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Data methodology

How we know
what we know.

The value of a distributor intelligence platform rests entirely on the quality of its underlying data. This page explains how DistributorIQ data is sourced, verified, maintained, and where its limitations lie.

3
Data quality tiers
50+
Fields per profile
Q
Quarterly Tier 1 refresh
✓
Analyst review every shortlist

DistributorIQ is built on a simple conviction: in a market where data quality is rarely disclosed and directories routinely mix verified facts with inferred estimates, explicitness about what you know and how you know it is a competitive advantage, not a weakness.

Every data point in every profile carries a quality tier. Every profile carries a last-verified date. Every shortlist is reviewed by an analyst who is accountable for the output. This page documents the standards behind those commitments.

On this page
1 — Data sources 2 — Quality tier framework 3 — Coverage decisions 4 — Refresh and monitoring 5 — Analyst standards 6 — Known limitations
01
Data sources

Where the data
comes from.

DistributorIQ profiles are built from five primary source types, applied in sequence. No single source is sufficient — profiles require cross-referencing before data points are accepted.

I
Regulatory databases
The most reliable source for licensing, registration, and compliance data. Each market has its own regulatory infrastructure — national medicines agencies, product registration bodies, import licensing authorities, and government procurement qualification lists. Where these registries are accessible, data is drawn directly from the source. The specific databases used are documented per market in the market-level data specification.
Typically produces: Tier 1 — Verified
II
Company disclosures
Annual reports, tender submission records, product registration filings, commercial licence renewals, and press releases. Used primarily for financial indicators, brand portfolio, and operational scale. Where annual reports are publicly available, they are treated as authoritative for the year of publication.
Typically produces: Tier 2 — Researched
III
Primary research calls
Structured verification calls conducted by in-market analysts. The protocol covers: ownership structure, exclusivity terms, brand portfolio confirmation, cold chain and logistics capability, key contact validation, and known relationship networks. Calls are conducted in the local language where required. Minimum one verification call per Tier 1 profile per annual cycle.
Typically produces: Tier 1 — Verified for confirmed items
IV
Brand intelligence
Distributor websites, press announcements, trade publication mentions, and tender award notices are used to identify brand portfolios and market activity. This data is inherently less reliable than regulatory records — distributor websites are often outdated — and is treated accordingly. Brand portfolio data sourced solely from a distributor's own website is flagged as Tier 2.
Typically produces: Tier 2 — Researched
V
Market inference
For certain fields — particularly financial estimates for private companies that do not disclose revenue — DistributorIQ applies structured inference from employee count, fleet size, storage capacity, and brand portfolio composition. These estimates are explicitly labelled Tier 3 and are never used as hard-filter criteria in scoring. The methodology for financial estimation is consistent across all profiles in a market.
Produces: Tier 3 — Identified only
02
Quality tier framework

Not all data is
created equal.

The tier framework is the core of DistributorIQ's transparency commitment. Every data point in every profile is assigned a tier at the point of entry and reviewed at each refresh cycle. Tiers are displayed in profiles and incorporated into scoring confidence calculations.

Tier 1
Verified
Confirmed directly from an official source, a primary research call, or a regulatory filing. No inference. No reliance on secondary reporting.
Examples
Regulatory registration status — from national authority Import licence — confirmed from registry Cold chain certification — from issuing body Brand portfolio — confirmed in primary call Government tender pre-qualification — from official procurement list
Used in scoring at full weight
Tier 2
Researched
Sourced from company disclosures, trade press, or secondary databases. A strong basis but not directly confirmed from an official source. Treated as accurate unless contradicted by a higher-tier source.
Examples
Revenue from published annual report Brand portfolio from distributor website Fleet size from press release Employee count from LinkedIn / company filing Warehouse locations from trade directories
Used in scoring at 0.85× weight
Tier 3
Identified
Estimated from market context, proxy indicators, or analogous companies. Explicitly flagged in all profiles. Not used for binary or hard-filter criteria. Displayed with an inference disclaimer in the profile.
Examples
Revenue estimate for undisclosed private company Storage capacity inferred from fleet size Field engineer count estimated from sales force ratio Channel focus inferred from brand portfolio
Used in scoring at 0.60× weight — never for binary criteria
ℹ
When a scoring criterion relies on a Tier 3 data point and the criterion is marked as a deal-breaker in the brief, the shortlist will flag the uncertainty explicitly and recommend verification before engagement. The distributor will not be excluded solely on the basis of an inferred data point — but the risk will be surfaced.
03
Coverage decisions

Who is in the
database.

The database does not attempt to be exhaustive. Completeness is less valuable than accuracy. A distributor with a partially verified profile is more useful than an unverified name from a directory.

Included
  • Distributors with verifiable registration in the relevant regulatory system
  • Distributors with a confirmed physical presence (HQ, warehouse, or office) in the market
  • Distributors with at least one confirmed brand relationship in the relevant sector
  • Distributors with a minimum of two years of operating history
  • Distributors where a primary research call has been completed or scheduled within the current annual cycle
Excluded
  • Companies that cannot be verified against a regulatory database or official registry
  • Sub-distributors or agents without independent legal entity status
  • Distributors who have declined to participate in verification and whose data cannot be confirmed from secondary sources to a minimum Tier 2 standard
  • Companies with known active compliance or legal proceedings in the relevant jurisdiction
  • Companies that have not been operationally active within the past 24 months
On completeness: DistributorIQ does not claim to cover every distributor in a given market. In any given market, the database covers the distributors that matter for a serious principal — the ones with genuine scale, regulatory standing, and verifiable capability. The long tail of small, unverified operators is deliberately excluded. If a principal has a specific distributor they want profiled that is not in the database, we will add them as a bespoke research engagement.
04
Refresh & monitoring

Data decays.
Here is how we
manage that.

A distributor profile that was accurate eighteen months ago may be materially wrong today. Ownership changes, licences lapse, competing brands are picked up. The refresh protocol is designed around the rate of change of different data types.

Data field type
Review frequency
Trigger for out-of-cycle update
Regulatory status
Licences, registrations, certifications
Continuous monitoring
Registry-linked where available
Any registry change, expiry alert, or client-reported discrepancy
Ownership & leadership
Ownership structure, key contacts
Annual
Primary call cycle
Trade press report of M&A, leadership change, or client report
Brand portfolio
Brands carried, exclusivity terms
Quarterly
Tier 1 distributors
New brand announcement, principal complaint, or conflict alert from shortlist
Operational data
Fleet, storage, headcount, coverage
Annual
Primary call cycle
Major expansion or contraction reported in trade press
Financial estimates
Tier 3 revenue proxies
Annual recalibration
Based on market benchmarks
Material change in operational scale
Shortlist-triggered monitoring
When a distributor is added to a client shortlist, they enter an enhanced monitoring period. Any material change — regulatory status, ownership, brand portfolio — triggers a notification to the client before the change is incorporated into the standard database update cycle. Platform tier clients receive webhook alerts for changes to shortlisted distributors.
05
Analyst standards

The human layer
and how it works.

The AI scores. The analyst is accountable. Every shortlist passes through a specialist analyst who is responsible for the quality and accuracy of the final output. This is not a review checkbox — it is where the intelligence layer earns its value.

🔍
Qualification standard
Analysts are required to have a minimum of three years of in-market commercial experience in the relevant geography and sector. Generalist analysts do not review shortlists. A healthcare shortlist in the Gulf is reviewed by someone who has worked in Gulf healthcare — not someone with general regional experience. A lubricants shortlist in Southeast Asia is reviewed by someone with on-the-ground lubricants distribution experience in that geography.
⚖️
Independence requirements
Analysts declare any prior relationship with distributors in the relevant market before conducting a review. Where a conflict exists — prior employment, commercial relationship, or personal connection — a different analyst is assigned. This declaration is logged and available to Platform tier clients on request.
✏️
Review scope
The analyst review covers: verification that criteria extraction accurately reflects the client brief; challenge of any AI ranking that conflicts with known market reality; addition of qualitative intelligence not captured in the structured profile; explicit flagging of data gaps with recommended diligence questions; and conflict-of-interest annotation across the shortlist as a set.
📝
Override authority
Analysts have full authority to override AI rankings. Where an override occurs, the rationale is documented in the shortlist output — the client sees both the AI score and the analyst's adjustment and the reason for it. Overrides are not hidden. In practice, overrides occur in approximately 20–30% of shortlists, most commonly for qualitative factors the structured data cannot capture.
06
Known limitations

What this
methodology cannot do.

Stating limitations clearly is not a weakness — it is the only way a client can make an appropriately calibrated decision. The following limitations are inherent to the product at its current stage.

Financial data is not audited
Revenue figures for private companies are estimates. They are derived from proxy indicators and market benchmarks, not from audited accounts. For public companies or companies that publish accounts, Tier 2 data is available. For all others, treat financial figures as directional, not definitive. Do not use them for credit assessment or formal due diligence without independent verification.
Regulatory transparency varies by market
Some markets have well-structured, accessible regulatory databases. Others — particularly at earlier stages of our coverage expansion — have less transparent official records, and rely more heavily on primary research and secondary sources. This means Tier 3 data is more prevalent in some markets than others. The profile will always indicate the data quality distribution so the client understands the reliability level they are working with.
Relationship intelligence is partial
The informal relationship networks that determine real-world distributor effectiveness — who knows who in a Ministry procurement committee, which family group has the real political connection — are partially captured at best. Analysts add known relationship intelligence from their experience, but this is inherently incomplete and should be treated as directional context, not verified fact.
Coverage is not exhaustive
The database covers the distributors that matter for a serious principal entering a market with ambition. It does not cover the full long tail of every registered entity. If a specific distributor you are aware of is not in the database, we will research and add them as a bespoke engagement. Absence from the database does not mean a distributor is unsuitable — it means we have not yet verified them.
Data has a refresh lag
Even with continuous monitoring for regulatory data, there is an inevitable lag between a real-world change and its incorporation into the database. The last-verified date on each data point is your indicator of currency. For time-sensitive engagements — particularly where a distributor's licence status is a deal-breaker — we recommend requesting a real-time verification check as part of the engagement.
AI scoring is not a substitute for judgement
The match score is a structured tool for filtering and ranking — it is not a recommendation. Two distributors with similar scores may be materially different in ways the structured data cannot capture. The score is the starting point for the analyst review and for your own diligence process, not the end point. We are explicit about this in every shortlist output.

See the methodology
in action.

Your first shortlist is complimentary. Submit a brief and receive a ranked, analyst-verified output — with data quality tiers displayed on every profile field.

Request your free shortlist → How it works
3
Quality tiers — on every field
100%
Analyst reviewed — every shortlist
48h
From brief to delivery