Sales Territory Planning Best Practices & Tips

sales territory planning map

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It’s a fact that technology-catalyzed market disruptions have become a regular feature of the business landscape. The 21st century has cast off old, geographically bound sales territory models in favor of smarter, more agile, market-segment–driven systems of planning. 

Much of the sea change in how to approach a sales territory development plan has been driven by circumstances that have made it either difficult or impossible to meet prospects and clients in person. 

What are sales territory planning best practices, and how will your business stay competitive in the ever-changing marketplace? With so many new ideas being brought into the mix — some of them with staying power and some without — it’s incredibly important that you know your business. 

A key provision of that set of KPIs is how you engage sales planning and handle your sales territories. While it’s true that those who plan ahead plan twice, it’s also true that planning twice gets you a lot closer to victory in territory management than walking into battle with no sales plan at all.

Sales Territory Plan Best Practices Overview

We’re going to help make things a little clearer as we delve into the finer points of how to write a sales territory plan. We’ll cover:

  • The importance of determining territories
  • Strategic daily tasks
  • Reviewing and forecasting results through trends
  • Cadence or buying cycle awareness
  • Effective time management

From management’s perspective, sales is the one department that can seem a little like the jungle or even a street brawl. Those with a penchant for sales might seem a little unruly to those who favor spreadsheets and protocol. However, you might be surprised how responsive your sales team will ultimately be if you give them a simple backstop and guardrails, especially if it gives them better results. 

Sales professionals always appreciate a little more strategy if it means their commissions go higher. Competent account management and an orderly approach could produce higher lead generation. When that hits home on their sales compensation plan, you’ll have their attention in a good way.

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Best Practice 1: Determine the Territory

When we talk about territory, we don’t mean lines on a map. Those days are (mostly) long gone. Unless you’re in something geographically dependent like the mining or forestry business, you can likely organize your accounts differently in the 21st century.

Size, demographics, competitors, and even internal company realities can speak to new ways that you can define your market. 

What are your company’s values and goals? What are your revenue streams, and what segments within your customer base most align with these? What segments generate the most revenue? 

When you know the answers to these questions, you can effectively marshal your resources where they’re needed most. That’s good territory alignment.

As you chase down what the concept of sales territory planning best practices means for you, begin by identifying one profitable niche. Then you can look for and identify similar sets in other markets for your sales team to tap. 

Best Practice 2: Strategic Daily Tasks

Giving your sales reps daily to-dos could either be looked at as micromanagement or an opportunity for buy-in. After all, management casts the vision and communicates the strategy. Depending on your style, territory planning could be done collaboratively (and give your sales team even more buy-in). 

As you’re building a sales territory plan and attendant sales commission plan, giving your reps a daily target to hit means they’re invested in the strategy you’ve cast.

The other benefit of assigning daily tasks within your communicated strategy is that performance can be tracked. It’s a great idea to use a CRM tool for this purpose. When every touch is recorded and every verbal commitment is documented, KPIs can be clearly monitored. You’ll have a clear picture of the health of your sales team, and your sales team will know where they stand.

One of the most powerful forces any business wants to be able to unlock is agility. Waking up to the nightmare of the realization that 80% of your business is coming from one client is an unpleasant experience. If they go, you go. 

Therefore, identifying trends and new leads is like the air your business breathes. 

Regularly reviewing what’s coming in and from where is crucial. Sales capacity planning like this can help you take the pulse of the business, but it can also help you identify opportunities for growth that would remain otherwise invisible. You can even use a sales territory plan template.

Best Practice 4: Cadence/Buying Cycle Awareness

The purpose of learning sales territory planning best practices is to cultivate, among other things, situational awareness. Trying to sell a motorcycle in Minnesota in January would be a waste of time and effort. The best sales teams cultivate a wide-eyed awareness of the buying cycle or season for certain goods and services. 

Similarly, an effective sales rep knows how many touches are needed to get the sale. Some clients need a weekly visit, others need a monthly call, and still others respond to nothing but a quarterly email. These distinctions must be noted, tracked, and observed if your team is going to obtain ultimate efficiency.

Best Practice 5:  Effective Time Management

Building a sales territory plan all comes together here. When you have a clear picture of what territories belong to whom, who is doing what task every day, what’s trending, and what time it is (cadence and seasons), effective time management will follow logically. 

Good sales managers know when to stay out of the way and when to check in for a progress report. Effective time management respects the schedules of the individuals on the sales team. 

But at no time should there be idle hands. Every effective sales rep knows that if they’re not on a call, they’re researching prospects, looking for leads, backtracking to potentially underserved clients, and so on. 

A quality CRM tool will pay for itself through the dividends it reaps in organizing the sales rep’s average day. The only way you’ll effectively manage your time for sales territory planning best practices is if you know what you should focus on first, second, and so on. It can do nothing but help your people.

Get Organized Today

None of what we advocate here is to stay busy for the sake of staying busy. A good strategy for sales territory planning will involve taking the data and applying it so your business can thrive in every department. 

The sales team is your eyes and ears. It makes sense to keep them close and well connected to the heart of the business. That means getting them as much performance data as you realistically can, helping reps track and meet their goals, and instituting a little situational awareness. Having accomplished that, the whole enterprise will become much more efficient and effective.

To learn more about how we can help you meet your sales goals, contact QBIX today.

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FAQs

What Should a Sales Territory Plan Include?

Every sales territory plan should include at least the following:

  • Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
  • Gifted sales leader 
  • Smart cadence management
  • Aggressive data tracking and analysis
  • Lead gen

If these seem a little data-driven, that’s intentional. The best closers walk into every call with as much intelligence as possible. A sales territory plan that gives each sales rep the tools they need to execute will produce consistent wins for the company.

How Do You Organize a Sales Territory?

Sales territory management used to organize everything strictly on geographical lines, largely because each touch was a physical visit. Once technology started shrinking the world and other techniques became possible, it also became possible to organize along other lines.

Does a given sales rep have a certain strength with a certain personality type? It may benefit the business to organize a territory for that person based on that strength, regardless of any other qualitative feature. 

It may also make sense to assign an expert or two in a certain industry or consumer segment, regardless of how the territory lays out geographically.

In essence, it all depends on your internal analysis, strengths, and priorities.

What Are the Various Steps of Territory Planning?

As you consider how to write a sales territory plan, know that most professionals agree on the following steps, although not necessarily in this order:

  • Map sales rep strengths/weaknesses
  • Assess account/prospect quality
  • Define your sales goals
  • Define the market segment
  • Assign your leads
  • Circle back to assess and revise the plan regularly

It’s also a good idea to delegate a leader from within the team — someone your reps will consider “one of us,” who speaks the same language and can translate the sales manager’s instructions into something digestible for the team. 

What Is Territory Design in Sales Planning?

A sales territory development plan comes from defining an area and the sales and revenue targets your reps are responsible for. Done right, you’ll reach the customers you aim for, you’ll make revenue goals, and growth will happen. 

These days, territories are segmented by industry or customer type and many other factors, which allows geographical overlap but enables each rep to specialize in their niche.

What Makes a Good Territory Plan? 

When you’re considering how to write a sales territory plan, know that the best ones are data driven and flexible. Nothing is sacred, especially when the difference between a good plan and a bad plan is as wide as the gap between success and failure. 

Further Reading