Channel conflict starts the moment one buyer can price the same charger through two routes: your counter, the maker’s web shop, a project quote, an online seller elsewhere. It is usually a drafting fault, not a people problem: the agreement defined territory by geography alone and left channel and accounts silent. The fix is written separations agreed before the first order, plus an escalation path for the cases that slip through.
Key Takeaways
- Conflict is born where the agreement is silent — online sales, direct sales, project vs trade.
- Define territory three ways: geography, channel and named accounts.
- Registration, an online clause and a house-account list prevent most cases; escalation handles the rest.
- EVDANCE separations are agreed per market in writing — raise the map before the first order.
Where Conflict Is Born
| Conflict source | How it shows up |
|---|---|
| Online sales crossing territories | A buyer in your market orders from a web shop priced for another; your stock and service sit behind a sale you never saw |
| Maker’s direct sales | A project your team developed is quoted direct by the manufacturer |
| Project vs trade overlap | A fleet or site buyer prices the same station at a wholesaler and inside your project quote |
| Price visibility | Published online prices undercut local quotes buyers are holding |
| Grey imports | Third parties bring the same brand into your market outside the authorised chain |
Define Territory Three Ways
A territory line that names only a map leaks in two directions. A workable definition has three legs:
- Geography. Country, region or radius — stated plainly enough to settle a borderline sale.
- Channel. Your routes: trade counter, project sales, online storefronts. An unnamed channel belongs to whoever uses it first.
- Accounts. Named customers or project classes reserved to you, to the maker, or shared — written as a list, not assumed from history.
When one leg is missing, the conflict writes itself: geography without the online channel means web orders shipping into your streets; no account list means the maker cannot tell its own team which projects are taken. Our overview of finding distributors and installers shows how many roles touch one buyer — each overlap is a line to draw.
The Agreement Lines That Prevent It
- Project registration. A way to register a named project you are developing, with the protection it earns defined in the text.
- Online sales clause. Who may sell online into the territory, from which storefronts, and whose stock fulfils those orders.
- House account list. The accounts the maker keeps direct, listed by name — so direct selling is a known boundary, not a surprise.
- Price discipline, within the law. A contract can set the maker’s own prices and programme rules; coordinating resale prices is legally restricted in many markets — a question for counsel, never a template line.
- Support ownership. For every route, whose number a faulty unit goes to: the seller of record, per the agreement.
When Conflict Happens Anyway
No drafting catches everything. Keep the evidence — both quotes, the account, the route — and use the escalation the agreement names: a contact on each side, a review where the case is decided, an adjustment recorded in writing. Repeated cases of one kind are a drafting signal: fix the definition at review rather than arguing case by case. After-sales records help — the spare parts and RMA process shows which route a unit travelled, often the missing fact.
How EVDANCE Handles Channel Separation
EVDANCE supplies one range into a market through its distributor relationships, and the separations — geography, channel, named accounts — are agreed per market in writing; there is no standard EVDANCE territory text to quote. Project lines such as the EV-AC03201T dual-connector station (up to 43 kW shared across two Type 2 connectors, OCPP 1.6J, RFID, IP54) and the EV-RHDC30K-L compact DC charger (22 kW DC, OCPP 1.6J, IP54) are exactly where trade/project separation matters most. Raise your market’s map in the resellers and distributors conversation via contact us, before the first order ships.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a contract stop all channel conflict?
No. Good drafting prevents the predictable cases and routes the rest to a named escalation. Grey imports and mistakes still occur; the value is that each case has a process instead of an argument.
Who should own online sales in my territory?
Whoever the agreement names. If online sales go unmentioned, that silence is the gap to close at review — online is the channel likeliest to cross a geographic line.
What if the manufacturer sells direct to my customer?
The account definitions decide. If the customer is on your registered or reserved list, the escalation applies. If accounts were never listed, you have found the missing clause — add it at renewal.
Related Reading
- How to Find EV Charger Distributors and Installers to Sell To
- How Distributors Can Build a Profitable EV Charger Product Line
- EV Charger Spare Parts and RMA Process for Distributors
- EV Charger Warranty and After-Sales Terms: A Distributor’s Checklist
