What are some of the options for accessing markets for a new product?

You can sell directly or go through an external organization.

There are a lot of advantages to going direct, especially at the outset and in an easily covered market. It forces you to learn firsthand about customers, pricing, packaging, support, competition, order sizes, product performance and ways you can distinguish your product from your competitors. To do this effectively, you would need to do your research and start talking to prospective customers. Get in front of the customers as much as possible.

You can also use external sales channels, whether through sales representatives, through dealers and distributors or, depending on your customer base, through retail outlets. Talk to buyers or sellers of similar products for ideas. If you are going to use a sales rep, dealer or distributor, decide on the commercial terms. Will you use commissions for sales reps or discounts from suggested list for dealers and distributors? Address training and support, and enter into a formal written agreement that spells out the roles and responsibilities for both your business and  your agent.

You may have a different sales rep or dealer organization for each geographic area, so you must expect to spend time meeting, screening, checking references, doing the agreements and then monitoring their performance and supporting them. Having this function outside your company saves some fixed-cost overhead, but doing so takes good planning and management.