You're set up — now you have to sell. This is the part after the structure decision: distribution, sales channels, and the market-access reality that being allowed to sell is not the same as getting paid.
Once your entry mode is chosen, entering Germany becomes a go-to-market job: pick the right sales channels (direct, distributor, digital, tender), build distribution, and clear the market-access hurdles that decide whether you're actually paid — especially in regulated life sciences, where AMNOG, hospital tenders and reimbursement stand between authorization and revenue. Getting authorized or listed is the entry ticket; getting bought is the work.
A German entity, a product on the shelf, even a regulatory approval — none of it is revenue yet. Revenue lives in the channel and the access decision.
If you've already chosen your entry mode — distributor, branch or GmbH — the strategic question is answered (that's covered in how to enter: strategy & structure). What's left is the harder, less glamorous part: getting the product in front of the right buyer, through the right channel, and past the gate that decides payment. In Germany that gate is real, and in healthcare it has a name.
Authorized isn't paid. Listed isn't bought. The German market rewards whoever closes that gap — not whoever cleared the first hurdle.
Most market-entry effort stops at the first box — and most disappointment starts there. The value is in the arrow.
Registered entity, product approval, a distributor agreement, a catalogue listing — you're allowed to sell.
A buyer picks you, a payer reimburses, a tender is won — through a channel that actually reaches them.
The mode you chose shapes which channels are open. Most companies run more than one.
Your own team sells to customers — full control of price, brand and relationship. Highest reach, highest cost; usually needs a local entity.
Fits: GmbH / branch, core-market ambitionGerman distributors and agents carry your product into existing relationships and logistics. Fast reach, shared margin, less control of the end customer.
Fits: fast entry, relationship-driven segmentsMuch of German healthcare and public spend flows through formal tenders. Access usually assumes a credible German entity and the right listings.
Fits: healthcare, public sector, infrastructureOnline B2B channels, marketplaces and platform listings — efficient for reach, but rarely enough alone in relationship-heavy German buying.
Fits: scalable products, lead generationA channel gets you in front of the buyer. Market access decides whether the buyer can say yes — and whether someone pays.
In many sectors the buyer isn't free to simply choose you. Procurement rules, framework agreements, reference pricing and — in healthcare — reimbursement decisions sit between your offer and the payment. Understanding that gate early changes how you build the channel: you sell to the decision-maker and to whoever controls the money.
A workable sequence once you're set up in Germany.
Who chooses, and who pays — often not the same party. Both have to say yes.
Direct, distributor, tender, digital — matched to how your buyers actually buy.
The right distributor, catalogue listings and qualifications to be eligible at all.
Tender qualification, pricing, and — in healthcare — reimbursement, so a yes turns into payment.
German buyers reward evidence and reliability; build the local proof that closes deals.
In pharma, medtech and diagnostics, the distance between authorized and paid is at its widest — and most expensive to misjudge.
A drug can be approved and still not reimbursed until it clears AMNOG pricing. A device can be CE-marked and still not sell until it wins hospital tenders or secures a reimbursement pathway. A digital health app needs its DiGA listing to be prescribed and paid. In each case, authorization is the entry ticket and access is the revenue — which is exactly the gap this consultancy is built around. If you're placing a product through partners, our note on finding a distributor covers the channel side.
In healthcare especially: getting approved is a milestone. Getting paid is the business.
We help companies that are already established in Germany build the channel and clear the access gate — distribution, tenders, pricing and, in healthcare, reimbursement — so authorization turns into paid business.