A practical guide · Channel Fulfilment Analysis
A useful channel plan starts with knowing where the business comes from. CFA puts customer groups and channel groups in one view, so you can ask better questions about coverage.
First, agree what you are counting
CFA means Channel Fulfilment Analysis here. We put customer groups in the rows and channel groups in the columns. Each cell contains the business that belongs to that combination. For example, a sale to a healthcare customer through a system integrator belongs in one cell.
In the first book, the starting point is net sell-out amounts or product quantities. Choose one measure and one period for the whole table. Net sell-out follows the sale to the customer; it is different from a distributor’s sell-in to a reseller. If you are counting units, use comparable units throughout. Do not add units to money.
Why does this matter? A company total can look healthy while most of the business depends on one customer group or one channel group. The matrix lets you see that concentration. It also gives the sales and partner teams a common starting point for a conversation about access, capability and coverage.
The first-book teaching example
Seven customer groups, six channel groups. The totals below are recalculated from the original table amounts; percentages are rounded only for display.
The original uses the $ symbol without naming a currency code or period. This is a teaching reconstruction, not a verified historical result or current market benchmark. Table values below are amounts, not percentages.
| Customer group | Vendor direct | Value-added resellers | System integrators | Traditional resellers | Cloud resellers | Retailers | Company row total | Whole segment market | Row ÷ segment market |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | $720,000 | $179,778 | $180,060 | $413,778 | $251,790 | $378,006 | $2,123,412 | $11,000,000 | 19.30% |
| Education | $138,000 | $582,270 | $324,510 | $457,026 | $350,550 | $290,670 | $2,143,026 | $9,000,000 | 23.81% |
| Government | $180,000 | $516,090 | $209,718 | $485,316 | $532,314 | $488,868 | $2,412,306 | $12,000,000 | 20.10% |
| SME (USER>1000) | $600,000 | $281,952 | $127,530 | $183,870 | $258,648 | $557,226 | $2,009,226 | $3,000,000 | 66.97% |
| SMB (USER<1000) | $180,000 | $469,104 | $244,470 | $298,206 | $457,980 | $372,384 | $2,022,144 | $4,000,000 | 50.55% |
| Defense | $900,000 | $247,440 | $304,200 | $277,278 | $447,600 | $136,680 | $2,313,198 | $70,000,000 | 3.30% |
| Enterprise | $240,000 | $504,762 | $315,648 | $579,396 | $209,670 | $405,606 | $2,255,082 | $7,000,000 | 32.22% |
| Total | $2,958,000 | $2,781,396 | $1,706,136 | $2,694,870 | $2,508,552 | $2,629,440 | $15,278,394 | $116,000,000 | 13.17% |
VARs means value-added resellers; SIs, system integrators; TRs, traditional resellers; CRs, cloud resellers; and Rs, retailers. The company table says CRs while the market table says CSPs for the same column of amounts. We use “Cloud resellers” consistently here; this source variation does not make those terms universal synonyms.
The source labels SME as USER>1000 and SMB as USER<1000. Exactly 1,000 is unassigned, and the rows combine sectors and company sizes. For your own analysis, agree complete, mutually exclusive definitions rather than treating these as universal segment rules. The source does not supply a market-data provenance or period; use the market amounts as teaching assumptions.
What does “market” include? In this guide, the market amount means the whole segment market, including our company’s sales. Do not add our sales again. If an estimate covers other suppliers only, first add our sales to obtain the whole market. Under that different assumption, the SME example would be $2,009,226 ÷ ($3,000,000 + $2,009,226) = 40.11%, instead of 66.97%. State which definition you are using before comparing the results.
Source: Evrim Ulaş Uysal, Channel Playbook: An Insider Guide to Channel Management (2017), original CFA teaching tables. The workbook contains the reconstruction notes and formulas.
Government is $2,412,306 ÷ $15,278,394 = 15.79% of company sales. All vendor-direct sales are $2,958,000 ÷ $15,278,394 = 19.36%.
The Government/vendor-direct cell is only $180,000 ÷ $15,278,394 = 1.18%. A row share is different from a cell share.
The SME row is $2,009,226 ÷ $3,000,000 = 66.97% of the whole SME market. The SME/vendor-direct cell is $600,000 ÷ $3,000,000 = 20.00% of that same whole market.
We do not have the size of a separate vendor-direct market. The 20% cannot answer that different question.
Defense has $2,313,198 in company sales against a $70,000,000 segment market: 3.30%. That suggests a coverage question; it does not tell us the reason.
Check customer need, access, competition, partner capability and delivery economics before choosing an investment. A gap alone does not prove incremental sales.
Change a row, explain the denominator
Choose a customer group, change its six channel amounts and compare the results. The other six rows stay at the original teaching values. This lets you see how one row changes both its own result and the company total.
All inputs stay on this page. The market input includes company sales. The sandbox does not change the original table, save your values or alter lesson progress. “Not defined” means the denominator is zero. A company row above its whole segment-market estimate prompts a scope check; it is not silently capped at 100%.
Chapter 2 also uses a fulfilment-route view of ARR. That is a separate lens on recurring business at a stated date. A customer-group × commercial-channel sell-out table, a fulfilment-route attribution table and an ARR bridge answer different questions. Use the structure that fits your decision and keep their datasets and totals separate.
A separate five-question check
Choose one answer per question, then read the explanation. This guide is separate from the eight-lesson learning paths; it does not change your saved lesson progress.
1. 1.18%
Divide this one cell by the company total: 180,000 ÷ 15,278,394 × 100 = 1.18%. The 15.79% is the whole Government row’s company mix. The 19.36% is the whole Vendor direct column’s mix.
2. About 66.97%
Use the whole SME row over the whole SME market: 2,009,226 ÷ 3,000,000 × 100 = 66.97%. The overall company-market share is 13.17%; the SME vendor-direct cell’s share of the whole SME market is 20%.
3. This cell’s share of the whole $3,000,000 SME market
This example treats the market input as the whole segment-market total, not a market-by-channel matrix. The denominator is the entire SME market. You cannot infer a vendor-direct submarket share from these data.
4. Once, in the agreed customer and commercial channel group
Choose the customer sale and classify it once. Adding distributor sell-in to reseller sell-out counts different stages of the same sale twice. Keep source, contribution and physical fulfilment as separate attributes if you need them.
5. Investigate customer demand, access, capability and economics
The matrix identifies a question. It does not prove demand, explain why the cell is small or establish incremental revenue. Check the records and customer need, then test whether a different route could serve them economically.
Keep a working copy
The dedicated CFA workbook includes the original amount table, company shares, segment-market comparisons and notes on the example’s definitions. Formulas let you inspect the calculation instead of accepting a percentage without its base.
Keep a copy of the teaching example. In your own version, record the measure, currency, period, geography, product scope, source and owner. Use public or lawfully obtained market information; do not exchange confidential competitor prices, bids or pipeline.
All companion resources →