Sales operations teams know territory design is critical for revenue achievement. It directly affects sales team goals and performance. If you get it wrong, it can undermine team morale, impact retention and reduce revenue.
Territory Management and Design is complex, dynamic and tough. This guide will help you design, implement, and refine your Sales Territory Management System.
Start with your data. Too often territory design is based on "gut feel". Later in your design process, you encourage input from your sales leaders and sales reps. But build your foundation on your sales data.
The territory planning process can be complex and lengthy. So start early and schedule times for designing, sharing and accelerating feedback from the team.
If you are growing quickly or resizing your sales team numbers. It is important to develop different scenarios for growth or reductions in seller numbers.
Adopting workload can ensure your sales territories are manageable and equitable for all sellers.
Territory decisions can have unforeseen effects. Reps can be frustrated if their accounts move, or if they inherit new customers. Customers can respond negatively to a change in their rep. So, when making changes try minimizing these effects and implement changes that remain in place for at least one year.
Sales data can overwhelm you. Focusing on trends is your secret sauce. What insights are you gaining on
Overlaying multiple datasets on a map generates insight impossible to gain on spreadsheets.
For some of you working in dynamic industries with large numbers of sellers, it's essential to redesign and realign territories on a quarterly basis. For others, annual alignments are best. We recommend that every organisation performs an annual territory alignment.
Equitable sales territories provide reps with equal opportunity to hit sales goals and maximize earnings. Unequal sales territories can result in higher sales team turnover and lower motivation. So, always consider the impact of territory changes on sellers' performance. Never allow the territory to reward the seller.
Traditional territory designs suffered from major shortcomings like reps enjoying areas with so much sales potential, they can't cope. While other reps scraped a living in territories with limited sales potential.
Your market is dynamic. So, well-designed sales territories may lose market share gradually due to competition or customer movement. Your resources are not maximizing new growth opportunities.
Using your sales data (from your CRM or ERP) you gain a clearer picture of:
Your goal is to maximise sales potential while minimizing the cost of sales. You must ensure you create equitable and balanced sales territories.
If you have reps with too many accounts to service you are losing revenue. If you have sellers with too few accounts to service you lose valuable revenue potential.
Your reps want equal opportunity to grow revenue and maximize their earnings. Unbalanced territories can lead to higher rep turnover.
Success Tip - Measure your sales team workload.
Workload is a recommended formula that delivers. It results in more equitable, balanced territories and lets you see where to adjust headcounts while improving rep earnings potential.
You commit to designing balanced and equitable sales territories that are centred on areas of the highest sales potential. Unsure which approach works best? Every organization is different requiring different approaches.
As your guide consider the number of alignments you make annually. If you have a dynamic, changeable territory base (with high levels of territory turnover) you should consider automation.
A final consideration is your requirement for balancing indexes. Some eSpatial clients use sophisticated multi attribute-based alignments. The level of complexity is such that the only real option is optimization software.
Sales Territory Mapping software spans a variety of use cases and applications, but many are designed for technical mapping experts. If you're not an expert in geographical information systems (GIS), choose intuitive mapping software. A product built for Sales Operations leaders, not GIS experts.
All new software involves a learning curve. User adoption is affected by ease of use. You'll need to consider those in sales, service, marketing and operations. How easy is it for them? How quickly can they be trained and onboarded?
You must also consider any legacy systems and how easy it is to integrate mapping workflows into existing processes.
The cost of any data breach is severe. So, you should consider how your data is stored. Always ask about:
How do you assess sales territory mapping software's return on investment (ROI)? A great starting point is to check customer references and testimonials.
Also, look for a solution that allows you to scale quickly. You won't need to invest everything upfront. By starting with a smaller number of users, you can build your business case and measure investment returns
Think about the types of ROI you need: