Tiger BufordYour Orthopedic Industry Expert (free today)

What Makes a Good Distribution Agreement?

7 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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Tiger Buford and a co-speaker explain why small medical-tech companies in spine and orthopedics use distributors instead of direct sales forces. A good distribution agreement aligns incentives and economics; Zimmer Biomet's direct model and SpineOnOrtho's distributor approach show how market dynamics have shifted in the past five years.

So let's shift the topic from acquisition to sales and distribution, because a lot of, a lot of small companies, they lack the capital and the time to build a nationwide sales force. And they, they're always interested in distribution agreements. What does a good distribution agreement look like? And what does a terrible distribution agreement look like?
Yeah, I mean, I think I'll go back to a little bit what it was that was, and then hopefully I didn't skim over it. Misaligned incentives, economics are a huge thing. We've got, you know, I would call, I would say in spine and ortho, you've got, and this is changing a little bit. Gosh, like 5 years ago I was. Looking at what Zimmer Biomet was doing with their direct sales force. Do we go direct more? Do we, you know, keep the distributors?
The good thing about SpineOnOrtho is it has these great—
this great distributor network system, especially in the United States.