ICYMI: The Step-by-Step Guide to your 2025 Revenue Planning
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Building Territories
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Building territories and account books is all about maximizing revenue from each sales rep, but there are common mistakes that get made if we’re only thinking about 100% efficiency. These mistakes can be avoided by understanding when they typically happen.
Creating Unequal Territories
The Trap: Building territories solely on geography without considering the opportunity or account value in each region. This leads to some reps having far more (or less) opportunity than others. Geography is an easy territory tool, but should never be the only metric.
How to Avoid: Balance territories not just by geography but by potential opportunity. Use your account scoring model to ensure each territory has a similar mix of high, medium, and low-value accounts, creating equitable opportunities for all reps.
Not Adjusting Territories Regularly
The Trap: Many organizations set territories once and never revisit them. Over time, this can lead to unbalanced workloads as new businesses emerge or existing customers grow.
How to Avoid: Review territories quarterly or at least semi-annually. Reevaluate based on changes in the market, company size, or new product offerings. Be agile and make adjustments as needed to keep workloads equitable and aligned with business opportunities.
Assigning Too Many Accounts per Territory
The Trap: Giving reps a large volume of accounts to work sounds good (look at the revenue potential of this territory!), but too many leads can dilute their focus, leading to poor follow-up and lower conversion rates.
How to Avoid: Prioritize quality over quantity. Focus on giving each rep a manageable number of accounts they can deeply engage with. The goal is to increase conversions, not just the sheer number of contacts.
Ignoring Rep Strengths and Expertise
The Trap: Assigning territories without considering a rep’s experience, industry expertise, or existing relationships can hurt territory performance.
How to Avoid: When building territories, use the data you already have access to to understand individual rep strengths. If someone has deep experience in the healthcare industry, assign them a healthcare-heavy territory.
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