Success requires a plan–and that’s especially true when it comes to planning sales territories. A territory plan gives your sales team a framework to focus their efforts and maximize productivity. Whether you divide the plan by geography, customer type, industry, or other parameters is irrelevant – it’s up to you and what works best for […]
Success requires a plan–and that’s especially true when it comes to planning sales territories. A territory plan gives your sales team a framework to focus their efforts and maximize productivity. Whether you divide the plan by geography, customer type, industry, or other parameters is irrelevant – it’s up to you and what works best for your team. What matters is that it organizes the team, gets everyone on the same page, and ensures you’re targeting the right prospects.
What Is Sales Territory Planning?
In a nutshell, sales territory plans organize the efforts of a sales team. Territorial sales are something that every organization needs to think about, whether you’re a one-person operation or a massive corporation.
Why Is Sales Territory Planning Important?
Creating sales territories is as vital for productivity as having a working phone and Internet connection. Why? Here are a few of the many good reasons:
Order
Even a solo salesperson has to start somewhere. We all want to spend the least amount of time generating the largest deals possible. One of the smartest ways to do this is by defining sales regions based on the likelihood of conversion. On the other end of the spectrum, sales territories in big companies reduce redundant efforts and allow the team to go after multiple targets at the same time.
Fairness
is a process that displays prospects and the people on the team who are allocated to approach them; mapping puts the results of the territory plan in visual form. When managing a sales territory, it’s critical to assign sales targets according to your team’s individual strengths. But just as essentially, it gives each salesperson an equal chance of success and keeps everyone as busy as possible.
Measurement
Territory management in sales must be assessed; otherwise, you don’t know if your approach is working. By using the right measurement techniques, you can understand if and how you are succeeding – which is the ultimate goal of sales. On the other hand, without metrics, it won’t be clear if poor sales techniques are to blame for low performance, or if your team is going after the wrong customers.
How Do You Create a Sales Territory Plan?
There are a few critical steps to building a territorial sales plan, but you don’t have to do them in order. For example, if you have been in business for a while, you might want to set up a new sales campaign by looking at goals before reviewing team strengths. No matter which route you go, here are the basic moves to make:
Analyze Market and Prospects
If you’re new to territory planning, it’s critical to understand the ideal customer profile (ICP) and pain points. The ICP tells you what prospects to pursue, while pain points give you insight on how to approach them. The ICP includes characteristics related to why you consider an organization a target in the first place. These are things like what kinds of products they buy, where they are located, and how many people they employ.
Once that’s done, you can apply this knowledge to a sales prospect list as you grade the prospects according to how closely they match the ICP. For instance, if the ideal customer has sales of above $1 million, they get top billing, while lower revenue prospects get lower grades.
Look at What Your Competitors Are Doing
This is important whenever you’re doing any sales-related activity. But when it comes to territory planning, competitive analysis focuses on where other companies are already selling. If you have lots of competition in your geographical area, you might want to explore hiring remote salespeople to open their local markets.
Adjust the Plan to the Team
Salespeople are not made in a factory. Each has strengths and weaknesses that make them more or less relevant for certain prospects. For example, you might have a team member who is great at outside sales that you aim at large accounts, and another who is amazing at rapid follow-ups for prospect inquiries. Prospects should be assigned to the salesperson according to their talents.
Follow Strategy
Your company’s sales strategy will be running in the background during the entire territory planning process. The plan should outline goals, schedules, and procedures that the team will need to keep in mind as they go about their daily sales tasks. It’s the manager’s job to make sure that the territory plan matches the strategy as closely as possible.
Measure Progress
Some leaders love numbers, others avoid them like the plague. But both types need to look at the right kinds of assessments and change the territory plan if the figures don’t meet goals.
Remember to choose the correct measurements for your type of organization. For example, SaaS companies have a favorite list of calculations. One of the most valuable numbers to look at when creating and revising a territory plan is the win-loss analysis.
Territory Planning Best Practices
If there’s one thing that everyone agrees on, it’s that you want to get your territorial sales plan right the first time around. Here are a few tips for hitting that sales sweet spot ASAP.
Appoint a Dedicated Sales Territory Manager
Larger companies often bring a full-time territory manager on board whose job is to constantly monitor and adjust the plan. If you don’t have this luxury, then think about having a specific and experienced person on the team responsible for the function. This might be a different manager than the overall sales leader so that the territory manager can focus on all of the complex elements that go into an effective effort.
Connect Territories to Timing
Big accounts, small accounts, foreign accounts, local accounts – each will operate according to a certain schedule and process. It will take longer to close some deals than others. Make sure that the territory plan accounts for this through careful timing. For example, you could give a person on your team several (hopefully) quick deals and a few slow-movers so that they maintain a steady schedule.
Use Technology
The pioneers of territory sales management used maps and spreadsheets for planning, but you don’t have to. There are many software packages custom-made for this purpose. They allow you to constantly update your strategy, visually track progress, and connect with other sales tools. Portatour and Yellowfin are two great examples.
Keep After New Prospects
Companies that engage in territory planning on an occasional basis often work according to existing prospect lists that are only updated every once in a while. Although this keeps the number of targets within a manageable range, it’s important to take some time every week to go after new leads. This will give the team a change of pace and allow them to potentially grab some lucky deals.
Key Takeaways
- Sales territory planning is used to get a sales team on the same page and is vital for providing order, fairness, and a way to grade results.
- Territory planning looks at customer profiles, competitors, team strengths, strategy, and progress measurements.
- Best practices for territory planning include appointing a dedicated manager, accounting for the sales cycle, using technology, and keeping an eye on new prospects.
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