Pre-close "channel stuffing" for businesses with distribution channels

For product companies that sell through 3rd parties who hold inventory: there can be a variation between what is sold in (Mfr to reseller) and what is sold out (reseller to end customer) which essentially reflects build-up of inventory in the channel. In large companies there is a concept of "stuffing the channel" - where the reseller buys extra inventory at end of quarter to inflate the manufacturer's reported earnings or help reps meet quota. It's quite naughty but it happens, and mature mfrs have systems to reduce. For ETA - this seems a huge and under-discussed risk. It seems hard or impossible to measure sell out for small businesses. There are many incentives for a seller to inflate sales, e.g., to hide market decline, inflate EV, harvest additional cash, or impress the buyer. This is just a pull-forward of demand, and in fact reduces the sales in the following months - so the buyer will see two negative deltas - one for the expectation mismatch, and one for the delay until channel inventory draws down. I would think that a reseller with a longstanding personal relationship with a business owner would be willing to do "one last favor" by increasing inventory for a few months. They also would be unlikely to divulge useful information to the buyer during DD. Even if a buyer can measure this, the seller will be very reluctant to hear critical questions after what they see as an amazing month. Does anyone have any good techniques for uncovering, validating, or negotiating this? My best guess is it's a combination of a forgivable seller note (to incentivize long term over short term), with clarity to the broker around what revenue deltas in months leading to close could trigger.