For the last decade, “going direct” was the holy grail of B2B technology.
Manufacturers cut out the middleman.
Software companies built massive outbound teams.
Marketing automation promised scale without relationships.
And for a while, it worked.
But in 2026, the pendulum is swinging back ... hard.
Across restaurant technology and hospitality, a familiar model is re-emerging as not just relevant, but essential: the product rep firm.
Long before CRMs, intent data, and AI-powered outbound sequences, manufacturers relied on product rep firms to sell complex solutions into complex industries.
Not because they lacked ambition.
Because they understood reality.
Rep firms existed to:
Build trust in local and regional markets
Educate buyers over time, not pressure them in one call
Represent multiple complementary solutions, not just one product
Translate features into outcomes buyers actually cared about
In industries like foodservice, manufacturing, and hospitality, this model thrived because buyers didn’t want vendors. Instead, they wanted guides.
Then software went digital. Venture money flooded in. And “direct-to-buyer” became the default.
Fast forward to today.
Restaurant operators are facing:
Margin pressure from labor, food costs, fees, and volatility
Tech stacks with 12–20 systems that don’t naturally work together
Thousands of vendors competing for attention
Long contracts, high switching costs, and real operational risk
At the same time, technology vendors are battling:
Rising customer acquisition costs
Longer sales cycles
Lower trust from increasingly skeptical buyers
Decision fatigue inside restaurant organizations
The result is a buyer-seller tug of war where neither side feels well served.
Operators don’t want another demo.
Vendors don’t want another unqualified lead.
Everyone loses.
There are now over 4,000 restaurant technology solutions in the market.
That’s not innovation... that’s overwhelm.
Operators are forced to become:
System integrators
Contract negotiators
Technology translators
Vendors, meanwhile, are forced to shout louder just to be heard.
This is where “going direct” becomes dangerous.
When every vendor tells their own story, the buyer has no frame of reference. No filter. No trusted signal.
And in high-stakes environments like restaurants, confusion kills deals.
The modern product rep firm isn’t a throwback — it’s an evolution.
Done right, a rep firm:
Represents multiple vetted solutions, not just one
Understands how tools work together, not in isolation
Builds long-term relationships with operators, not transactional ones
Protects buyers from bad decisions — and vendors from bad fits
In other words, it restores balance.
Vendors don’t have to go it alone.
Operators don’t have to figure it out themselves.
In today’s market, going direct without a seasoned partner creates real risk:
Misaligned sales conversations that focus on features instead of outcomes
Wasted cycles on buyers who aren’t ready, qualified, or a true fit
Damaged trust when expectations don’t match operational reality
Higher churn when solutions are sold without context
A strong rep firm acts as a buffer — and a multiplier.
They know when to push forward and when to slow things down.
They know which problems are urgent and which are noise.
They know how operators actually buy.
This is where OGC fits in.
OGC isn’t trying to sell everything to everyone.
And it’s not trying to replace internal sales teams.
Instead, OGC operates at the center of the ecosystem:
Helping restaurant brands make stress-free, informed decisions
Helping vendors reach the right operators at the right time
Helping sales agents act as trusted advisors, not pitch machines
By representing a curated portfolio of solutions across multiple applications, OGC brings clarity back to a market that desperately needs it.
What’s different now isn’t the concept — it’s the execution.
Today’s product rep firms are:
Data-informed, not gut-driven
Outcome-focused, not feature-obsessed
Ecosystem-aware, not product-siloed
In a market this crowded, neutrality is a competitive advantage.
In 2026, the winners won’t be the loudest vendors or the biggest outbound teams.
They’ll be the ones who recognize a simple truth:
Complex markets require trusted intermediaries.
Product rep firms never really went away.
They just evolved.
And in today’s restaurant technology landscape, they’re not a step backward, they’re the way forward.
Reach out to us to discuss your goals.