The tour bias
Warehouses photograph well. They rarely reveal parallel importation, side deals with competitors, or credit terms that only work while your brand is fashionable.
Ask operators, not only owners
Speak with sales supervisors, transporters and a few downstream retailers. Patterns in payment fights and stockouts are more informative than a prepared management narrative.
Incentive maps
Who earns when your SKU wins? Who earns when a substitute wins? If those answers are fuzzy, your volume forecast is a hope.
Contractual teeth
Audit rights, data sharing, and termination triggers need to match how disputes actually play out. Pretty contracts that nobody can enforce locally are decoration.