant to it
• Competitor presence map: the rival brands already supplying each segment, market by market

Nextyn interviews and counts four groups for channel market sizing: distributors, dealers and sub-dealers, the contractors and installers who buy from them, and end users in each segment. Field researchers visit outlets in every market in scope, and the sample is matched to the category and the segments the client sells into:

• Distributors and wholesalers, for the volume they move and who they serve
• Dealers, sub-dealers and trade counters beneath the first tier
• Contractors, installers and workshops that buy the category
• End users in each target segment

Nextyn runs channel market sizing in the United States, Canada and Germany, among other markets, with field presence in 85 countries and 50+ languages in-house. Markets are agreed at scoping and follow the client's sales plan, so a single-country count and a multi-market comparison each get their own design. Recent Nextyn channel work includes distributor and installer research across the United States, Canada and Germany, and route-to-shelf mapping in Canada, Brazil and Mexico.

Nextyn recommends commissioning channel market sizing before targets, territories or distributor appointments are set for the next plan, while those decisions are still open. At that stage a count of the real customers in each market changes where sales effort goes, instead of explaining a shortfall later. A count also earns its cost at three other moments: entering a new market, launching a new product line into an existing channel, and a gap between distributor sales and the demand the team expects.

A Nextyn channel market sizing project runs in four steps, from brief to read-out, and nothing is commissioned until the client approves the plan. The client sees the sample, method and price before any fieldwork, and reads every interview with the Nextyn team at the end.

1. Submit the brief: the category, the markets and the decision the count must settle.
2. Receive a plan within 48 hours: who Nextyn will count and interview, how, and what the work costs.
3. Approve the plan: fieldwork starts only after sign-off.
4. Review the read-out: every interview read together, showing where distributors, dealers and buyers agree, where they conflict and what is still open.

Nextyn sends a research plan within 48 hours of receiving the brief, stating who will be counted and interviewed, how, and what the work costs. The plan sets the fieldwork length for the markets and segments in scope, so a single-country count and a multi-market study each get their own timeline. Nothing is commissioned, and no fieldwork starts, until the client approves the plan.

Nextyn's bottom up channel market sizing counts the real customers behind one manufacturer's channel, market by market, while a top down market report estimates a whole category from published and secondary data. The two answer different questions: the report gives a headline number, and the count shows who buys, where and from whom.