TERRITORY MANAGEMENT
DEFINITION:
The development and implementation of a strategy for directing selling activities toward customers in
a sales territory aimed at maintaining the lines of communications, improving sales coverage, and
minimizing wasted time.
What is territory management:
Territory management is changing. Some of the shifts -
reassignment and relocation - are customary for salespeople. Yet
new technologies and the pressure to maintain an efficient bottom
line create faster change and a need to manage salespeople in the
field more efficiently. And then there's the change in the very
definition of territories. Some companies are dropping the old
geographic divisions of sales responsibilities, shifting to industry
and product-line segmentation of their markets. This new way of
organizing sales reflects the shift to national marketing and team
selling for major accounts. Even when top salespeople serve major
accounts nationally, however, the old geographic divisions may still
matter. Customers reached by alternate distribution channels and
franchises may still be put in territory "buckets." And the frequent
and direct contacts that must be made with retailers are often still
organized by local territories. So some old rules still apply, albeit in
new forms.
Keep In Step:
Territory management is still basic to many companies'
overall business plans. The plan sets target sales and
profit margins at least annually. By breaking these
down into product lines and territories or by customer
segments, the overall goal still becomes the sum of
individual territory goals.
Territory assignments often need to be changed even if
results are generally within plan. Markets change,
salespeople leave or arrive. And experienced
salespeople improve in their market knowledge and
selling skills.
"Things get knocked out of whack" even in a good
territory plan, says Jim Brown, vice president of Metron
Inc., which performs territory reassignment work for
some of the nation's top companies.
But special factors should accelerate a review of
territory assignments, Brown argues. An acquisition of
a new product line or a change in marketing strategy
should be followed immediately by a re-examination of
how salespeople are assigned.
One primary objective of any territory assignment plan
should be to balance the sales load evenly among
salespeople. Surprising growth in some markets can
stretch salespeople beyond their practical capacities to
tap all prospects.
ALSO ABOUT territory management
Territory management develops and implements a strategy
for directing selling activities toward customers in a sales
territory aimed at maintaining the lines of
communications, improving sales coverage, and
minimizing wasted time. It includes the allocation of sales
calls to customers and the planning, routing, and
scheduling of the calls.
Territory management develops and implements a strategy for
directing selling activities toward customers in a sales territory
aimed at maintaining the lines of communications, improving
sales coverage, and minimizing wasted time. It includes the
allocation of sales calls to customers and the planning, routing,
and scheduling of the calls.
We know that territory management is a two-way street – a
dual process of information and communication. First, territory
management provides sales managers with accurate
measurements of territory results, and the relative success of
that territory’s sales teams. And second, territory management
offers the sales team strategic information about the impact of
promotional campaigns and a variety of other data and
analyses.
Some of the Business Benefits provided by
territory management include:
Managers can gain an up-to-the minute view of their individual
territory
pipeline from the highest level to the most granular.
Regional sales teams can keep lock-step with one another when
collaborating on important deals.
Your company will gain better insight into sales effectiveness and
performance by territory
Easy set up and assignment of territories
Simplifying territory realignments after sales reorganizations
Eliminating lag time in lead assignment
Stretching your selling day and spending more time with your
customers
Planning effectively and avoiding losing sales to better organized
competitors
Selling more, earning more and accomplishing more
Setting goals and priorities to maximize your selling effectiveness
Increasing selling time by minimizing distractions and
procrastination
Maintaining contact with key prospects and accounts
Making more productive use of travel time
Improving your return on investment (ROI) and reducing turnover
Territory management features include:
Multiple territories per account
Rules-based descriptions of territories
Allows bulk calculation of territories
Automatically identifies accounts that have not been assigned
territories
Smart rebuild of unassigned accounts
Configurable territory calculations on account entry or update
Calculate by country, state/province, postal code and industry
segment
Manual territory overrides to support exclusive territory
assignments
Ability to recalculate selective territories
Ability to use territories as for designating account ownership and
sales teams
Ability to assign sales agents and partners to one or more
territories
Territory breakdown reports
Conclusion:
Effective sales territory management begins with touching base with
every single one of your existing customers. Ask questions to gauge
their satisfaction with their relationship with your company. If they
identify any problems, work aggressively to solve these problems as
your first priority.
If a customer expresses happiness and satisfaction, ask questions to
determine what your company has been doing right. Use this
information to create a template for managing all of your accounts.
Also be sure to ask for referrals, both in general and to specific target
accounts. Exhaust these referrals before you begin the other (less
productive) activities in your prospecting plan.
Prioritize your activities as described in this article, and you will
maximize sales growth in your territory!
