What Are B2B Sales Channels? + How to Pick the Right Ones in 2025

B2B sales channels are about more than where you sell—they also determine how you can reach customers, how scalable your growth can be, and how competitive you can stay in your industry. 

In 2025, there are various B2B sales channel options, leaving many business leaders wondering what to focus on. Should you double down on your direct sales team? Launch that online marketplace? Invest in social selling? 

The pressure to choose wisely is immense—picking the wrong channels means wasted budgets, missed opportunities, and frustrated customers who will happily take their business elsewhere.

In this guide, we look at the B2B sales channel options available in 2025 and how to choose the right channels for your business.

Key Takeaways

• 73% of B2B buyers prefer online channels over traditional methods.
• Product complexity, support requirements, and target audience behavior should drive your channel selection.
• Effective multi-channel strategies require integrated systems that eliminate data silos and provide unified visibility.
• The right technology foundation is essential for delivering consistent experiences across all touchpoints.

What are B2B sales channels?

Business-to-business (B2B) sales channels are the pathways companies use to sell products or services to other businesses rather than individual consumers. 

These channels generally fall into two main categories:

• Direct sales channels put you face-to-face with your customer—no middlemen involved. These include your in-house sales team, company website, and B2B eCommerce platforms.
• Indirect sales channels involve selling through third-party intermediaries who reach your end customers. These include distributors, wholesalers, value-added resellers (VARs), and online marketplaces.

Unlike business-to-consumer (B2C) channels, B2B options must accommodate longer sales cycles, multiple decision-makers, and higher transaction values. Additionally, while B2C channels optimize for convenience and impulse purchases, B2B channels must support detailed information exchange, customization, and ongoing customer relationships. 

Popular types of B2B sales channels in 2025

Direct sales 

Direct sales involves your in-house team reaching out to prospects, building relationships with potential customers, and closing deals—especially for high-value or complex products. 

In 2025, top-performing direct sales teams blend human expertise with technology like AI and real-time sales platforms to work faster and target high-value leads.

Distributor and wholesaler networks

Think of distributors and wholesalers as your market expansion allies. They purchase your products in bulk, handle inventory, and resell to other businesses, extending your reach without massive infrastructure investment.

Modern distribution partnerships go beyond simply moving product. Today’s distributors and wholesalers often share sales data, co-market your product, and collaborate on joint digital initiatives. Many also offer eCommerce capabilities that integrate with manufacturer systems, creating a connected, data-driven supply chain.

Online marketplaces

B2B online marketplaces like Amazon Business or Alibaba are where companies go to discover, compare, and buy from multiple suppliers. They’re a great way to expand your reach without a huge upfront investment, but you’ll need solid product details and strategic pricing to succeed. 

B2B eCommerce platforms

These are your own online stores built for business buyers, and they’ve become non-negotiable for manufacturers and distributors wanting to offer direct online purchasing. They can handle complex pricing structures, account-specific catalogs, and approval workflows—things that standard consumer platforms can’t.

Tools like DJUST help you manage everything in one place and integrate with the systems you already use. Plus, they support B2B-specific requirements like custom price lists and volume-based pricing. 

Value-added resellers (VARs)

Value-added resellers take your core product and add extras—e.g., services, support, or complementary offerings—before selling to end customers. They shine in technical industries where products need customization, implementation assistance, or ongoing support.

This channel creates a win-win scenario: You get to extend your market reach, and the VAR creates a more comprehensive solution that’s easier for customers to buy.

Affiliate and referral programs

Affiliate and referral programs enable partners to promote your product and earn commission on any leads or sales they generate. 

In B2B, they’re a bit more complex than the consumer version. They involve longer sales processes, more detailed lead attribution, more intricate commission structures, and more sophisticated performance tracking. 

Channel partners and resellers

Channel partners are trusted businesses that resell your product through their own networks. These partnerships typically involve formal agreements, defined territories, and shared marketing plans.

When supported well, channel partners and resellers can be one of the most scalable ways to grow, and many B2B companies invest heavily in them for this reason.

Social selling

Social selling involves using platforms like LinkedIn to find leads, share insights, and move potential customers through the sales process. It’s especially effective in B2B, where trust and expertise carry a lot of weight when building customer loyalty, networking, and establishing credibility.

Industry events and trade shows

Industry events and trade shows give you face-to-face time with potential buyers, opportunities for hands-on demos, and an avenue for customer interactions that’s hard to replicate online.

Following the pandemic, hybrid events (part in-person, part virtual) are now the norm. These can help you widen your reach without losing personal connections.

Consultants and agents

These are independent professionals with strong relationships in specific markets or industries. They promote your product—typically on commission—and can represent multiple complementary product lines. 

This channel offers a cost-effective break into new regions or customer bases, especially if you're going global.

How to choose the right sales channels for your B2B business in 2025

Choosing the best B2B sales channels is not about following trends—it is about finding what works for your business situation and customer needs. 

Here is a practical approach to building your channel strategy: 

Step 1: Understand target customers’ behavior

Start by getting clear on how your target customers prefer to buy. Ask yourself:

• Where do they typically look for solutions like my company’s?
• Do they want hands-on guidance or prefer to research independently?
• What decision-makers are involved, and how do they interact with vendors?
• Are my customers comfortable with digital purchasing, or do they prefer traditional methods?

This foundation shapes everything else. For instance, if you are selling to tech-savvy professionals who prefer self-service research, you might focus more on content marketing and eCommerce rather than cold calling.

Step 2: Evaluate product complexity and support needs

The nature of your product influences which channels make sense. For example:

• How much education or explanation does your product need before someone buys?
• Does your solution need to be customized for each customer?
• What kind of implementation help or ongoing support will customers need?

Complex products with significant support needs often work better through high-touch channels like direct sales teams. Standardized products may perform well through online marketplaces or eCommerce platforms with minimal human interaction.

Step 3: Assess scalability and automation opportunities

Next, consider how each channel supports your growth goals:

• Which channels allow you to reach more customers without proportional cost increases?
• Where can technology automate routine transactions or customer interactions?
• Is your existing infrastructure ready to support rapid scaling in specific channels?

Digital channels typically offer greater scalability through automation. For instance, platforms like DJUST can automate order workflows and provide centralized management across multiple channels.

Step 4: Consider channel conflict and margin implications

Different channels come with different economics. As you explore channels, ask:

• What are the costs associated with each channel (commissions, fees, staffing, etc.)?
• How might different channels affect your pricing and overall margins?
• Could channels end up competing for the same customers?

To prevent problems, develop clear guidelines around territories, pricing, and conflict resolution. For example, you might set a policy where VARs get exclusive rights to small-to-medium-sized business accounts within defined geographic regions, while your direct sales team focuses on enterprise deals over $100K.

Step 5: Test each channel and measure its performance

Before going all-in on any channel, start small and treat it like an experiment. Here is how:

• Define clear metrics for each channel—not just customer acquisition cost (CAC), but also sales cycle length, conversion rates, and lifetime value.
• Create a consistent framework to compare performance objectively. For example, you could use a scoring model that weights CAC, conversion rate, and average deal size equally across all tested channels, so you can rank them fairly.
• Set specific milestones for evaluation—for instance, “generate 15 qualified leads within the first 60 days” or “close five deals within the first 90 days” of testing a new channel.
• Track performance over time. Given how long B2B sales take, some channels may take longer to ramp but produce higher-quality, higher-value deals.
• Make sure you’re capturing the full picture. For example, some leads may come from one channel but close through another, so look at the entire journey.

Platforms like DJUST provide integrated analytics that help measure performance across channels. This unified view helps identify which channels deliver the best results for specific customer segments or product categories.

Common mistakes when selecting B2B sales channels

Even with good planning, companies often make avoidable mistakes when building their channel strategy. Here is what to watch out for:

• Adding too many types of sales channels at once. This spreads resources too thin and makes it hard to excel anywhere. Instead, focus on the channels that best reach your target customers, and give each channel the attention it needs before adding more.
  
  
• Ignoring customer preferences. Some companies build channel strategies around what's convenient for them, not what customers want. Always prioritize how your customers prefer to buy over how you'd prefer to sell.
  
  
• Working with disconnected systems. When channels operate in isolation with separate data and systems, customers experience jarring transitions. Look for integrated solutions like DJUST that provide a unified view across all channels and customer relationship management systems.
  
  
• Underestimating management needs. Each channel requires ongoing attention, resources, and optimization. Be realistic about what it will take to make each channel successful.
  
  
• Neglecting partner support. If you use indirect channels, partners need proper training, resources, and ongoing support. Develop comprehensive programs that equip them to effectively represent your products.

Build a smart channel strategy to future-proof your B2B sales

The most successful B2B companies in 2025 bring all their sales channels together into one connected system. This helps them break down data silos and use technology that gives clear visibility across the entire sales process.

As you evaluate your channel strategy, ask yourself:

• Does it reflect how my customers want to buy?
• Am I using complete, accurate data to guide my decisions?
• Do my systems make it easy for customers to move between channels, or do they create friction?

With DJUST, it is easy to integrate your sales channels into one user-friendly system. It centralizes order management and connects with your existing tools, reducing manual work and giving you real-time insights. That means smoother operations and a more consistent experience for your customers.

Want to see how it works? Request a demo and discover how DJUST can help you build a smarter channel strategy.