sales territory plan presentation

Sales territory plan presentation: A comprehensive guide

Learn how to create a sales territory plan presentation that will help you achieve your sales goals.

Raja Bothra

Building presentations

Hey there, folks!

Today, I'm going to walk you through the ins and outs of creating a top-notch sales territory plan presentation.

This guide is your ticket to understanding what a sales territory plan presentation is, why it's so crucial, and how to structure it for maximum impact.

So, buckle up as we dive into the world of sales territories, strategy, and presentation.

What is a sales territory plan presentation?

Let's start with the basics, shall we? A sales territory plan presentation is the visual representation of your strategic approach to sales territories. It's a roadmap that outlines how your sales team will navigate different territories to achieve their goals. This presentation serves as a guide to help your team understand where to focus their efforts and how to allocate resources effectively.

Now, you might be wondering, why is this even necessary?

Why are sales territories presentations important?

Well, my friends, a well-crafted sales territory plan presentation is like a treasure map for your sales team. It's a vital tool for a number of reasons:

• Optimizing efficiency : By dividing your market into territories, you ensure that your sales team is targeting the right areas and the right customers, which leads to higher efficiency.
• Targeted approach : It allows you to customize your sales strategy for different regions, taking into account geographical variations and unique customer profiles.
• Better sales performance : A thought-out plan helps in setting clear goals, improving sales performance, and, ultimately, achieving higher sales numbers.
• Strategic allocation : You can allocate resources, assign quotas, and assess the performance of your sales representatives more effectively.
• Adaptability : In a constantly changing market, a solid sales territory plan presentation allows your team to adapt to shifts in the industry and the competitive landscape.

How to structure a sales territory plan presentation

Now, the million-dollar question is, how do you structure your sales territory plan presentation effectively? It's not as complicated as it sounds, and I'm here to simplify it for you.

1. Introduction: Start your presentation by introducing the purpose and significance of the sales territory plan. Clearly state the objectives, such as increasing revenue, expanding the customer base, or penetrating new markets. This section should also briefly touch on the current state of the market and your company's position within it.

2. Territory overview: Provide an overview of the sales territories, including their geographic boundaries, demographics, and potential market size. Use visual aids like maps or charts to make this information more digestible. It's important to establish a clear understanding of where your sales team will be operating.

3. SWOT analysis: Conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for each territory. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your products, services, and the sales team within each territory. Discuss opportunities for growth and potential threats that may hinder sales efforts.

4. Goals and objectives: Clearly define the specific goals and objectives for each territory. Ensure that they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Emphasize how achieving these goals will contribute to the overall success of the company.

5. Sales strategy: Present the sales strategy you'll employ in each territory. This should cover the sales channels, customer segments, and value propositions. Discuss how your team will differentiate themselves and add value to potential clients.

6. Sales team allocation: Describe how you're allocating your sales team resources across the territories. This may include the number of salespeople, their roles, and responsibilities. Make it clear how each team member contributes to the overall sales strategy.

7. Sales tactics: Dive into the specific sales tactics and activities that your team will execute to achieve their objectives. This could involve prospecting, cold calling, relationship building, lead nurturing, and closing techniques. Provide examples and best practices to guide the team.

8. Sales metrics and KPIs: Explain the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you'll use to measure success. This can include metrics like sales revenue, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value. Highlight how frequently these metrics will be tracked and reviewed.

9. Sales technology and tools: Discuss any sales technology, software, or tools that will aid your sales team in their efforts. Whether it's a CRM system, analytics software, or communication tools, ensure your team is well-equipped.

10. Timeline and milestones: Lay out a timeline for the execution of the plan, including key milestones and deadlines. This provides a clear roadmap for your sales team to follow and helps in tracking progress.

11. Budget and resources: Present the budget allocation for each territory and the resources required to achieve the set objectives. This should include personnel, marketing, and operational costs.

12. Conclusion and call to action: Conclude the presentation by summarizing the key points and emphasizing the importance of the plan. Encourage your sales team to take ownership of their territories and execute the plan with enthusiasm and determination.

By following this structured approach, your sales territory plan presentation will be informative, engaging, and actionable. It ensures that your sales team is well-prepared to tackle their respective territories with a clear strategy and a unified sense of purpose.

Do’s and Don'ts on a Sales Territory Plan Presentation

We've covered the basics, but let's dig a bit deeper into some do's and don'ts when creating your sales territory plan presentation.

• Assign territories with care : When assigning territories, make sure it's a good fit for the individual sales rep.
• Set measurable goals : Make sure your goals are measurable and align with your overall business objectives.
• Regular cadence : Maintain a cadence for reviewing and updating your plan to keep it relevant.
• Embrace technology : Use CRM software to streamline your sales efforts.
• Overcomplicate : Don’t make your presentation overly complex. Keep it clear and focused.
• Ignore data : Don't neglect your sales data; it's your treasure trove of insights.
• Lack of flexibility : Don't stick to a plan if it's not working. Be ready to adapt.
• Lose sight of your target audience : Always remember who your target audience is and tailor your approach accordingly.

Summarizing key takeaways

• Sales territory plan presentation is essential for efficient sales strategies.
• It optimizes efficiency, targets the right areas, and enhances performance.
• Structure : Introduction, Territory Overview, SWOT, Goals, Strategy, Team, Tactics, Metrics, Tech, Timeline, Budget.
• Do's : Careful territory assignments, measurable goals, regular reviews, and technology.
• Don'ts : Avoid complexity, neglecting data, lack of flexibility, and forgetting the target audience.

1. What is a sales territory plan template, and how can it improve productivity for sales teams?

A sales territory plan template is a structured framework that guides the creation of a sales territory management plan. It helps organizations prioritize their sales goals and pipeline management, ensuring that the right sales opportunities are focused on. By using a plan template, you can create a sales plan that allows for consistent sales growth and helps you set goals for your team.

2. How can a successful sales territory plan presentation help address external factors and industry fit?

A successful effective sales territory plan presentation takes into account not only existing sales data but also external factors and industry fit. By explaining why specific market segments are chosen within the company, the plan allows organizations to adapt to constant changes in territory division. This helps the sales team's organization by positioning them to better handle opportunities and threats stemming from shifts in the market.

3. Can sales territory management best practices contribute to better sales productivity and profitability?

Yes, Sales Territory Management Best Practices can significantly enhance sales productivity and profitability. By efficiently managing sales territories and segmenting customers into three groups, you can help determine the target profiles and even distribution of resources. This optimizes the utilization of the sales team's skills and talents while reducing inefficiency and improving the organization's profitability.

4. How can a sales territory plan presentation leverage existing customers to grow the business and target new opportunities?

A well-crafted Sales Territory Plan presentation incorporates existing customer data, purchase history, and buying patterns. By using this information to identify potential revenue gain and to create a plan based on specific regions and market segments, you can effectively target both existing customers and new business opportunities. This not only helps grow your business but also ensures your team can help prioritize and manage the sales pipeline effectively.

5. What role do account managers play in managing sales territories, and how can a scorecard be used to track sales success?

Account Managers are crucial in managing sales territories. They help you target the right sales opportunities and ensure that customers are ready to buy. Additionally, using tools like a scorecard, you can track sales success and measure the performance of your sales team. This information can lead to additional research to learn about the team's performance and guide the team's actions, such as due dates and constant changes in territory division, to improve sales productivity and profitability.

Create your sales territory plan presentation with prezent

Prezent, the communication success platform, offers valuable assistance in crafting your case sales territory plan presentation. By combining a range of features, it streamlines the process and ensures your presentation is both effective and on-brand.

• Personalized fingerprints : Prezent's AI tool allows you to create personalized presentations tailored to the preferences of your audience. This level of personalization is essential in making your sales territory plan more engaging and convincing.
• Brand-approved design : With over 35,000 slides in your company's brand-approved design, you can maintain a consistent and professional appearance throughout your presentation. This feature helps in building trust and credibility with your audience.
• Structured storytelling : Prezent helps you master structured storytelling, a crucial element in conveying your sales territory plan effectively. It offers 50+ storylines commonly used by business leaders, enabling you to present your case coherently.
• Real-time sharing and collaboration : Collaboration is made seamless with Prezent. You can collaborate with colleagues within and outside your company in real-time, ensuring that your sales territory plan is well-rounded and takes into account different perspectives.
• Cost efficiency : Prezent helps you reduce communication costs significantly. It allows you to replace expensive agencies with its software and services, saving resources while delivering a top-notch presentation.

Incorporating Prezent into your sales territory planning process ensures that your presentation is not only persuasive but also time-efficient, on-brand, and personalized for your target audience.

Get ready to supercharge your sales territory plan presentations. Try our free trial or book a demo today with Prezent!

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How to create an effective sales territory plan in 6 steps

Some experts say that the secret to sales success is a combination of skill, perseverance, and a good sales conversation starter . And they’re right—those are all important attributes for salespeople. But it overlooks what is possibly the most important factor in sales success—which happens before a meeting is even booked: your sales territory plan. 

If you’re running a small business , you may wonder why you need a sales territory plan. After all, it sounds complicated—something for bigger, more sophisticated organizations.

But think of that plan as the important strategic groundwork that’s going to help you reach your sales goals. The good news is that yours doesn’t need to be complicated. And we’re here to help you create one, headache-free, for your small business or team.  

Let’s break it down. In this post we’ll cover: 

• What a sales territory plan is
• 4 reasons why you need one

How to create a sales territory plan in 6 steps

• Essential tools for creating the plan

Up your sales game and close more deals with these free cold outreach scripts. ☎️

What is a sales territory plan?

Basically, it’s your strategy for how your team will target and approach prospects, leads, and existing customers to close more deals. Before you jump into your fancy sales territory mapping software , you need a battle plan:

An example of a sales territory plan from Adaptive Insights that shows things like which sales reps (and how many reps) you need, how many accounts you want to win per year, and more.

Traditionally—and as its name tells you—the sales territory plan was defined by geography. Salespeople would focus on prospects within a specific area only. 

Today’s level of connectivity has changed that. You can now optimize your sales territory plan and target your leads by industry, business size, deal potential, and role too. Which, as you might guess, is much more effective than using geography alone. 

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4 reasons why even small businesses need a sales territory plan

You’d never walk into a sales meeting with a prospect without having done a decent amount of prep work. Creating a sales territory plan should be no different. Here’s why. 

1. It helps you target specific industries, regions, opportunities, and customers

Instead of targeting customers geographically, you can now segment opportunities by industry, opportunity, role, business size, business type, and others. This allows you to focus on meeting specific customer needs and target prospects that are most likely to buy, rather than simply playing a numbers game by trying to cover the most ground. 

2. It aligns your sales team with your prospects

Every salesperson on your team will have a different set of strengths based on their experience—and effective teamwork is the key to making this work. For example, some reps may have lots of experience selling to a specific demographic, whereas others are experts in certain industries or types of products. Being able to align their efforts with a customer’s industry or specific needs means they’re going to close more deals than taking the spray-and-pray approach.

3. It empowers you to set realistic goals, track progress, and optimize your strategy

Having the latest Bluetooth headset and sales software is great and all, but setting goals are a must in sales. Having a way to track them helps you see what’s working, what isn’t, and why—and it’s essential to your success. With the ability to track your progress, you can replicate successes and easily make adjustments to areas that need work. 

4. It lets you spend more time selling

Having a plan in place and a path forward means you and your team can focus on actually selling to customers that are the most likely to buy. You know who your happy customers are, you understand their challenges, and you know how to help them reach their goals. And that means more deals closed. 

Having a plan in place can help reps focus on their role, save time, and close more deals.

Now that you know what a sales territory plan is, let’s dive into how to write one in five basic steps. 

1. Define your larger sales goals

Before you have a plan, you need a goal (or goals). And there are many different approaches you can take to determine sales goals. But we want to keep it simple, realistic, and easy to do without needing a 10,000-cell spreadsheet. Start with the big sales numbers and then work your way downwards. First, determine what your annual goal is, then break that into quarters, months, and even weeks. 

For example, if your annual sales goal is $500K, then your quarterly goals will be $125K, and your monthly targets will be $41.7K.

If you’re not sure what your annual goal should be, last year’s sales numbers plus ten percent is a good place to start. (Of course, if things are going really well and you want to be more ambitious, you can adjust this number—and vice versa.)

Keep in mind that these numbers are just preliminary. You can adjust them later when you’ve completed the other steps and accounted for outside factors like economic conditions, seasonality, existing pipeline, and even current customers.

2. Define your market 

What does your piece of the pie look like? Your market encompasses everyone you sell to. 

Make a list of all the different people or industries you target. For business-to-business sales, this could be business type and size, departmental function, or roles within the organization. For business-to-consumer sales, you can segment based on demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic information. 

Ultimately, you’ll need to determine how to segment your customers based on the what’s relevant to your business or product. 

An example of how to segment B2C customers

Defining your market lets you paint a clear picture of who your customers are. It allows your sales team to play to their strengths and address specific needs, goals, and pain points, which will differ between these different segments. 

3. Assess prospect and account quality

Some customers will see tons of value in your product. The benefits are clear and it solves a big headache for them. They’re happy to buy a lot of what you’re selling, and often.

But, others may not have the same need. 

Review which customers have traditionally been easy to sell to and/or seen high levels of success with your product. Then prioritize those leads and similar accounts. 

4. Start mapping out the strengths and weaknesses of your reps

Some reps have a great understanding of the ins and outs of how enterprise organizations buy products and take on new vendors. Others will specialize in selling to people within a specific role, regardless of the size of the business. List all of the strengths and weaknesses of each sales rep so you have a better idea of the type of prospects they should target.

Keep in mind that it’s not about ranking them from best to worst—many sales reps who start out weak can finish strong with coaching and experience. It’s about aligning their skills and experience to where they’ll make the biggest impact and achieve the most success.  

5. Assign leads

Armed with the knowledge of where your reps shine, you can now start assigning accounts. Start with the most obvious, high-value pairings where the rep has a lot of experience selling to that industry or type of individual. For example, reps who are good at closing large deals with educational institutions would be assigned leads in the educational space. 

Next, assign leads to target roles. Reps who have experience working with or selling to IT managers would be assigned leads with similar titles. 

Apply the same process to company size, deal size, location, and any other way you segmented your market. 

How you organize this information is up to you. Some people use spreadsheets. Some use text documents. Others use illustrations and graphs. A mix of charts, maps, and tables will give you a pretty comprehensive and easy-to-absorb view of your territory plan:

6. Look for ways to improve your plan

Congrats—your sales territory plan is just about done. Your goals are more than just numbers on a page. And you can see a path to how you’re going to achieve them. But you may notice that it’s a bit lopsided. Perhaps some of your reps are carrying too much of the workload or the quotas don’t seem realistic. 

The truth is, you may go through several iterations of your plan. You’ll have to move leads around to different reps. For example, giving your stronger reps leads that will be harder to close, and newer reps lower value deals where there’s less at stake. Ultimately, the numbers should be achievable for every rep. So take a step back and look at your plan objectively to make sure it makes sense.  

Essential tools for building your sales territory plan

With your plan in hand and a clear path to success, you’re going to need a few tools to put things into action.  

Office software

Whether you’re a visual person who prefers to map out your territory plan using images and graphs or you’re the type that likes to dive into every row and column of a spreadsheet, you’re going to need office software to turn your plan into a document. Office software usually includes apps for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation decks, and email. The two most popular options available right now are probably Microsoft 365  and Google Workspace .

What’s the difference? Without diving into a feature-by-feature comparison , Google Workspace is often better for small- and medium-sized businesses who are looking for a simple, elegant solution. Microsoft 365 has more robust, enterprise-grade features that can be used for more complex businesses. 

An all-in-one communications tool designed for sales teams

This may seem like a no-brainer—if you’re selling, of course you need to have a phone, email address, maybe even business SMS and fax (if you’re selling in industries like insurance). 

But if your reps spend any time traveling to meetings and working on the go, a traditional office phone setup isn’t going to support them very well. You’ll also be missing out on a few key features that are made specifically for helping sales teams. 

Ideally, you should have a sales app that lets you make voice calls and video calls (especially useful if you do a lot of sales demos ), send instant messages to your team, and basically communicate through any channel you need. Here are a few features to look for: 

Cloud support : Having a phone system or communications app that works on the cloud is much better than just using a cell phone. Why? Because your reps can receive inbound calls and make calls from their laptops or their own personal phones (without using their personal numbers)—without needing additional hardware. Plus, that same app lets you have video calls and send instant messages to your team:

Call monitoring : Ramping up new sales reps can take time and a lot of coaching. What if you could monitor your team’s sales calls quietly and listen in to what they’re saying to prospects? This way, you can help get them up to speed and get them booking meetings, pitching better, and closing deals faster. 

Call recording : Every now and then, you’ll want to make an example of your agents (in the best way possible, of course). Call recording lets you capture their best calls and share them with the team, making it easier to replicate success. It’s also a good way to find opportunities for coaching. Sometimes, you’re also just required by law to keep records of calls with customers, so this feature might even be a must-have. 

A customer relationship management (CRM) platform 

Your team will be making calls, booking meetings, and taking notes all day long. A CRM makes it a whole lot easier to remember and track all the key details about their calls and prospects, so they can close more deals. 

To make things even easier, many CRMs integrate with communications tools to keep your calls and key customer details in one, well-organized place. 

Ready to start building a sales territory plan?

Making a sales territory plan may seem complicated. And in some cases, it is—whether you’re a large business with territories all over the world or a smaller business that’s just started branching out into new regions. 

The key is to not overthink things. Follow these steps, and you’ll be able to identify your goals, better understand your market, know your customers—and target them without breaking (too much of) a sweat.

Originally published Mar 01, 2020, updated Nov 17, 2021

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5 Steps to Create a Sales Territory Plan + Templates + Examples

• February 5, 2024

Are you ready to revolutionize your sales approach? 

This isn’t just another article; it’s your key to mastering sales territory planning. 

In the competitive world of sales, having a well-crafted territory plan isn’t just nice to have – it’s essential . 

This guide is packed with insights and strategies that could mean the difference between meeting your targets and exceeding them. 

We’re revealing the secrets to effective territory management , the kind that transforms good salespeople into great ones. 

By missing out on this, you’re leaving untapped potential on the table. 

Let’s dive in and discover how to enhance your sales game, outperform your competition, and achieve results you’ve only dreamed of.

What is a Sales Territory?

A sales territory refers to a specific geographical area or group of customers that a sales team or individual salesperson manages. 

Think of it as your playing field in the world of sales. In this territory, you’re in charge of all the selling activities, from initial contact to closing deals. It’s not just about where you sell, but also who you sell to .

Effective sales territory planning ensures that you’re targeting the right customers and making the most out of your area. It’s a blend of strategy and practicality, where designing sales territories becomes a key part of your success. 

Managing a sales territory means you’re at the helm, steering your sales strategy and making sure your territory sales plan is on track. It’s like being the captain of your own ship, navigating through the market’s waters. 

When done right, this approach leads to efficient territory management, helping you grow your business and achieve your sales objectives . Remember, every territory is unique, so tailoring your approach to fit its specific needs is crucial.

Step 1: Territory Analysis

Territory analysis is your first crucial step in formulating a sales territory plan. This involves a detailed exploration of your assigned area , much like a detective uncovering insights. Focus on understanding the demographics and market opportunities. 

Conduct a SWOT analysis tailored to your sales territory to pinpoint strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This critical analysis lays the groundwork for your entire sales strategy, helping you identify key areas for potential growth and improvement. 

By thoroughly understanding your territory, you’re better equipped to plan and achieve your sales objectives effectively.

Best Practices in Analyzing Your Territory

When it comes to analyzing your sales territory, diving in with a clear plan is key. This is where the best practices in territory analysis come into play. These are your golden rules, guiding you to make the most out of your sales territory planning. It’s like having a roadmap in the complex world of sales territory management.

Here are the best practices to keep in mind:

• Understand Your Market : Get to know who's buying what in your area. It's all about grasping the customer demographics and behavior.
• Evaluate Your Competition : Keep an eye on who you're up against. Knowing your competitors helps you strategize better.
• Identify Opportunities for Growth : Look for untapped markets or potential areas for expansion within your territory.
• Use SWOT Analysis : Assess the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in your territory. It's an invaluable tool for strategic planning.
• Leverage Data and Tools : Utilize data analytics and territory mapping tools. They're like your high-tech compass in navigating the sales landscape.
• Set Clear, Achievable Goals : Based on your analysis, set realistic and measurable targets.

Remember, analyzing your territory effectively sets the stage for a successful sales strategy. It’s all about being thorough, strategic, and proactive. The better you understand your territory, the better your chances of hitting those sales targets.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Sales Territories

This step in your sales journey is setting up your sales territories, a pivotal move in your territory planning strategy. It’s like laying the groundwork for a successful sales campaign. 

Here, you’re not just mapping areas; you’re strategically designing sales territories to maximize efficiency and reach.

Consider these steps:

• Define Territory Boundaries : Start by establishing clear boundaries for each territory. This helps in creating manageable and focused areas for your sales efforts.
• Analyze Customer Distribution : Look at where your customers are located to ensure your sales resources are targeting the right areas.
• Assess Market Potential : Evaluate the market potential in each territory. This involves understanding the demand and growth opportunities in each area.
• Balance Workload : Make sure each territory has a balanced workload. This is crucial for maintaining efficiency and preventing burnout.
• Align with Sales Goals : Each territory should support your overall sales objectives, contributing to the larger goals of your sales strategy.

This step is crucial for effective sales territory management. It’s about making sure every area has what it needs to succeed. Done right, it sets the stage for achieving your sales targets, ensuring each part of your sales territory is primed for success.

Step 3: Developing a Territory Business Plan and Sales Strategy

This step is where you dive into developing a territory business plan and crafting your sales strategy. This is where your planning takes shape, turning analysis and structure into actionable goals . It’s about plotting your course to sales success. 

You’ll start by setting clear, specific objectives for your sales territory. Think about what you want to achieve and how you’ll get there. Next, you’ll tailor your sales tactics to fit the unique needs of your territory. 

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach; it’s about customizing your strategy to maximize your territory’s potential . You’ll also need to think about resource allocation. This means deciding where to focus your time and efforts for the best results. And don’t forget about monitoring progress. 

Keeping track of your achievements and setbacks will help you adjust your strategy as needed. In essence, this step is your blueprint for territory success, guiding your actions and decisions towards your sales goals.

Step 4: Implementing and Managing Your Sales Territory

This step is about putting your sales territory plan into motion. This is the execution phase, where you activate your strategies . 

Begin by launching marketing campaigns and reaching out to customers. Your focus is on effectively deploying your sales team to the right places at the right times. As you manage your territory, stay responsive to customer needs and adapt to market changes quickly . 

This stage is critical for seeing your plan take effect and for setting the stage for reaching your sales targets. Successful implementation and management of your sales territory are key to driving growth and staying competitive.

Step 5: Measuring and Adjusting the Plan

The last step is all about measuring and adjusting your plan. Once you’ve set your sales territory strategy in motion, it’s crucial to keep track of how things are going . Think of this as the fine-tuning stage. 

You’re not just running with a plan; you’re constantly evaluating and tweaking it for better results. Start by monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs). These are your checkpoints to ensure you’re on the right path.

Key KPIs to track include:

• Sales Volume : Check if sales are meeting your targets.
• Customer Acquisition Rates : Measure how effectively you're gaining new customers.
• Customer Retention Rates : Track how well you're keeping existing customers.
• Revenue Growth : Monitor the growth in revenue from your territory.
• Market Share : See how your share in the market is evolving.

If the numbers aren’t adding up, it’s time to adjust your sails. This might mean reallocating resources, changing your sales approach, or even revising your targets. 

Remember, flexibility is key in sales territory management. It’s about responding swiftly to market changes and customer feedback. By measuring and adjusting, you ensure that your sales territory plan remains effective and aligned with your overall business goals.

Sales Territory Plan Templates and Examples

Creating a top-notch sales territory plan can be much easier when you have the right templates and examples at your disposal. Think of these as your cheat sheets to success.

For New Market Entries

When entering a new market, focus on detailed market analysis and initial customer engagement strategies. Your plan should help you understand the unique demographic traits, preferences, and economic conditions of the new area. 

Tailor your approach to align with these insights, identifying effective marketing channels and initial sales tactics. This stage is about establishing a strong foothold and making a positive first impression in an unfamiliar market.

Here’s a template:

For Growing Existing Markets

To expand in an existing market, emphasize customer retention and growth. Your strategy should include personalized marketing, loyalty programs, and exceptional customer service. 

Look for untapped segments within the market, considering product diversification or new sales channels. The goal is to solidify and expand your presence, building on existing customer relationships while attracting new clientele.

For Reviving Underperforming Territories

For underperforming territories, adopt a focused turnaround strategy. Conduct a thorough analysis to pinpoint the causes of poor performance. Reevaluate your market positioning, sales approach, and customer engagement tactics. 

The plan should guide you in implementing innovative strategies to revitalize your presence in these areas, aiming to boost sales and improve overall territory performance.

Advanced Strategies and Future Trends in Territory Planning

Staying ahead in territory planning means embracing advanced strategies and keeping an eye on future trends. It’s about being one step ahead in the game. As you refine your approach, consider these cutting-edge tactics:

• Data-Driven Decision Making : Leverage big data and analytics to gain deeper insights into customer behavior and market trends.
• AI and Machine Learning : Use AI tools to predict market changes and customer needs, enhancing your strategy's responsiveness.
• Customized Customer Experiences : Tailor your sales and marketing efforts to provide personalized experiences for each customer segment.
• Integration of Digital Platforms : Utilize digital tools for more efficient territory management and customer engagement.
• Sustainability Focus : Incorporate eco-friendly practices and products to align with growing environmental concerns.

These strategies not only keep you competitive but also position you as a forward-thinking leader in territory planning. Embracing these trends ensures that your sales territory plan stays relevant and effective in an ever-evolving market landscape. 

Remember, the future of territory planning is about being adaptable, innovative, and customer-centric.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Territory Plan

When it comes to crafting a stellar sales territory plan, you might have a few questions up your sleeve. Let’s tackle some common queries that we haven’t touched on yet.

How do you balance territories to ensure fairness among sales reps?

Balancing territories is key to keeping your sales team motivated and fair. Start by analyzing customer potential and the workload required in each territory . Use data to assess factors like the number of potential customers, average sales cycle length, and historical sales data. 

Then, aim to distribute these factors evenly among territories. This might mean dividing a large, high-potential area into smaller sections or combining smaller, lower-potential areas. Regular reviews and adjustments are essential to maintain balance as market conditions and team dynamics change.

What's the role of technology in sales territory planning?

Technology is a game-changer in sales territory planning. With advanced CRM systems , you can track customer interactions, sales patterns, and market trends with precision. 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mapping software help in visualizing territories and optimizing routes for sales reps. AI and machine learning can forecast sales trends and identify untapped market opportunities. 

Embracing these technologies leads to more informed decisions, greater efficiency, and enhanced sales performance.

Can a sales territory plan be too detailed?

While detail is crucial in a sales territory plan, there’s a fine line between thorough and overly complicated. A plan that’s too detailed can become rigid and difficult to adapt to market changes. 

The key is to strike a balance – provide enough detail to guide your sales team but leave room for flexibility. Include clear objectives, strategies, and KPIs, but be open to adjustments based on real-time market feedback and sales performance. 

A flexible, adaptable plan is often more effective than one that’s meticulously detailed.

Key Takeaways in Mastering Sales Territory Plan

Let’s quickly recap our journey in creating a successful sales territory plan. It all starts with thorough territory analysis – getting to know your area inside out . 

Then, you move on to setting up your territories, carefully mapping each area to ensure success. The next phase involves developing a strategic business plan, which is your roadmap for achieving sales targets .

The real action begins with implementing and managing your plan, ensuring every strategy is effectively put into practice . Equally important is measuring and adjusting your plan to keep up with market changes and performance.

We also touched on the importance of using specific templates and examples for different scenarios, like new market entries or reviving lagging territories. Advanced strategies like leveraging technology and data are crucial for staying ahead.

Lastly, we tackled some common questions, emphasizing the need for balance , the role of technology, and avoiding overly detailed plans.

In short, a great sales territory plan is all about strategic planning, effective execution, and ongoing adaptation. Keep these points in mind, and you’ll be on track to hitting those sales targets.

Edgar Abong

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Last Updated on February 5, 2024 by Edgar Abong

Sales - 8 min READ

How to create a sales territory plan: A step-by-step guide

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An effective sales territory plan can make your team more productive, improve customer coverage, increase overall sales, and reduce costs.

On the other hand, unbalanced territory plans and constant changes in territory division can hurt productivity as well as working relationships between clients and account managers.

That’s why it’s so important to work on your territory management strategy, whether you’re just starting one, or updating an existing plan.

In this post, we'll go through how to create a sales territory plan step by step:

• Define your market, analyze, and segment existing customers.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis.
• Set goals and create targets.
• Develop strategies.
• Review and track your results.

What is a sales territory plan?

A sales territory plan is a workable plan for targeting the right customers and implementing goals for income and consistent sales growth over time.

Traditionally, sales territories were created by geographical location. However, these days it’s been extended to include different industries, customer types and other segments.

Follow these steps to create a sales territory plan:

The best way to start a sales territory plan is to first look at your customers, leads and prospects.

1. Define your market, analyze, and segment existing customers.

You should split up your customers into segments based on various characteristics such as: industry, location, purchase history and whatever else is relevant to the organization.

Ask yourself, “Who are the top customers, prospects and leads?” Categorize your customers into three groups.

• The first group should be your best customers , or the ones who require little effort.
• This is followed by the second group of customers: the ones who require a bit more work , but only those you are confident have potential revenue gain that justifies the extra work required by sales reps.
• The third group should be customers who require a lot of work .

With these groups formed, you can decide how to best use your resources.

To discover what key trends are in your geography or market, look over the sales data that’s already been collected. Analyze the data to find which territories show signs of growth and then assign them to the sales reps who would be most successful based on their strengths (more on that below).

Pro-tip: Learn about the best territory mapping software out there.

You can also use existing sales data from previous years to better understand buying patterns, but you'll have to do some additional research to learn why they are purchasing (or not), when they purchase, what drives the sale to go through and what the conversion rates are.

From this, you’ll learn how and when to reach out to your customers based on when they're likely ready to buy again, and how to really drive that sale home.

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2. Conduct a SWOT analysis.

Next, you should identify your sales team’s internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats with what is known as a SWOT analysis.

A SWOT analysis is a process that identifies internal and external factors that can affect the organization’s performance. When you have a better understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, you can develop a stronger sales territory plan.

Everyone brings different talent and skills to the job, so it’s important to have a good understanding of what your team has to offer to help them excel and reach your goals. What strengths will you build on? What is your team good at? Where do they excel?

Consider them as a team, but also think about sales reps' individual strengths. After all, strengths aren’t just confined to team members; they reflect the organization as a whole too.

Knowing everybody’s strengths will help you decide which sales reps to assign to which territory.

Potential strengths might include:

• A diverse customer base
• An established distribution base
• An excellent service team

Which weaknesses do you need to respond to? Think about weaknesses amongst your team, but also in the sales process.

• A very large geographic area
• A lack of time to develop understanding of the products, markets and selling process
• Not understanding your customers' real needs

Opportunities

Are there any opportunities in your marketplace you can take advantage of? This data can also be discovered using CRM software.

• Untapped markets
• Under-served territories
• Growing demand for product or service

Take a look at the biggest threats in each territory and consider what threats in your selling environment you'll defend against.

Some threats you may discover include:

• Competitors fighting for the same market share
• Changes in technology
• New industry and regulatory standards

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3. set goals and create targets..

In order to make a successful sales territory plan, you must create clear parameters and realistic goals for the team as well as individual sales reps’ territories.

To do this, consolidate the trends you’ve discovered above to come up with S.M.A.R.T (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based) goals and realistic targets.

Here are some questions you may ask:

How many new opportunities do you need to meet quota?

Having sales quotas are a great way to motivate sales reps, but if you find you're not meeting those quotas, you have a problem. There could be weaknesses in the sales pipeline, or you may need to seek new opportunities. In order to set goals and benchmarks for the team, consider using the top-down approach .

Using the top-down approach to sales quotas (where you set a goal for the period and then assign sales quotas to support this goal), you can go over the data from previous periods to get an idea of what your team was able to accomplish in the past and what a realistic goal for the future is. This can help you decide how many new opportunities you'll need to pursue in order to meet that goal.

Where do most of your leads come from? Which geographical regions should you concentrate on?

There are a number of ways to review customizable data using CRM software to discover where your leads are coming from. This can help you target areas of interest.

Which products or services are most profitable? Who is purchasing them?

Again, CRM software can automatically capture sales data and put it to work.

Which opportunities should we focus on?

With a CRM, you can quickly identify opportunities to help your sales team decide where to dedicate their time and resources. For example, Copper allows you to see past opportunities that are open, abandoned, lost or won in a Sales Performance report.

After learning what it is you want to achieve, you can give your team clear objectives for each territory.

4. Develop strategies to accomplish your goals.

With clear customer segments and goals in place, it’s time to create strategies to succeed.

Using the information collected so far, you can now work out an even distribution of specific regions or markets among individual reps.

The SWOT analysis mentioned above gives you a better idea of how to best assign your team members’ skills and talents to a territory.

The customer segments will help you figure out how often different accounts should be contacted and how to contact them.

Consider the following questions when creating your strategy:

• How will you go through current accounts?
• How can you leverage current successes?
• How will you generate new leads?
• Where do you need to improve?
• What does your team need in order to reach their goals and targets?

In addition, consider your resources:

• What resources do your sales reps need in order to manage their accounts?
• Which sales reps have the skills or connections you need?
• Are there any external resources you can use to help?

When creating your action plan, don’t forget to look at what your high-leverage actions are, what resources are needed, due dates and key milestones.

5. Review and track your results.

The final step for a sales territory plan is to take the time to review and track the results to optimize territory division. This is important for measuring progress to see how the plan is impacting sales.

You should use your plan as a guide to produce intended results and fine-tune it on a regular basis when needed.

Things to look for as you track your sales territory plan results:

• Have sales increased or decreased in a specific region or market?
• Are there any disparities between sales in different territories?
• What are the costs associated with each territory?
• Are any sales reps struggling to keep up with their leads?
• Are all sales reps meeting their quotas?
• Are any markets under-served and in need of more assigned sales reps?

Use a CRM to help create a killer sales territory plan.

Many organizations use CRM software to better gather data without depleting resources. CRMs allow sales reps to access insights into your pipelines, revenue forecasts , sales goals and progress and much more.

The best part: all of this data can be automatically compiled into reports used to create your sales territory plan, freeing up more time for your sales team to focus on building long-lasting relationships within their territories.

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A Step-By-Step Guide to an Efficient Sales Territory Plan

According to Harvard Business Review, quality territory design can increase your revenue by 2 to 7 %. That’s why the territory plan is an important strategic groundwork for sales.

It helps you understand where your opportunities are. How to reach the right potential clients and achieve your goals. If it lacks balance, you invest too much time into non-potential leads and too little energy into profitable ones.

This guide will guide you through the steps necessary for crafting a successful sales territory plan.

What is the Sales Territory Plan? 

It is a strategy for  effectively targeting  and  approaching  prospects, leads, and existing customers. The main objective is to close more deals. Traditionally, sales territories were created solely by  geographical locations . That is where the word “territory” originates. Salespeople focused on prospects within a specific geographic area. 

Nowadays, the digital era changed this. Reps contact leads and customers through phone, email, or other virtual channels. Personal sales meetings are  almost completely eliminated . 

Therefore, an approach to work mainly geographically  lost its purpose . 

The territory mapping template now covers many factors:

• Types of industries
• Business site
• Deal potential
• Customer types
• Account types
• Referral source
• Degree of purchasing a product

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The  current role of territory mapping  is to set proper sales quotas, define various strategic fields, and lower costs. Based on these, managers should provide the team with an  efficient plan  to improve productivity. Sales reps can therefore work strategically to address the right needs of  the right customers . 

A quality territory plan should have several main objectives:

• Assign the right segments to the right reps based on their expertise
• Optimize customer experience by equipping the team with unique challenges
• Build a base for strong, lasting customer relationships
• Ensure that sales teams’ work ensures the strongest ROI possible

Why is Sales Territory Planning Important? 

The Sales Management Association conducted  a survey  with around 100 organizations. Those with an  effective territory design  had a  14 % higher sales objective  achievement than the average. On the contrary, the same study claims that the institutions with  ineffective plans  had  15 % lower success rate  than the average. 

Therefore, creating a sales territory plan template truly encourages efficiency and boosts profits. Let’s look at some most important advantages. 

Higher progress and optimized strategies:  Segmenting your opportunities by detailed criteria helps you to build a tactical approach towards sales. With data-driven insights into territories, you improve performance and see strengths as well as weaknesses. Therefore, you make more strategic decisions. 

More time for selling:  Industry analysts’ studies repeatedly show a decline in productivity due to unproductive approaches to sales. Such as educating agents about segments that other reps may already know. 

In contrast,  Harvard Business Review  claims that businesses show a sales increase of up to  7 %  by simply redesigning their focus. Having a great territory mapping strategy, therefore, leads to less time for unnecessary training and more space for selling. 

Balanced workload:  Territory mapping template helps avoid people being counterproductive by working on the same task. It ensures each sales rep is at full capacity in their own assigned field. This way, you also lower agents’ frustration and reduce turnover. 

5 Steps to Create a Sales Territory Plan

A balanced sales territory plan makes wonders for your business. Yet, you need a unique approach. One that fits your business specifically. What works for one company doesn’t necessarily have to work for another. 

Here are  5 steps you should follow  to create a well-suited territory plan.

#1 Define Your Business Goals and Objectives

• Financial Goals

Before you can start planning, you need to know  what you want to achieve . There are many different approaches to setting sales goals.

First, let’s discuss  financial goals . Start on the top – from big sales numbers – and work your way down. Set your annual financial goal. Then  break it down  into quarters, months, and even weeks. 

Example:  Let’s say that your annual goal is  500 thousand USD. That makes your quarterly goal 125 thousand USD and monthly goal 41,7 thousand USD . 

Unsure what your annual goal should be? For starters, it’s good to take  last year’s sales numbers  and  add ten percent to them . Of course, this depends on your financial situation. It can be more, and it can be less. 

• Strategic Goals and Objectives

Now, let’s continue with a plan on what  objectives  you’re trying to  accomplish . This will bring more clarity to your company’s goals and industry trends. 

To put together what you are trying to achieve, answer the following questions:

• What is the mission you are heading towards?
• What do you want to offer your customers? 
• What are key trends in your industry?
• Do you comply with these trends?
• What is your average conversion rate?
• How many prospects do you need to meet your goals?
• Which of your services is selling the best?
• Why can that be?

This is  the first step  towards creating a productive territory mapping system. 

#2 Analyze Your Market and Segment your Customers

After clarifying your goals, you should dig deeper into your market field and split your customers into segments. This can be done based on different characteristics. Industry, purchase history, location or any other relevant data. 

Define your customers:

Exploring your market clearly showcases who your customers are. 

Use these questions to look closer at them: 

• What is your target group’s common pain point?
• What do they often purchase? 
• How does it lead to deals you have won? 
• What caused a loss of deals you didn’t win? 

Segment your customers:

Determine how to segment based on what is relevant for your business. You can divide the criteria by B2B and B2C sectors. 

• For B2B (business-to-business) sales:  department function, organizational roles or business type and size, etc. 
• For B2C (business-to-consumer) sales:  behavioral patterns, location, demography, psychography, etc.

Define key market trends:

It may be based on your market or on geographical location. Simply, on  anything relevant  to your business focus. The main point is to identify your business environment. 

What to look for:

• What are the key trends in your industry based on diverse criteria?
• What makes your business unique?
• How can you use your findings to drive more sales?

Besides searching for new findings, look at  relevant  statistics  you have  already collected . An intelligent revenue platform Xactly claims that with the right data insights, companies can  reduce territory planning   time  by up to  75 % . 

Based on your current findings, select those territories that show  signs of growth  in comparison to the past results. Then assign these to your best-fitting sales reps. This way, they will know how to drive sales based on  trend-evolving tendencies . 

Evaluate competition

Your own business data is not the only way to analyze and segment a market base for territory planning. You can, and you should  learn a lot from your competition . 

First, put together  who they are . Then, think of what they offer and why customers choose their products. How can you use it, so they  rather choose you  next time? 

Observe  a competitor’s product features and compare them to yours. 

Follow mainly these criteria: 

• Positioning 

#3 Set Goals and Create Targets

Until now, you had defined your goals, analyzed your market environment, and segmented your customers. Now it’s time to  create targets . Well-tailored targets let you achieve bigger things. 

Our advice  – do it  S.M.A.R.T.  This abbreviation represents how your targeting strategy should look: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. 

Create targets for  both your teams  but also for  individual reps . These will put your business into order, as well as uncover what works and what needs to be modified. It will also  motivate your sales agents  to be more productive and motivated. 

So, how do you create Specific, Achievable, yet Time-based and Measurable goals? The target should be as  tangible  and  well-organized  as possible. You need to have a  precise target number  in mind, but don’t create too much pressure on your sales agents. Otherwise, they will end up confused and frustrated.

Here is a practical example: 

Rather than setting a target of closing  60 deals a year  to meet quotas, set a target of making  15 calls each week . A smaller number in a relatively short time feels much more tangible. This way, you are  giving your agents a task but empowering them to take a charge of how they handle it. The above-mentioned approach is also easier for you to monitor. 

#4 Perform a SWOT analysis

The SWOT analysis is a no-brainer. Yet, it’s an  incredibly powerful tool  to boost your business strategy. 

It uncovers base factors that influence your business, so you can develop a strong territory plan. This way, you will have a clear understanding of  what work needs to be prioritized  in order for the company to grow. 

SWOT consists of 4 words:  Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. 

Strengths 

Strengths analysis tells you which of your advantages you can utilize to make your business grow. 

The first step is to define the objectives of your strengths:

• Where do they excel?  
• What strengths do you want to build on?
• How can you use your team to execute the strategy?

Focus mainly on the last question. Sales reps are your  strongest attribute . Each person has their  own background  and  unique experiences  to offer. We will look deeper into this a bit later.

Here, think of your soft spots. What are the  vulnerabilities of your business ? Look into your sales processes, but identify weak points in your team, too. 

Examples of what can be your possible weaknesses:

• An overly large geographical area you cover
• Insufficient understanding of your product – from both your and customers’ side
• Lack of understanding to your customer’s real needs
• Chaotic or missing sales tactics

Opportunities

Most businesses have opportunities they either  don’t realize  or  don’t utilize . What are yours?  Look for a gap  in the market that you can fill.

Examples of possible opportunities to keep an eye on:

• Lack of competition in your field
• Under-served territories
• Growing demand for your products or services
• Sales representatives with connections to the right customers

As there are opportunities, there are also threads you need to be aware of. In each territory of your plan, consider what can harm your business. This way, you can easily avoid it. 

Examples of possible threats:

• Unexpected changes in your market
• New industry and regulation standards
• Strong competitors fighting over the same market

Keep in mind that these factors are not standing alone.  They work together . What is your  strength  that may also be a  big opportunity ? You just need to find the right territory and sales professionals to make use of it. 

But don’t only focus on where you can benefit. In contrast, an area that hides a  severe competitive threat  requires  special attention  to protect your business from any negative surprises. 

Another important insight – SWOT analysis doesn’t only point out big things, such as revenue, market needs, or geography. It can  reveal small issues  you shouldn’t overlook. Such as gaps in the systems you otherwise wouldn’t see. Or a need for  better training . There may even be a  hidden challenge  within the product or service you offer.

Therefore, the SWOT analysis is not only here to show precise results. It makes you  think complexly  about how your business and territory plan works and how it should work.

#5 Assign Leads

Now that you analyzed where your agents’ best knowledge lies,  start  assigning  the most  suitable reps  to  each territory . 

First, we recommend  categorizing your leads by value . Some of them are not very likely to bring a lot of profit. Others are promising, with a high chance of becoming customers. And some are almost in your pocket.

• First group:  It should contain your most valuable leads. Those who require little effort in order to purchase your product. 
• Second group:  Here are leads who need a bit more work but still present a pretty high chance of generating revenue. Therefore, they are worth investing more time into.
• Third group:  Leads in this category require a lot of effort in order to turn them into paying customers. 

After you form the groups, decide how to  use your resources  to best reflect them. Assign leads from each of the three categories to  fitting sales reps . The first group will probably require your most experienced agent. The second and third groups can be handled by others. 

Also, as we mentioned earlier,  use reps’ specific experiences . If you communicate with a lead from the pharmaceutical industry, assign an agent who already has established relationships in this field. She or he, therefore, knows how to talk the leads’ language. Another person can have deep knowledge in closing deals within the financial sector. Use it to your advantage.

You can also use the same system with experiences based on  other attributes , such as company or deal size, location, etc. 

Tools You Need to Build Your Sales Territory Plan

After completing all steps according to our guide, you will need  a few tools  to put things into action. Here, we will explain what systems are  essential  to seamlessly execute your quality sales territory plan.

#1 Office Software

Whatever visual approach you take towards crafting your territory map, you need  reliable office software . That helps you turn your plan into  tangible documentation , no matter if you seek an image, graph, or table. 

Office software usually includes applications for word processing, email, spreadsheets, and presentation decks . The two most popular tools are  Microsoft 365  and  Google Workspace . 

Google Workspace is generally a better choice for  small  to  medium-sized   businesses.  Those that are good to go with a simple solution. In contrast, Microsoft 365 has  enterprise-grade features  for big, more complex companies.

Here , you can find an  overview of the best office software for 2021 .

#2 Territory Mapping

Sales territory mapping software is key for each successful plan, taking all important data from the CRM (customer relationship management) system. It assists with organizing information for various territories and visualizing them on a map. This gives you a detailed insight into prospects within a specific area. 

The sales territory mapping software easily filters important data. It offers  deep insights  into customer or leads behavior. Such as previous interactions or their last visits. Therefore, it helps figure out  what are the next possible steps  you need to implement for better targeting. This information may then be  easily distributed  amongst all agents. 

Managers can also make use of the sales territory mapping software to measure performance and see  which process resulted in a sale . It saves time and may result in better collaboration. Between sales reps and leads, as well as between your team members internally. 

Simply, it lets you  squeeze the most out of each territory field .

#3 Customer Relationship Management Platform

A CRM system makes data processing much easier. It allows you to  track all the important details  about prospects and interactions with them. CRM contains a whole communication history and keeps track of all necessary information. 

This way, your reps always have  access to each detail , which supports them in closing more deals. Data analysis in CRM also helps companies with customer  retention  and  account growth . 

Especially when you  integrate  it with your  calling software . This way, you  automate the process  of merging data from both systems into one. You can keep them in a single, well-organized place. 

#4 Sales Team Communication Software

Almost everything we do today,  we do remotely . If you are selling, you need  several online communication platforms . Such as email, social media accounts, SMS or a  quality calling system . 

Yet, for current needs, an old analog call center phone setup just doesn’t do the work anymore. Your reps are probably  traveling a lot  or  working from home . A  cloud-based calling solution  – an online phone – allows them to contact leads and customers from anywhere. They can also  receive inbound calls  on their  own laptops  or  phone s without using a personal number. 

No need for additional hardware. The software does all the work. 

What’s more, traditional phone lines miss countless features. These can rapidly boost your sales. For example, having  statistics  that evaluate data directly from your software is a huge plus for crafting an effective sales territory plan. 

Then, there is a  call recording  feature. This cuts the time for personally observing new sales reps’ performance. You may listen to their phone calls. Anytime, from anywhere. It further  helps  agents with  closing deals faster  and  collects valuable insights  for your territory planning. Since you can come back to each conversation, call recording lets you explore customers’ pain points, needs, likes, and dislikes. 

Through the  call monitoring  feature, you can  listen to phone calls  in real-time. It allows you to enter the call when agents need help. It also lets you talk with your reps without the caller hearing you or even joining the conversation. Call monitoring often discovers a space for  additional mentoring . 

With  skill-based routing , you can put your territory mapping findings into action. The tool allows you to assign the best-fitting agents to the best-fitting clients. Or utilize  VIP queuing  to make your most precious customers feel important. 

In  CloudTalk , we have all  these features  and  50 + more . Build your sales territory plan with an industry-leading cloud-based calling solution. 

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How to Create a Sales Territory Plan: The Ultimate Guide

What is sales territory planning.

Sales territory planning is a critical element of sales management and overall sales success. It involves creating defined and balanced sales territories, customizing sales activities to maximize sales potential within each territory, and managing sales performance on an ongoing basis. Sales territories are typically determined by factors such as geography, industry, company size, or other metrics that matter to your business (e.g., historical performance, ARR potential, etc). By providing  balanced sales territories , companies can create specific revenue targets and strategies to increase sales productivity and efficiency in each region with precision.  Good territory planning ensures that all sellers have an equal opportunity to hit their number, which keeps them motivated and on target.

Benefits of Sales Territory Planning

Creating balanced territories can have a huge impact on your team’s ability to achieve its sales goals, yet it is often overlooked. According to the  Harvard Business Review , optimizing territory design can increase sales by 2 to 7%, without any change in total resources or sales strategy. In short, well-designed territories ensure that the right resources are focused on the right opportunities. This improves quota attainment and rep retention, making it a key driver of sales productivity and performance.  Good territory design is especially important In difficult economic times. Rather than increasing sales headcount, well-balanced territories can enable companies to achieve more with the same or fewer resources.

How to Create a Sales Territory Plan

The most important first step for  sales territory planning  is to determine your corporate goals so you can define your ideal customer. For example, one company’s goal may be to increase market share while another’s may be to retain customers. The BCG matrix (figure 1) provides a useful framework for understanding your accounts and dividing opportunities fairly among your team. BCG describes four types of accounts to consider:

• Cash Cows (high market share, but low growth) – opportunities may be limited
• Dogs (low market share and low growth) – it will be very tough going
• Question Marks (low market share and high growth) – these opportunities need serious thought whether they are worth the investment but could have high payoff
• Stars (high market share and high growth) – fantastic opportunities.

The key is to define each category based on your company’s context and GTM strategy.  For example, a Cash Cow account may look very different from one company to the next, and may even vary by region or product.  A Cash Cow in North America may actually be a Question Mark in the Asia Pacific region where the company has no existing market share.

Some important questions to ask before you dive into territory planning include:

• Are you trying to expand into a new market?
• Has your product or SKU mix changed to suit customers in a new industry?
• Has your total addressable market (TAM) changed or been updated based on new data?
• Are you targeting a certain company size this year?
• How important is expansion revenue to your growth strategy and which roles does this impact?

Common Sales Territory Planning Criteria

The next step is to divide accounts into each of the four categories among various roles on your team. There is no one size fits all approach and most organizations will follow a hybrid model. You may decide to simply divide the categories evenly across your team. Or you may target one segment of the matrix, such as Cash Cow accounts, with a new product and assign reps and overlay resources accordingly.

Although every organization will prioritize differently, some common criteria that are used to plan territories include:

Geography  – Historically, geography has been one of the most simple and common ways to plan territories and can work well if your sales model requires feet on the street. However, as remote selling becomes commonplace,  many companies are moving away from geographic territories  because there are better ways to maximize opportunity that more closely align with the corporate strategy.

Historical performance  – Which accounts, products, or geographies have historically performed well?  For example, you may balance your high-performing Star accounts or products with a mix of net-new Question Mark accounts or products.

Revenue potential  – A common approach, many companies balance territories based on the TAM or revenue potential of accounts.

Size  – High ACV accounts may have long sales cycles that require a high- touch or in-person sales process, favoring geographic territories, versus low ACV accounts with short sales cycles that favor other criteria.

Industry  – Industry can be useful for balancing especially if you are building a new vertical or have industry-specific products and messaging, such as financial services or government accounts.

Product Type  – If you have specialized teams selling certain products, it may be important to balance overlay resources across accounts.

Propensity to Buy  – Many companies group their accounts into categories based on propensity to buy and balance these across their resources (e.g., evenly divide Tier 1, 2 or 3 accounts across their team)

Account Score  – An  account score  aggregates many of the above criteria into one simple number which makes it easy to balance.

Quota  – Because it is almost impossible to get to 100% balance, you may consider factoring in quota to make things fair.  For example, you may assign a New York City rep a higher quota than a Midwestern rep; or a rep taking on a new, untested market a lower quota than a rep in an established territory.  As long as these calculations are transparent, this can be a useful final arbiter to equalize your territories.

Sales Territory Planning Examples

Most companies start their territory carving process by dividing into the major world regions. This first cut serves to align resources with time zone, culture/language, and internal organizational structures. From there, Ops and Strategy teams use a combination of criteria to balance territories to align with their corporate strategy. The following example demonstrates how single segments can be balanced. For additional examples, please visit,  The Ultimate Guide to Territory Balancing .

The Company:

• $50 million in annual revenue, reps have annual sales quotas of $1M each
• 50 Global Sales Territories

The GTM Resources

• EMEA – 10 reps
• LATAM – 2 reps
• APAC – 2 reps
• AMER – 36 reps

Planning Scenario:

The SMB sales in AMER tend to be high velocity. The team of 5 SMB reps need to move through accounts quickly to either disqualify or pursue. Rather than using a region-based design, the SMB territories are constructed according to the following criteria:

• Historical data indicates that financial firms are typically high-value and quick deals, so all accounts in the finance industry are distributed evenly across the territories.
• Additionally, ICP accounts located in dense urban locations, such as Manhattan and San Francisco, are distributed evenly across the territories.
• Each Territory has a maximum of 250 accounts at a given time. Reps can disqualify accounts throughout the quarter, then at the start of each quarter, the territories are topped up with fresh accounts.

Challenges of Sales Territory Planning

Even the best laid territory plans often go awry.  Here are some of the common challenges faced in sales territory planning.

Seller turnover

What happens when your best sales rep leaves in the middle of a quarter? Do you reassign that patch permanently, or temporarily while you backfill the role? What happens when hiring takes longer than anticipated? Are you certain that new reps will ramp quickly?  These are all examples of everyday occurrences that can throw the best laid plans into chaos.

Markets are constantly changing

Change is a constant when it comes to territory planning.  New competition enters your market, companies are acquired, recessions occur, pandemics hit.  These unanticipated changes can have a dramatic and sudden impact on your go-to-market (GTM) plans.  When a company sets an annual ‘one and done’ territory plan it is extremely difficult to respond with agility.

Spreadsheets and manual processes hinder agility

When your team has fewer than 50 reps, it is possible to manage territories with a manual spreadsheet-driven process  However, as you grow, it can be impossible to scale relying on spreadsheets alone. This method is fraught with errors, version control, and collaboration issues.  Other organizations may rely on  corporate planning software , yet these tools lack out-of-the-box functionality like integrated planning and agile deployment, so still end up bogged down in custom coding projects.

Data quality issues

Garbage in means garbage out.  The data in your CRM is constantly changing and if you rely on it to plan, you may end up with a point-in-time plan that does not reflect the current reality.  For example, if you pull data about your accounts from your CRM in September for a plan that launches in December, the data may already be several months out of date by the time you are ready to go to market.

Too many tools

Some organizations use  multiple point tools  for territory planning that quickly become difficult to manage. Your territory assignments are integrally tied to other aspects of your GTM plan like capacity, quotas, and routing.  When a change to territories occurs, it can be nearly impossible to make changes in real-time and keep your entire GTM system in sync.

Benefits of Sales Territory Planning Software

To overcome these challenges and maximize sales territory planning efficiency, many organizations are turning to Territory Planning or  Territory Management software . This enables them to shift from static sales territory planning to  dynamic territory management  process. Territory management recognizes that change never ends, and organizations must reduce the cycle time to respond to change. Automation enables RevOps teams to quickly adapt to change with agility so that revenue teams execute with clarity and efficiency. With Territory Management software, data can be refreshed and re-factored into the plan at any point during the year, which reduces the annual territory planning burden. Those that adopt a “ continuous GTM planning ” approach will be the ones that win the next business cycle.

Don’t Let Sales Territory Delays Drain Your Bottom Line

The annual impact of salespeople waiting for new territories can vary depending on factors such as the size of the sales team, the industry, and the company’s specific circumstances. However, this can be significant in terms of lost sales opportunities, decreased revenue, and reduced productivity. Here's more.

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Sales territory planning: The five minute territory plan and template

What is a sales territory plan?

The number one issue for sales leaders today is – pipeline, pipeline, pipeline. How’s your pipeline looking? What’s your pipeline coverage gap look like? Well, we got you covered.

We have proven ways to quickly build self-sourced pipeline and progress pipeline faster too. It all starts with planning – territory planning. Sales territory planning is a proven way to empower sales teams to prioritize accounts and activities to generate more pipeline and close more deals – faster.

A sales territory plan is a strategic document that outlines how a sales team will approach and manage sales activities within a specific geographic area or market segment. The primary goal of a sales territory plan is to optimize the allocation of resources, increase sales effectiveness, and achieve revenue targets within the assigned territory. A territory plan serves as a roadmap for a salesperson and sales team, guiding their efforts and helping them stay focused on achieving success within their assigned territory.

Territory planning offers several benefits to organizations, sales teams and salespeople. Here are some of the advantages.

• Clear sales objectives
• I ncrease sales and revenue
• Increase sales efficiency
• Develop more self-sourced pipeline
• Optimize resource allocation
• Improved focus and activity prioritization
• Better customer relationships
• Deeper understanding of customer and market needs
• Improved customer retention and growth
• Enhanced team collaboration

The five minute sales territory plan

We believe there’s nothing better than old school, back to basics, sales territory analysis, planning and prospecting. Here’s a short talk outlining how to get your team embracing territory planning as a path to create self-sourced demand. Imagine what would happen to your business and pipeline if every seller documented their own territory plan and then video recorded a short and thoughtful five minute version of it?

We call this the “Five Minute Territory Plan.”

Reps love the 5 minute territory plan:

“I found recording my sales territory plans to be such an illuminating experience. It helped me identify gaps in my strategy, evaluate what I was saying and why I was saying it. The AI was real time and the feedback was spot on. I feel I’m better for it and looking forward to doing more”. – Ben

Turn territory planning into an i nteractive experience for your sales teams by making everyone part of the process and accountable for results. I believe our quota carrying, revenue generating sales executives need to own self-sourcing pipeline. Territory planning is the way to reinvigorate it. Here are the secrets to making “territory planning and prospecting” a revenue generating peer activity appreciated versus criticized.

• Have vision and leadership to make it part of your sales culture
• Make territory plans relevant, short, and accessible to share best practices
• Do sales territory planning quarterly or even monthly

Vision and leadership make it happen

Companies that embrace the idea of video recording territory planning with Sales Enablement Platform on a regular basis, with peer reviews, are seeing tremendous increases in self-sourced pipeline and improvements in new hire time to ramp. Think about it. Imagine if every new hire had access to stack-ranked video recordings of territory plans grouped by tenure. What would happen to your team’s time to first deal and time to ramp metrics? The power and value of crowdsourcing is incredible. We all know that some of us are great at planning and others aren’t so great. Making territory planning a team sport is a chance to get everyone to learn how to plan like those who do it best. It takes vision to turn crowdsourcing territory plans into culture. It takes work to align teams on expectations. It takes discipline to make it stick.

Make the plan relevant, short, and accessible

Here are the basics of a sales territory plan proven to create pipeline and generate revenue fast. Start by sharing a territory planning template that’s relevant and short. Click here to download our template. Turn the territory plan into a collaborative business review.

Have your team document the facts of the territory and goals.

Then, move into top prioritizing accounts to prospect. Prioritize top accounts and explain why they are chosen (relationships, industry fit, target profile). For each, in one sentence, be clear and focused on the outreach strategy.

If some of the accounts are ready, have your teams create an opportunity plan and make sure opportunity plans are thorough. It doesn’t take much to know if there is a plan in place.

• What’s the compelling event?
• What’s the strategy to engage with a champion and economic buyer?
• What’s the mutual success plan?

We’re not doing deep detailed reviews. You can also follow a MEDDICC/MEDDPICC deal review format too.

Close out the plan with strategies to build pipeline. Don’t forget that we’re living in a 3X or even 5X pipeline-ratio world. Putting “pen to paper” on these territory statistics makes it super clear what needs to get done, to earn a spot on the beach celebrating club.

That’s the flow of the five slide and “Five Minute Territory Plan” template. Download the template now .

The benefits AI and sales territory plans

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can significantly enhance the effectiveness of sales territory planning by providing advanced analytics, automation, insights and coaching. Here are several ways in which AI can assist in sales territory planning:

Data Analysis and Insights: AI can analyze vast amounts of data, including customer demographics, purchasing behavior, and market trends, to provide valuable insights into each territory’s potential.

Customer Segmentation: AI algorithms can perform advanced customer segmentation based on various factors, enabling sales teams to target specific customer groups with tailored approaches.

Automation of Routine Tasks: AI can automate routine and repetitive tasks, such as data entry, report generation, and administrative activities. This allows sales teams to focus more on strategic planning and customer engagement. SalesHood’s AI Call Recaps and AI Coach are great examples.

Content recommendations: AI-driven personalization can enhance sales effectiveness within each territory by tailoring campaigns to the specific preferences and needs of local customers.Recommendation engines can suggest personalized offers and content, increasing the relevance of marketing materials.

Coaching: AI-powered collaboration platforms facilitate communication and knowledge-sharing among sales team members working in different territories.

A great use of AI is to provide coaching feedback to salespeople in real-time on their sales territory plans. The power of AI with territory planning is that you will make your review process more effective and efficient. It’s a game-changer for sales leaders, sales managers and sellers. Here are the benefits of using AI to inspect, review and coach territory plans:

• Reps and team show up ready for team reviews
• 10X review volume and quality
• Coaching in the moment

Here’s a video explaining the benefits of using AI to coach sellers and provide feedback – especially relevant for account and territory reviews.

Overcome territory planning objections and barriers

For many, sales territory planning is not perceived as a revenue generating and pipeline building activity. It’s our job as managers and coaches to guide our teams to breakthrough these barriers. Here are some questions to pose during a team meeting, kickoff event or one-on-one.

• What limiting beliefs are holding us back?
• What do we have to do to achieve greatness?
• How do we need to grow personally and professionally?
• How should we think differently?
• What behaviors need to develop, change, and evolve?

Sales territory planning cadence

Given the sales territory plan template is short, forward thinking leaders are building monthly and quarterly territory planning cadence. The short plans get sellers to focus on strategy and execution versus too much time filling out slides that aren’t relevant. We want to see more sellers take the time to be thoughtful about their plan and business. What we love most about this process is getting everyone to limit their territory planning to five minutes. Less is more. Less slides and less words is hard to accomplish.. We’ve learned when territory planning video recordings are five minutes or less (and accessible), sellers will invest the time to watch up to fifteen peer territory plans. We have also witnessed that with AI sellers are taking time to get feedback multiple times on their plans before submitting for approval by their managers.

The process and benefits apply to account planning too. If you want to learn more about Account Planning, here’s another blog you can read . You can scale Territory Planning and Account Planning with our AI Coach .

We have proven ways to quickly build self-sourced pipeline and progress pipeline faster too. Sharing hyper-personalized sites to educate and elevate prospecting outreach is working wonders for many of our customers.

✅ 60% pipeline conversion ✅ Win-rates are up 2X ✅ Deal velocity up 15% ✅ Deal size up 400%

Who doesn’t want these results? Click here to learn more and start a free trial.

How does SalesHood help with territory planning?

SalesHood is an AI-powered revenue execution platform designed to support various aspects of sales effectiveness, including training, coaching, and collaboration. SalesHood plays a role in facilitating certain aspects of the sales territory planning process including planning, prospecting and personalization. Here’s how SalesHood can contribute:

Training and onboarding: SalesHood provides a platform for creating and delivering training content. For sales teams involved in territory planning, this can be valuable for onboarding new team members or ensuring that existing team members are up-to-date on the latest strategies and approaches related to territory management.

Content creation and best practice sharing: SalesHood allows organizations to create and share content related to sales strategies, market insights, and best practices. This can be useful in the context of territory planning by providing a centralized repository for information that can be accessed by sales teams as they plan and execute strategies within their assigned territories.

Collaboration and communication: The collaboration features of SalesHood facilitate communication and knowledge-sharing among sales team members. This can be beneficial for coordinating activities within and across territories, allowing teams to share insights, success stories, and challenges.

Coaching and feedback: SalesHood supports coaching and feedback mechanisms, enabling managers and peers to provide guidance to sales representatives. This can be particularly useful in the context of territory planning, where feedback can help refine strategies and improve performance.

Hyper-personalized prospecting with Client Sites: Guide sellers what to do, what to share and what to say with hyper-personalized prospecting. There’s so much noise out there. Rise above the crowd with a differentiated and personalized approach to prospecting. We have proven ways to quickly build self-sourced pipeline and progress pipeline faster too. Sharing hyper-personalized sites to educate and elevate prospecting outreach is working wonders for many of our customers. Salesforce says that only 29% of sellers use videos to prospect. SalesLoft reports that using video to prospect can lead to a 26% higher response rate compared to simple email text.

SalesHood complements the sales territory planning process by providing a platform for ongoing learning, collaboration, and prospecting. Integrating SalesHood with other tools and processes tailored to territory planning can create a more comprehensive and effective approach to sales management and pipeline development.

Prospecting and pipeline-building resources

Experience SalesHood now.

See Revenue Enablement that’s faster, simpler and 100X better.

• Why Choose SalesHood?
• Platform Overview
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• Sales Execution
• Sales Readiness
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• Sales Kickoffs
• Pitch Practice with AI
• Sales Coaching

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• MEDDICC Training
• B2B Sales Training
• Prospecting Training
• WbD Revenue Academy

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• Why Sales Enablement?
• Guide To Sales Enablement
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Sales Territory Plan Project Proposal

Sales territory plan project proposal presentation, free google slides theme and powerpoint template.

A sales territory plan is used to target current and potential customers effectively, with the goal of closing more deals and generating more business. If you're looking to develop a project proposal that revolves around this topic, we have the perfect template for you. Take a look at its elegant and minimalist style, with gradients in orange tones that add dynamism. Download it and edit the resources with your information.

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Sales Territory Plan PowerPoint Template and Google Slides

Sales Territory Plan Presentation Slide

Visualize your sales strategy, identify opportunities for growth, and track your progress with ease. The six hexagonal shapes in our sales territory plan represent the key elements of a successful sales process, from prospecting and content creation to identifying needs, making offers, managing objectives, and closing sales. Ideal for sales managers, executives, and teams across various industries, this template can help you optimize your sales efforts and increase revenue. Impress your audience with a comprehensive and visually appealing sales territory plan.

Features of the template

• 100% customizable slides and easy to download.
• Slides are available in different nodes & colors.
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• Easy to change the colors of the slide quickly.
• Well-crafted template with an instant download facility.
• Optimize your sales process.
• Highly compatible with PowerPoint and Google Slides.
• Impressive slide for sales. 
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The Definitive Guide to Sales Territory Planning & Management

Successful sales strategies are critical to meeting sales goals, whether you’re a large or small business or anything in between. While a scattershot approach might net you some wins, you’ll quickly fall behind the competition if you don’t use a more dedicated strategy.

That’s where sales territory management comes in. It’s possible that you, like many, are asking “What is territory management in sales?” or “Why should I use it?” or “How can I get started without going back to school to get a degree in annoying jargon?”

Never fear … we’re here to teach you all about territory management in sales today.

What is Sales Territory Management?

Sales territory management is a system for breaking large geographic areas of outside sales clients into smaller, more manageable zones. Some organizations further refine these territories by product type, sales cycle timeframe, or sales rep area expertise, among other categories.

Once territories are defined, sales managers can schedule sales routes more effectively, reduce wasted travel time and associated costs, and set targeted sales quotas for each area (the number one challenge for more than 60 percent of sales leaders ).

A successful sales territory management strategy should include:

• Territories organized by geographic location, account type, product type, sales rep assigned, and any other characteristics that make it easier and faster to serve customers
• Analyses of markets, target customers, and products that help delineate which accounts should fall into which buckets
• Mapping software that allows you to visualize territories easily (discussed in more detail below)

While the territory breakdown and strategy itself is the backbone of a successful sales territory management plan, all of that strategizing requires a group of qualified managers to make sure processes and quotas remain in check. Enter the Sales Territory Manager.

The Essential Role of the Sales Territory Manager

Once an organization has broken its entire area down into territories, it then assigns each territory to a manager. That person oversees a variety of sales rep activities and has a range of responsibilities, including:

• Meeting customer needs and maintaining customer relationships
• Helping current customers refill orders
• Upselling and cross-selling to the customer base
• Cultivating new leads and turning them into new customers
• Setting metrics such as a monthly, quarterly, and yearly revenue goal for the territory
• Using data to optimize sales routes
• Matching reps to the right accounts that meet their skill sets and personality types
• Assigning accounts fairly
• Analyzing whether quotas get met

So now you know what a sales territory is, and how they’re run... but how do you do it?

7 Steps to an Effective Sales Territory Management Plan

Top performers always have been, and still are, defined by their get-up and go. The most recent statistics paint the same millennia-old picture: the best-performing sales reps spend more time on the phone (or in their car) and less time on their computers compared to their less impressive colleagues. Plus, more than 80 percent of top performers spend more than 4 hours a day on sales activities.

That’s a lot of getting up and going. And when you combine that much activity, mistakes and inefficiencies can add up. This is as true for sales territories as anything else.

Again, a good sales strategy is worth its weight in gold. When the organization is on the same page about what the sales process looks like, team members are much more equipped to fill the sales pipeline and meet the needs of leads and customers. Territories make this easier by clearly dividing and conquering.

Let’s see how to set up, assign, implement, and evaluate sales territories for your business.

1. Identify Your Market and Analyze Your Customers

The first step in sales territory management at sales organizations of any size, in any industry, is to perform a thorough market analysis. This should include information such as:

• Who do we serve?
• Where are they located?
• Can we break the region down into a single tier, or will we need multiple tiers to manage the entire clientele?
• How do our products and services break down?
• Are there other ways we might bucket locations, such as the length of the sales cycle, the size of accounts, or certain events they regularly attend?

Don’t feel pressured to think this all through yourself. Sales reps are the ones who see and speak to their accounts every day, so bring them in on this. Designing an intelligent system of sales territories is much easier when you get input from the people who will use the system.

2. Develop Your Team’s Strengths and Build Resources

You will need several resources to design an effective sales territory management system. For one thing, a good CRM is important when getting ready to launch a new sales plan . Without the ability to track details about your various accounts, you won’t be as effective at segmenting them.

For another, you’ll need sales software that offers tools to streamline your sales calls. Think checklists for meetings, sales data software to help design and meet goals, and mileage trackers. Happily, there exists software that combines all of these, which we will discuss below.

Your team’s strengths also matter. Some of your account reps are great at closing large deals. Others excel at managing big accounts , while still others do their best work with smaller ones, dealing with clients quickly and moving on. None of these skills are more important than others; they all contribute to a successful sales year if you employ them correctly.

3. Set Measurable Goals

Keeping your sales pipeline full is another critical aspect of sales territory management. To do this, it’s important to set measurable sales goals . That way, people know what they’re shooting for in terms of:

• Lead development
• Account development
• Upselling and cross-selling
• Territory expansion (if applicable)

Helping identify sales KPIs and goals for each of these will help motivate reps to pursue prospects at every stage of the buyer cycle, every day. Giving people measurable goals to shoot for is one of the most important aspects of a sales territory plan, so don’t skip this step.

4. Define Sales Territories

While it does make sense to begin outlining different territories based on geographic location, that’s not the only thing you should take into account. The trick is to align your team’s strengths with the accounts that need servicing, and then decide how to organize them.

When using sales territory mapping, definitely break your customer segment down into geographic areas first. However, if a particular territory will be serviced by more than one rep, it makes sense to use additional demographics to segment it further. It’s OK to create new territories if necessary.

For instance, let’s say you’re a packaging company. You have three reps who handle one quadrant of the city. That quadrant happens to be the industrial area, where your clients fall into three basic areas: buildable furniture, roofing supplies, and solvents.

It goes without saying that these are very different industries. Therefore, rather than dividing the quadrant into three smaller areas by geography, it makes perfect sense to divide them by type of company. That way, your reps can dig deeper into each industry, expand their knowledge, find new accounts, and meet ever-higher sales targets.

5. Assign Duties and Territories to Reps

Next up on the sales territory management checklist: distribute the right territory assignments to your salesforce.

Each member of a sales team should know exactly which accounts they serve and where they’re located. If you need to reassign salespeople to match the needs of your new map, go ahead. Remember what we said about dividing by industry instead of pure geographic area, for instance.

The most important point here: make sure the distribution is fair and transparent. Most sales reps are paid on commission, meaning if one rep gets all the highest-value leads, the rest are missing an opportunity for higher earnings. Transparency and equality are key when assigning territories and distributing leads—otherwise, your reps may lose faith in the company.

6. Create a Routing Plan

Once your basic sales territory management map is complete, it’s time to create a plan for how your reps will visit specific territories. Rather than leaving it up to sales representatives to decide how they’ll complete their field sales calls that day, though, let’s let the machines handle this one.

Why? Because this part of sales territory planning is much easier when you use an algorithm. Outside sales already require a lot of time and energy; why sit in the office doing manual labor when you could instead feed all the addresses into an algorithm and get a perfect route in seconds?

We’ll let you (and your software) do the math on that one. Your CRM may even be able to work together with your route planning software via API integrations, making it ultra-easy for reps to pull sales call location data in and automatically plan a route for the day.

7. Monitor, Evaluate and Analyze

Understanding the quality of your various territories is also important because it can increase your sales productivity as well as the ROI of all sales activities. Ask questions such as:

• Is the new map working?
• Are revenues up?
• Do sales reps seem happy?
• Are the right people on the right accounts?
• Are people spending less time in the car?
• Do you have more leads?
• Is word-of-mouth marketing increasing?

You can—and should— track all of these metrics in a CRM. Then, use them to evaluate how well your territory plan is working and adjust it as necessary.

6 Best Practices for Sales Territory Management

You’ve got your step-by-step plan for building a sales territory map. Here’s how to use it most effectively.

1. Consider Targeting Market Segments as Their Own Territories

Yes, yes, we did tell you earlier to start defining territories by geographic location. However, if you have specialty segments within a geographic location that require a specific level of expertise, you might consider separating each location further and consolidating them as their own territory. This will reduce overhead, increase the expertise of reps, and reduce customer churn.

It’s okay if this overlaps with other sales reps’ beats. As long as the industries are different, there shouldn’t be any serious toe-stepping.

2. Set Sales Goals for Each Territory

As well as setting sales goals for the company, individual products, and each rep, you want to set goals for each territory. How much do you expect it to bring in? What can you reasonably hope for in terms of profit at the end of the month, quarter, and year? Then make these numbers available to everyone on the team.

3. Divide Accounts Fairly

Salespeople often get hung up on the number of accounts, but that’s the wrong approach. Determine what’s fair based on revenue instead, so that even if one person has 10 accounts and one has 100, both reps have the opportunity to take home roughly the same amount at the end of the year. (Naturally, this excludes accounts they cultivate and commissions they earn on their own.)

4. Use Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluations

Don’t always rely on data alone; qualitative evaluations are useful too. While you might analyze the worth of some accounts based on the profits they bring, others may prove valuable for word-of-mouth marketing, for repeat business, or for how quickly it’s expanding…e.g., future revenues.

5. Make Sure Your CRM Travels Well

If you can’t use it anywhere, your customer relationship management system isn’t doing the trick. Use a CRM that includes territory mapping software, works on and off WiFi, and is compatible with all devices. Otherwise, you might find yourself without crucial intel at the wrong moment. (Is there ever a right moment to be without crucial intel, though?)

6. Stay Flexible

Just because factors are ‘Just Right’ when you create your sales territory management plan, doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way forever. Don’t be like Goldilocks expecting others to do the work for you. Instead, stay flexible, reassigning accounts and reimagining boundaries as necessary.

Best Territory Management Software

There are several choices when it comes to territory mapping software, which is critical for the effective management of your different routes, no matter how you divide them up. Your software must:

• Be data-driven
• Give real-time updates that allow you to make use of the most current account data
• Include automation of sales processes to reduce the manual load on your sales reps
• Offer sales data and sales performance capabilities that overlay on your map, so that you can tweak routes and assignments for the greatest ROI
• Integrate with Excel or other programs you use
• Provide fully functional CRM capabilities, or integrate well with your CRM

Below are a few of the best options.

Best for: Sales reps in almost any industry who want the maximum a customer relationship management system can offer and are willing to learn; Leans toward SaaS industry

What makes it unique: Combines the best of robust functionality with affordable pricing for SMBs

True, Close is mainly focused on providing top communication tools and sales reporting to inside sales teams. But combining Close with other mapping tools can give your sales team a powerful suite of sales tools that keep your deals fresh and at hand.

You never have to worry about losing a sale due to lost customer data, a missing address, or any of the other hundreds of things that can go wrong. Plus, because it’s always on hand, you can make customer notes on the go, enriching each account’s notes with every visit.

Close also allows you to create multiple Pipelines so you can track essential sales funnel metrics for different types of sales, and you can use Custom Fields and Activities to track outside sales efforts right in the lead profile.

Ready to see a major jump in revenue and ROI? This might be the answer you’ve been looking for.

Salesforce Maps

Best for: Companies that have a large number of customers and make lots of sales calls; Leans toward the medical device and automotive industries

What makes it unique: Heavy emphasis on sales and marketing based on venerable time in the industry

Salesforce Maps minimizes the amount of work you have to do planning for a day of sales calls. Using location intelligence, it helps users plan routes, track activity, and mileage, and plan for meetings using checklists.

That, combined with their sales and marketing focus based on decades of experience in the industry, makes them an excellent tool for sales territory management, from the office to the field, especially if you work in large volumes.

We Map Sales

Best for: Companies that are very analytics-driven in making territory decisions; Leans toward retail and wholesale industries

What makes it unique: Amazing combination of different geospatial and analytical tool types in one app

Using the same basic idea of overlaying accounts onto a geographic area, We Map Sales helps users design optimized territories. Then they can use the program to plot routes, track analytics, and more.

Their tools include geo-mapping, territory management, automated territory optimization, and analytics reporting to give you a well-rounded idea of where to go in a day, who is managing what, and how that’s working out for the company overall.

Best for: Companies that want to tap into their geographical data from many angles; Leans toward nonprofits and financial service industries

What makes it unique: As a Salesforce partner, it benefits from the latter’s long time in the industry

While it doesn’t include many of the same robust CRM features that a system like Close does, Geopointe still uses GPS data effectively to merge accounts with locations. It too can help you find the best approach to daily outside sales calls, take notes, and work faster. It provides a raft of ways to access and use geospatial data in the decision-making and sales process and helps to streamline sales calls for users worldwide.

Badger Maps

Best for: Companies that are new to sales mapping and want a user-friendly tool; Leans toward the medical device and wholesale industries

What makes it unique: Perhaps the easiest-to-use sales mapping software on the market

Badger Maps’ entire goal is to make it easy to find where you’re going, do what you need to do, take notes, and move on. It is a highly tailored system geared entirely toward the field process. As such, it is one of the best options for those looking for a field-specific app. However, it isn’t the best for anyone who wants a robust customer relationship management tool that works in the office and field.

Pro tip: Explore Close's cutting-edge Call Assistant feature powered by AI , offering automatic call transcriptions, summaries, and more to supercharge your sales team's productivity.

Best for: Businesses whose main focus is outside sales and whose reps will all benefit from sales mapping; Leans towards construction, renewables, and environment industries

What makes it unique: Designed entirely for outside sales reps, SPOTIO devotes its functionality to CRM mapping

With maps that turn your customer profiles into a richly detailed visual territory management map, you’ll never feel lost again. Not only is it easy to divide up territories for your outside field reps, but you’ll also have the ability to track activity, prospect in the area, automate manual tasks, and get where you need to go.

Best for: Companies that want an all-in-one sales management tool with a focus on outside sales; Leans towards retail or food and beverage industries

What makes it unique: Great for companies with a merchandising focus

Describing itself as the link between office and field, Geo Rep seeks to provide outside field reps an umbilical cord back to the office while enabling freedom of movement. With planning, directional, task-based, and insight tools, reps have a rich informational system at their fingertips on the go. It’s a good tool for small businesses but may not scale well with larger ones.

Map My Customers

Best for: Sales reps and companies who want to visualize their leads, prospects, and customers as pins on a map; Leans towards wholesaling and medical device industries

What makes it unique: Outlines which areas represent the most business opportunities on the map, so you can focus there

Map My Customers is a true command center for those who want to take their customer relationship management system with them wherever they go. It’s easy to build and optimize routes, find new customers along the way, and view and meet goals. Voice notes and call/email organization are a bonus, though learning the whole system will take significant upfront effort.

It’s Time to Build a Sales Territory Plan

Ready to get started with sales territory management? The best thing you can do is read through the step-by-step guide above for mapping your territories, then immediately get started assigning the right accounts to the right people. Doing so will save you time and money, utilize your resources better, and keep your customers happier.

And when customers are happy, everyone wins.

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How to Create an Effective Sales Territory Plan: Step-by-Step Guide

• July 1, 2022
• Sales Planning

Table of contents

What is a sales territory plan, help sales reps work more efficiently, improve resource allocation, boost employee morale, increase targeting capabilities, provide better service, step 1: evaluate your business objectives, step 2: define your ideal client or prospect, step 3: determine tam, step 4: analyze your current market standing, step 5: identify sales territories, step 6: create a plan of attack, step 7: review, revise, repeat, evaluate and optimize the efficacy of your sales territory plan, first 30 days: complete steps 1 through 5, next 30 days: implement and optimize your plan, final 30 days: leverage the 3 r’s to optimize your plan, sales territory plan examples, parting advice for effective sales territory planning, how do you make a 30-60-90 day sales plan, further reading.

If you want to put your sales reps in a position to succeed, then you need a cohesive sales territory plan. A great sales territory plan will help your organization get the most out of platforms like Salesforce. 

By implementing such a plan, you can also zero in on high-value sales targets, capitalize on territories with the best sales potential, and increase overall profitability.

With all that being said, creating a territory management plan can seem like a monumental undertaking, especially if you have never developed such a strategy before. Fortunately, facilitating territory alignment via a plan is far easier than you might expect.

As part of our efforts to help sales managers overcome the challenges of the modern commerce ecosystem, QBIX Analytics has created this comprehensive guide to creating an effective sales territory plan. Read on to learn more.

Before we reveal how to create a sales territory plan, it is important to understand exactly what a plan is and what it should include. 

In simple terms, a sales territory plan guides your sales reps when they target prospective customers. Specifically, this plan will help them target the right regions in order to maximize the efficiency of their sales efforts.

Due to its name, most people assume that a sales territory plan divides up a region into various geographical segments. For instance, a company operating within a large metropolitan area may create a separate sales territory for each zip code. 

While this is a common approach, sales territories can be segmented using many different data points other than geography. For instance, you can create sales territories based on the type of customer you want to target, sales potential, or virtually any other relevant factor.

After you have created a plan, you can assign sales reps to areas that align with their knowledge, experience, and capabilities. This tactic will improve the purchasing experience, set the stage for long-lasting client relationships, and maximize your return on investment (ROI) on all sales and outreach efforts.

Why Sales Territory Planning Is Critical to the Success of Your Sales Team

Sales territory planning can have a positive impact on every stage of the buyer’s journey. Additionally, a great territory plan offers countless benefits to both your sales reps and your company as a whole.

When sales reps can focus their energies on a specific territory, they will waste less time learning about market segments and participating in administrative processes. 

Instead, they can devote the lion’s share of their time to engaging with clients and closing deals. This focus will allow them to hit sales targets without logging in an unsustainable number of work hours.

Ideally, you want to assign your top sales reps to your highest-value accounts. Territory sales planning makes this possible.

When you know who your most valuable accounts are and where they are located, you can closely monitor territory-specific performance. If a particular territory is underperforming, you can make the adjustments necessary to correct this deficiency.

Sales territory planning allows you to create balanced territories. In turn, this ensures that you are not overworking your sales reps. Ultimately, this will lead to improved employee morale, which will also help you reduce attrition rates and retain top talent.  

One of the biggest advantages of sales territory planning is that it allows you to precisely target high-value accounts or regions. You can divide territories based on any number of criteria. After you have created these territories, you can then precisely target the prospects within those regions.

Sales territory planning gives you the opportunity to align sales reps with current and potential clients based on the rep’s knowledge base and skill set. 

The purchasing experience is enhanced when clients are matched with sales reps who understand the challenges they are facing. This approach will improve your company’s brand image, assist with client retention, and increase the average lifetime value of your clients.

How to Build a Sales Territory Plan

If you are ready to create your own sales territory plan, we recommend that you leverage the following seven steps:

Why does your business exist? Who do you serve? What are your key business objectives for the next year, three years, and five years?

By answering the above questions and other introspective inquiries, you can gain a better understanding of where you want to take your company over the next few years. Your short and long-term business objectives should guide you as you navigate the following steps for your sales territory planning.

While every client or prospect will possess a set of unique qualities and traits, you will find that many of your customers share a few key commonalities. By identifying what these commonalities are, you can create ideal client or prospect personas. 

For example, you may find that the majority of your high-value clients operate within the same industry or a closely-related sector. In this scenario, it is safe to assume that most future clients will also operate within one of these sectors.

The term “total addressable market” (TAM) refers to the total number of potential customers that match your definition of an ideal client. TAM would represent your revenue-generating ceiling if your company were the only game in town. No company can capture its TAM unless it has no competitors.

For comparison, your “serviceable available market” (SAM) refers to the number of prospective customers that your company could realistically capture using available resources and reach.

When creating your plan, you should determine both your TAM and SAM. Additionally, you should subdivide your SAM into several smaller target markets. These target markets will be the various territories identified in your plan, but more on that in step 5.

Once you have arrived at the halfway point of the territory planning process, it is time to analyze your current market standing. Essentially, you want to determine how you stack up against the competition.

One of the best ways to do this is to conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. When performing this analysis, make sure to gather feedback from your sales reps, marketing team, and other departments within the company. 

By doing so, you can gain actionable insights from various perspectives. You can then leverage this information to improve your market standing.

At this point in the process, you should be ready to carve up your sphere of influence into various sales territories. Although these territories will be outlined using geographic boundaries, they should be created by analyzing a variety of data points. 

For example, you can divide up territories based on which products are most popular among an area’s client base. Alternatively, you could outline territories based on the audience segments that are most prevalent within each area.

After you have identified each sales territory, it is time to create a plan to connect with prospects within those various regions. During this phase of planning, set performance goals for each region. Now would also be a good time to determine which sales reps you plan to assign to each territory.

When creating your plan, also set short-term goals for each territory. Generally, it is a good idea to set monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. You can track your progress towards each goal using various key performance indicators (KPIs), but more on that below.

The final stage of planning involves three components. First, you must continually analyze sales rep performance data. Analyzing multiple data points will help you measure the efficacy of your sales territory plan.

You should review territory performance on a monthly basis, at a minimum. Depending on the market that you operate within, you may need to review territory and sales rep performance weekly or bi-weekly.

After reviewing territory performance, determine whether your sales plan should be revised. If it should, implement those changes as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Finally, continue to repeat this review and revision process perpetually, consistently building towards better results.

Further reading on creating your own sales territory plan can be found here .

It is impossible to measure the efficacy of your plan without tracking KPIs. There are many different KPIs that you could track. However, some of the most commonly used performance metrics include:

• Gross profit
• Total unit sales
• Customer lifetime value
• Total commissions
• Conversion rate

When selecting KPIs, make sure to choose metrics that are relevant to your industry and organizational goals. By doing so, you can gain valuable insights about your sales territory plan and can leverage those insights to improve its efficacy over time.

Territory Sales Plan Template

There are numerous different territory sales plan templates out there. However, many of the most effective ones use a 30-60-90 day approach. This approach divides the steps outlined above into three thirty-day initiatives. When using the 30-60-90 day method, your territory sales plan template will look something like this:

That’s right — you should complete steps 1 through 5 in the first 30 days of sales planning. This work means evaluating business objectives, defining ideal customer personas, determining TAM and SAM, analyzing your current market standing, and identifying sales territories in just one month.

As part of this process, you should also determine which ten active client accounts are most valuable to your company. Once you have completed this, explore ways to bolster relationships with these high-value accounts.

By the time you reach day 31, you should be ready to put your plan into action. However, you might also find that you need to rework your customer personas in order to align with organizational objectives or vice versa. Now is the time to do so.

During month two of sales planning, you will also need to identify which KPIs you intend to track. Programs like Salesforce include built-in tracking tools that make this process incredibly easy. You should also look beyond your top 10 most valuable accounts and examine other prospective clients you want to target.  

During days 61-90, you should be focused on analyzing the efficacy of your sales territory plan. If your plan is meeting or exceeding expectations, analyze performance data and other information in order to determine precisely which tactics yielded these results. 

If your plan is underperforming, determine why and implement changes to get your strategy back on track.

There are many examples of how you can divide up your sales territories.

For example, you may want to divide territories based on the amount of revenue that they generate. When using this approach, one territory may include only a handful of high-value accounts, whereas another might be home to several dozen accounts, even though the amount of revenue that they generate is approximately equal. 

Therefore, you may need to assign multiple sales reps to the latter territory in order to ensure that their workload is not excessive.

Another approach involves classifying territories based on the types of deals that are commonly struck within that region. For instance, one territory might be home to mostly large enterprise transactions, whereas another is the site of transactions involving small to medium-sized businesses. 

In this scenario, a sales rep that knows how to work out complex enterprise-level transactions should be assigned to the former territory. Conversely, a sales rep with experience closing a large volume of deals would be better suited for the latter territory.

By leveraging the proven steps outlined above, you can create your own sales territory plan. In addition to providing assistance with territory management, we can also help with several other integral components of business strategy development and planning, including the following:

• Creating a sales compensation plan
• Improving your sales commission plan
• Sales capacity planning

Contact QBIX Analytics to learn more or download our free territory sales plan template to get started.

A sales territory plan divides your target markets based on a multitude of different criteria. This plan can serve as a roadmap that will help you allocate sales reps to regions that align with their skills and expertise.

Your plan should include a map that identifies each territory. It should also explain what criteria are used to create each territory and provide specific information about each region.

Sales territories can be created using many different data points, including the number of prospects in a given region, the average value of clients within that region, etc.

The steps to creating a sales plan are as follows: – Define objectives – Identify customer personas – Determine TAM/SAM – Assess current market standing – Identify sales territories – Create a plan of attack – Review, revise, and repeat These steps can help you create your own effective sales territory plan.

Sales territories can include neighborhoods, zip-code-based regions, cities, states, multi-state geographic areas, or entire countries.

You can create a 30-60-90 day sales plan by using the steps outlined above. Generally, steps one through five are performed during the first 30 days. Step six is performed during the second month, and step seven is completed during the final 30-day leg of the plan. 

• 5 Tips for Sales Capacity Planning in 2021
• 5 Tips to Modernize Your Budgeting Process in the Age of Covid
• Sales Compensation Terms You Need to Know
• It’s Time to Improve your Sales Commission Plan
• Customer Attrition Models: Tips & How to Improve Churn 

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The adage “fail to plan, plan to fail” applies to sales management as much as any other sphere in business. While sales managers often have extensive experience developing sales territory plans, the stakes are now higher than ever. There’s a significant premium on getting your sales territory plan right, in the same way, there is on getting your quota planning right or getting your sales team fully trained. There’s no silver bullet for successful sales management, but successful sales territory planning can get you a long way towards your destination. Let's explore how.

• What is Sales Territory Planning?

Why Organizations Need a Sales Territory Strategy

How do you build the ideal sales territory plan, issues to consider when planning sales territory, the tools you need to plan your sales territory.

• The Benefits of Sales Territory Planni ng

What Is Sales Territory Planning?

The textbook definition of a sales territory typically points to a specific geographic coverage, a set of defined accounts, or maybe an industry sector that a salesperson or sales team focuses on. Depending on the complexity of the product or service on offer, the scale and scope of the sales territories heavily influence the number and type of salespeople engaged in each territory.

While the definition of sales territory planning isn’t new, the thinking around what now constitutes “territory planning” may be a revelation for some. Sales managers are long experienced in working out how to slice and dice the structure of their sales team to maximize their chances of success. However, the way they can now go about it is changing significantly. In the past, it wasn’t unusual to define territories based on how far sales reps could realistically drive in a day or week. Or it might have been based on what a sales manager had used in the past, with a few tweaks each year. It wasn’t unusual for territory planning to involve a great deal of cutting and pasting in Word docs or Excel spreadsheets. But these approaches drive the design of sales territories based on the needs of the business rather than the needs of the customer or prospect. This can result in some sales territories being over serviced and others being under-serviced. Either way, the outcome isn’t optimal for the business, as opportunities will likely be missed in one way or another.

What was often missing in designing a sales territory was a detailed understanding of where the most significant opportunities were, whether there had been historical sales and marketing activity, how successful this had been, and what drivers were likely to drive opportunity and revenue over the coming 12 months.

Organizations can be successful by doing what they have always done and then working hard to achieve the results they need. Nevertheless, the pressure now for greater success and the expectations of managers and other stakeholders means that taking a more systematic approach to planning sales territories – and even sales targets and incentive models – is now imperative. In a “big data” world, many would be curious why a “big data” approach wouldn’t be adopted to territory planning.

Let's explore why this approach offers value to any sales team.

1. Systematically Target Specific Sectors, Regions, Opportunities, and Customers

Sales territory planning encourages you to think carefully about who your best prospects and customers will likely be over the coming sales year and why. With that in mind, you can then research where these prospects are located, which companies and personas have the greatest propensity to buy, and potentially understand the issues and drivers that could compel them to buy.

2. Align Your Sales and Marketing Functions with Your Prospects

It isn’t unusual for the sales team and the marketing function to have something close to a love/hate relationship. Sales want the marketing function to generate leads and run campaigns that drive success. Equally, marketing wants clarity from the sales team about their plans and priorities, so they can align their efforts and expertise to solve the same problem.

A strong sales territory plan can help bridge that gap to help maximize sales productivity.

A marketing function will be able to define which sectors, segments, companies, and personas have the greatest propensity to buy over the coming months and the drivers and compelling events that sales teams can make use of.

A powerful sales territory planning solution can help translate these insights into sales territories that’ll bring sales success to the business.

3. Set Realistic Targets, Review Your Progress, and Refine Your Strategy

A comprehensive sales territory planning process allows you to set realistic targets based on opportunity and customer propensity to act. Setting realistic but challenging targets can help set companies apart from their peers by attracting and retaining salespeople who understand their market, their customers, and their problems and how their solutions can help address their needs. Salespeople want to be successful, and maximizing their chances of success, and therefore their earnings, can help a business to prosper the most.

An effective sales plan also helps sales managers to review their progress as the months and quarters go by. With a sales territory plan based on customer needs, rather than intuition or “gut feel,” sales managers can take a rounded view of what’s working and what isn’t. If they’re ahead of target, they can review the model to understand why and capitalize further on their success. If they’re behind, they can see if the problem is moving deals through the sales pipeline (and why), or perhaps whether it’s insufficient leads and opportunities. With an excellent understanding of the opportunity available to them, sales managers are much better positioned to navigate the challenges of their sales year to a much more successful conclusion.

4. Effective Sales Territory Planning Allows You to Focus on Selling

Sales managers don’t sign on to endlessly reviewing spreadsheets filled with the lists of potential customers and spending time reviewing their options. They certainly don’t sign on to expend time and energy understanding why they’re behind on their targets and how best to fix the problem.

Instead, their priority is supporting their sales teams and their sales reps to be as successful as possible. They can help ensure their time isn’t wasted and maximize the value of the two hundred plus selling days available to them each year.

Having a richly informed sales territory plan in place at the beginning of each sales year helps maximize the impact of your sales and marketing campaigns. It can help ensure you are targeting your customers and prospects in the right way, at the right time, with the right message and the right product.

A systematic approach to sales territory management plays a valuable part in maximizing sales productivity. What’s the best way to implement this model?

1. Define Your Business Goals and Objectives

The key to having a successful sales year lies in having an excellent grasp of your goals and commercial objectives. These’ll vary by business, but common themes will likely include revenue metrics, market share metrics, product or service-specific revenue metrics, and potentially customer signup or renewal metrics.

Ideally, these metrics will focus on growth, but not always. Companies in mature markets will seek to maintain their existing customer base to maintain their financial position. It’s by no means unusual for a business to have a blend of positive growth, neutral growth, and declining growth models, depending on its portfolio of offerings.

Other dynamics involved might include developing customers in a specific sector or developing new transaction models, such as subscription pricing, that point the business towards new and different types of customer relationships in the future. Equally, migrating customers from existing products to new products may be part of the plan. Targeting your competitors' customers to encourage them to switch to your product is another possible tactic.

Whichever approach you wish to take, it makes sense to decide on your objectives before designing your territories. It’s also worth having these initial plans approved by the other stakeholders in the business before proceeding much further to ensure everyone is always on the same page.

2. Know Your Customers' Needs, Issues, and Drivers

With a clear picture in your mind about what you’re looking to achieve commercially, the next step is to think carefully about the other half of the business equation – your customers and prospects.

It’s almost impossible to know too much about your customer from a sales and marketing perspective. Over and above building a professional relationship and rapport with a prospect, having a deep understanding of their industry issues and their business impact is especially important. Suppose a sales rep understands how industry dynamics are playing out for their prospect in terms of their ability to cut costs or increase revenues. In that case, they’ll be well down the road to solving their customer's problems, especially if they can demonstrate that their grasp of the issues is better than your competitors.

The scale, scope, and complexity of a prospect's problems will strongly influence the length of the sales cycle and the buying process. In short, the more complex and expensive the proposal, the more people will be involved in a buying decision and the longer the sales cycle. In all likelihood, as a result, the smaller the sales territory will be. Equally, products and services that solve less-complex problems will have shorter sales cycles and likely larger territories.

Understanding this dynamic and how it may change over time will help you design and manage the optimal sales territory plan for your business.

3. Do a SWOT Analysis

The business environment is dynamic, with scope for opportunities to capitalize on and threats to defend against.

The industry standard for understanding these dynamics is the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). While less commonly used in territory planning, it nevertheless offers a valuable perspective on the dynamics at play and therefore points to ways that a business' time, budget, and resources should be deployed to maximum effect.

Defining and understanding the opportunities and threats a product, service, or business is exposed to and how they relate to each other can help define the ideal sales strategy and hence the optimal design of the sales territories. It can also serve as the basis for the marketing function to create additional promotional campaigns for specific sectors to address specific sales and marketing issues.

4. Build Your Strategy

With a solid understanding of what you’re looking to achieve and the dynamics of the market you’re engaging in, you’re well-positioned to build your sales strategy. Your sales territory plan will be a key element.

A sales strategy will vary, depending on whether you’re engaged in account management or new business development. It’ll also vary according to the complexity of the offered product or service; the sales cycle involved. It may also vary according to how transactions are closed, whether face-to-face or using e-commerce applications.

For the benefit of all, it needs to be defined, documented, and presented so that “all compasses point north” in the business.

5. It's All in the Sales Territory Action Plan

With your objectives and strategy in place, your next focus is execution.

Each sales territory – carefully designed using a host of business and external data – will have an activity that’s created and owned by the sales rep responsible for that territory.

The action plan will vary by territory. Some’ll build revenues by taking new products and services and presenting them to existing contacts. Others will reach higher and more widely in the organization to build from an initial base. Some plans may include targeting business for the first time and finding out who the best people are to engage with the problems you could solve. It’ll be sensible to collaborate with the marketing function to identify those individuals who should be targeted, but also to help build propositions based on the issues those prospects are likely to have.

6. Review and Assess Your Plan Regularly

With your sales territories in place and the supporting plans being executed, you’re well-positioned to review progress on a regular basis. The detailed insights should give you confidence that you’re engaging with the right sectors, segments, and personas. You can measure both the inputs – sales calls, meetings, marketing campaigns – as well as the results –leads, opportunities, and revenue – and see where you’re ahead or behind. Review your plans and tweak them as you need to meet your other objectives.

Having looked in some depth at how sales territories fit into the broader go-to-market strategy, let's explore how you might design a sales territory that’ll help you achieve your objectives.

1. Revenue Source

Ultimately, sales is all about revenue, and it’s essential to understand where revenues come from and via which channel. Ideally, when designing your sales territories, you should fall back on historical data covering revenue sources to see how your business gets traction in the marketplace. This’ll help you understand which sectors have the greatest propensity to look to your business to solve their problems as well as how they typically engage with you.

2. Leverage Industry Metrics

Use industry metrics to help shape your sales territories. It might involve identifying fast-growing sectors or those sectors with exposure to growing industry problems that you can help with. For example, these issues could be constrained revenue growth, accelerating costs, or a need to better manage business risk. In other sectors, demographic changes might be an opportunity to be capitalized on or a threat to be addressed.

3. Align Your Territories with the Right Salesperson

Salespeople each have unique strengths and experiences and the same can be said for sales territories. We’ve talked about the science of designing a sales territory using metrics to optimize the design. There’s also art in aligning the right salesperson with the right territory.

In some cases, this’ll be easy, especially where there are pre-existing relationships. In other situations, industry expertise will show you who gets a particular territory. Another dynamic to consider is the personality traits involved. Some salespeople are natural “farmers,” outstanding at developing relationships that yield results over the long term. Others are more suited to acting as hunters, preferring to find and close business before moving on to the next prospect.

However you choose to approach this issue, having a good understanding of potential sales territories makes it easier to align them with your existing salespeople or potential recruits.

All this may seem excessive work to deliver the final results, but a well-designed sales strategy supported by an optimal sales territory plan will pay significant dividends. Using the right tools goes a long way to reduce the sales planning and management workload, so you can focus on the fundamentals of leading the sales effort in the business.

Territory Mapping

Territory mapping is at the core of designing sales territories – it shows which sales rep owns which territory and who their sales manager is. Keeping track of all this, especially during the planning phase and during all the handovers at the beginning of every sales year, is essential but potentially overwhelming when you consider all the sales territories you could have in your company. You could easily have a mix of geographic territories, named customer account territories, and channel account territories. In addition, you could have sales overlay teams to promote specific products. Add in the sales management, and territory mapping can quickly become complex, with plenty of scope for accounts to be missed during the planning stage or sales quota misallocated. Effective territory mapping is essential if the sales year is to start smoothly.

A standard solution to this challenge is to mix and match spreadsheets and even flip charts to keep track of everything during the planning stage. Sharing information in these formats and making sure everyone is on the same page is fraught with difficulty. This is how mistakes get made.

A better alternative is to have a SaaS-based platform that allows everyone involved to access the territory maps to see at-a-glance which accounts specific salespeople have and who looks after a specific account, including all the subsidiaries. You can also see who is aligned to these territories from a management and product specialist perspective.

CRM Applications

CRM applications are an excellent tool to help develop the optimal sales territories. It contains a vast array of commercial and revenue intelligence that can be captured and consolidated to provide a perspective on how customers and prospects have been engaged and with what success. This information may also help you understand how your customers buy your products and services. Is it from the website, via a call center, through your sales channel, or direct from a rep? You may also see issues like purchasing frequency and product selections. All these yield valuable insights into how your customers and prospects behave. You can understand how you can best engage with them from a sales, marketing, and product development perspective.

Customer Mapping

Customer mapping is the reverse of territory mapping – it’s about understanding who looks after specific accounts. This matters because a sales territory plan may split account coverage by revenue type, for example, product, services, education, training, or support. But ensuring all these aspects of account responsibility are allocated properly – with a sales quota if necessary – is an important task in helping make sure all the revenue bases are covered. It also helps steer leads and customer queries to the right individual during the sales year if a customer inquiry or invoice query comes in. It can also help with revenue recognition issues if a sales incentive program supports commission splitting as part of a split account management model.

Rep Tracking

Keeping track of account reps and the territories they’re responsible for is key to efficient and effective use of a limited resource. Seeing what account management responsibilities an individual has is a sure-fire way of ensuring they aren’t overloaded with opportunities. It also helps to ensure that the sales opportunity is split evenly across the sales floor.

Revenue Tracking

The last piece of the territory planning jigsaw is revenue tracking so that you can see how your territories are performing as planned.

While no forecasting model will be perfect – that’s why the sales leadership has quota coverage – ensuring that a territory or product is performing as planned is essential to ensure that the year-end target is achieved. Suppose you find yourself ahead of the game in the first quarter or so, then fantastic. It gives you a buffer for later in the year and scope to capitalize on your good fortune. But if you find yourself falling short, despite your best-laid plans and analytical efforts, then you’ll want to know where more action needs to be applied to the sales process, whether it be lead generation, lead conversion, or closing.

The Benefits of Sales Territory Planning

While it may seem an unnecessary overhead, there is significant value in putting in the effort to align your sales, marketing, and customer engagement fully. Let's explore the value in more detail.

Improved Customer Service

Probably the single most valuable aspect of sales territory optimization is that it optimizes your customer engagement. It ensures that you have the correct number of people in each territory and the right person promoting the right products to the right people at the right time.

Executing Your Strategic Plans

Pivoting a business in a new direction is one of the greatest challenges a manager can face. Success requires a good understanding of where your business is right now and where you want it to go. Effective territory planning delivers that capability by helping you plan your next move with hard data you can rely on. It gives you confidence that you have an informed picture of where the opportunity lies, even as your customers, markets, and business change.

Workloads that are Evenly Distributed

There’s little value in having some parts of your sales team hugely overperforming and others scrabbling around for business. This is a recipe for high staff turnover as people begin to burn out or look for better opportunities elsewhere. A better approach is having opportunities more evenly distributed between territories so that you have a more balanced workforce that can better serve your customers' needs and deepen your relationships with them.

Fresh Insights

The data you consolidate can help you understand how best to optimize the design of your sales territories. It can also help you understand more about how your salesforce operates on a day-to-day basis. Wouldn't it help to understand your most effective salespeople and why? Would it be helpful to see who can move opportunities through your sales pipeline the fastest? Wouldn't it be helpful to see who are best at working their way around a business to craft a proposed solution that yields the big-ticket deals? If your answer is yes, then leverage the same capabilities you used to understand how best to develop your sales territory plan and use them to better understand how best to manage your sales territories day-to-day to maximize your results.

Make the Best Use of Your Selling Time

Sales teams only have around two hundred selling days a year, so there’s an imperative to make the best use of every day. This means making sure that your salespeople spend their time with those prospects most likely to spend money with your business. Automating your territory planning and management takes away the need for you to spend time wading through spreadsheets and flip charts to get the best outcome for you and your business. Leverage your business and market data to get your salespeople talking to the right people at the right time and about the right product.

Learn about selecting the right territory and quota planning for you by reading our blo g, Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing Your Territory Mapping Software .

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How to Create a 30-60-90 Day Territory Plan [Template Included]

By emily healy, posted in sales productivity, territory management, sales management.

The most overwhelming part of being an outside sales rep is building a brand-new territory from scratch. Managing a territory is like running a business: you’re the one who decides if your territory succeeds or fails—and there are no days off.

Your territory plan is a blueprint explaining how you’ll turn your region into a profitable operation .

Your plan needs to demonstrate that you can develop a territory like a top outside sales rep with the right tools at your disposal. 

A common mistake is thinking that you can improvise instead of creating a detailed sales plan . These are the same salespeople who get overly cocky and end up scrambling for deals at the end of the quarter.

This guide will teach you how to create a 30-60-90 day territory plan that will help you scale your new territory without missing a single step.

Instead of scrambling the next time you need a territory plan, read on to find out the ins and outs of a 30-60-90 day territory plan, and check out our template for creating your new sales territory plan! 

How to Create a 30-60-90 Day Territory Plan

What is a 30-60-90 day plan, how to write a 30-60-90 day plan what to include in a sales territory plan, what does a 30-60-90 day plan look like, 30-60-90 day template for new sales territory plan, days 1-30: understand and analyze your market.

• Define Your New Sales Territory
• Identify your ideal customer persona

Product Knowledge: SWOT Analysis

Know your competition, discover your top 10 accounts.

• Days 31-60: Implement Your New Sales Territory Plan

Define Your Sales Goals

Go beyond your top 10, find new leads.

• Optimize Your Route

Plan to Meet Your Monthly Quota

Days 61-90: optimize your sales territory plan and get feedback, get qualitative feedback, run the numbers, check-in with your customers, sync your schedule, manage territory management reports, day 91: what’s next, edit & download our 30-60-90 day territory plan template.

A 30-60-90 day territory plan is a blueprint explaining how you’ll turn your region into a profitable operation. 

It is a workable plan for targeting the right customers and implementing goals for income and consistent sales growth over time. A structured plan from the start will paint a positive picture that will give you a sense of direction and show you where you’re headed. 

Back to Top ↑

The aim of the 30-60-90 day territory plan is to target the right customers and implement goals for income and consistent sales growth over time. 

This framework will help your organization outline a clear plan of how you’ll turn your region into a profitable operation . 

When creating a 30-60-90 day plan, the keys are in the details. It’s important to analyze your unique situation by focusing on certain factors, such as:

• Understanding and analyzing your market 
• Identifying your customer persona
• Creating a SWOT analysis
• Discovering your top 10 accounts
• Defining SMART goals and KPIs
• Optimizing your route

Including detailed sections in your new territory sales template will set you up for success. For more information on how to build your sales territory plan, keep reading! 

A 30-60-90 day territory plan will look slightly different for each sales rep. You should be customizing your plan to the goals and needs of your company. 

Badger Maps has partnered with Xtensio to create the ultimate   30-60-90 Day Sales Territory Template  for sales reps. 

With this template, you can add or subtract different sections based on your preference, while keeping all of your information organized (and visually appealing!). Creating and customizing a free territory plan has never been easier. 

Define Your New Sales Territory 

Before starting your sales plan, it’s important to clearly define your market quantitatively. Asking specific questions will help get a strong start. 

Consider asking questions like:

• What geographical area does this territory cover?
• What is the value of this territory?
• What are the demographics of this territory?
• What competition already exists in this territory?

The more you know and understand about your territory before you start the initial planning will help you grow faster down the line. 

Identify your ideal customer persona 

User personas (or buyer personas ) represent the ideal customers who will engage with your product. 

Using this template to create a buyer section in your 30-60-90 day sales plan will align everyone in your company on who your ideal customer is. This will show the key insights to your ideal customers, such as their behavior, needs, pain points , interest, and motivators.

In your first 30 days, you need to learn everything there is to know about what you’re selling. Creating a SWOT analysis is a great starting point to figure out why a customer would want to purchase your product.

By creating a SWOT analysis for your product, you will find out:

• What are its strengths ?
• What are its weaknesses ?
• What opportunities does it create for the buyer?
• What threats does it face from competitors?

Take the time to develop concrete answers to these questions . Keep in mind that customers are always thinking about cheaper alternatives, so driving home your product's value proposition is integral to close a deal. 

A SWOT analysis is your secret weapon. By mastering it, you won't sweat when tough questions pop up. 

Set higher standards for your own performance than anyone around you, and the only competition will be with yourself - Rick Pitino

By understanding your competition, you learn why your market needs your product category . Examine your direct (and indirect) competition, and think about the reasons your customers should choose your product instead.

Here are some areas to evaluate during a competitive analysis:

• Positioning
• Reviews and testimonials

It’s always interesting to see a competitor’s product features compared to your own. Go back to that SWOT analysis and focus on the threats . Dive into your research to understand the why . Why are those competitors actual threats, and what can you do to minimize these threats? 

Your company probably has competitive analysis reports on the major competitors in your market. But, if they don't, you should take the initiative and begin building this resource.

Knowing exactly who your competitors are and how your product compares will put you miles ahead of them when it comes to preparing for deals. Competitive intelligence is worth its weight in gold and you can easily do it with an online competitive intelligence tool .

You should immediately figure out who the most profitable accounts in your territory are. These may be accounts you've inherited or defined by analyzing your ideal buyer. 

Review which customers have traditionally been easy to sell to and/or seen high levels of success with your product. Then, prioritize those leads and similar accounts.

The 80/20 rule is in full effect - 80% of territory growth will come from 20% of your customer base .

To maintain a steady relationship with your “golden customers,” get as personal as possible. Not only will they start seeing you as a friend rather than a salesperson, but they will also trust you and your advice - which means more sales .

Days 31-60: Implement Your New Sales Territory Plan 

Consolidate the trends you’ve discovered above to come up with S.M.A.R.T goals: 

• S pecific 
• M easurable 
• A chievable 
• R elevant 
• T ime-based

Set goals based on valid data and information relating to historical performance. These will include the product/ service revenues and margins, account revenues, market share, customer retention levels, and other key data from the sales funnel.

Sales key performance indicators (KPIs) are numeric values that help you measure performance in order to make data-driven decisions. 

As a salesperson, setting measurable values to track achievements is essential to improve .

A few examples of sales KPIs are:

• Market Share - the relative market share of your company in comparison with your competitors 
• Lead to Sale Conversion Rate - the percentage of new customers compared to new leads
• Customer Turnover Rate (AKA churn) - an annual metric that depicts the number of clients that stopped using your product or service
• Average Conversion Time - the amount of time taken by your customer to move ahead in your sales funnel
• Product Revenue - the metric resenting the individual contributions of a specific product or service to the total company revenue

Now that you're an expert on your sales territory and have a plan to conquer it, start selling beyond the top 10 customers you met in your first month. 

Start prospecting regularly and invest the time into developing your territory early. This way, you'll avoid any unpleasant surprises as it grows. 

Analyze the market segments in your territory. What should be prioritized in your sales pipeline ? 

This answer will give you a clear overview of your territory's growth potential. Set deadlines for territory expansion, but be realistic. A deal doesn't close in a single meeting . In fact, 80% of deals require 5 follow-ups or more. 

Leads will be the driving force for your sales pipeline, but you need a systematic approach to generate and close them to avoid overwhelming your pipeline. 

The best way to develop a better lead generation process is by maintaining a strong customer base . If you take care of your existing customers, they'll refer you to other qualified leads who will be much more likely to close.

Optimize Your Route 

Following up with prospects regularly is the best way to maintain and grow your relationships. 

Create a regular routing schedule based on your core customers and opportunities . A detailed schedule will ensure that your deals develop at a steady pace, preventing you from missing any critical portions of your territory. 

You can use a sales routing app like Badger Maps for planning and growing your territory . Badger Maps helps you schedule appointments and create efficient routes. On average, users sell 25% more and spend 20% less time in the car . The app accomplishes this with traffic-sensitive route optimization and a built-in lead generation tool. 

Combine these great sales tips with the best field sales app

Find out how many leads you need to meet each month to crush your quota . Also, keep track of how many leads you meet with each day or week to acquire a new customer. 

For example, if you need to meet with 5 leads to acquiring 1 customer and your sales quota is 30 new customers/month, then you need to meet with 150 leads a month to meet your quota.

• Break down this goal of 150 leads by week and then by day, so you can achieve your goal.
• 150 leads/4 weeks = ~ 38 leads/week
• 38 leads / 5 days per week = ~ 8 leads/day

Be sure to adjust your weekly or daily goals if you only prospect 4 days a week, or you plan to take a vacation.

It's always a great idea to connect with your customers to check how satisfied they are with your product. You can also interview people that ended up not converting to understand what went wrong with them. 

Gathering feedback will allow you to adjust your sales strategy based on your customers' needs . To evaluate how satisfied your customers are with your product you can collect data about your cross-sell and upsell opportunities, the number of problems solved, or ask them for their Net Promoter Score.  

Explain what you accomplished and how that aligns with the project or team's overall goals. Focus on your main goals with measurable KPIs .

Your territory plan should be solidified by the third month . Your most important accounts, sales goals, and your schedule for reaching them should be set for the rest of the year.

Design your plan around your personal life and responsibilities . Don't overload your schedule without taking your personal life into consideration. It's easy to get overwhelmed in a new sales territory. 

In the final 30 days of your plan, it’s time to forecast your numbers for the rest of the year . Where do you see your territory going ?

You can use this formula to project how fast your territory will develop: 

Contacts to make x appointments to set x average close rate x average revenue per deal = % to quota

Keep track of your meetings . Nothing is worse than missing deal-critical details. By logging each of your customer interactions, you're helping your future self stay ahead of your pipeline. 

It’s important to keep a record of your history with every account. Jot down any information that seems relevant. You might uncover objections before they're even brought up. 

For example, if a customer mentions an issue with your product, you can ask follow-up questions about that previous issue during your next conversation.

This information will help you manage the many relationships you make in the field. Building strong customer relationships will help you close more deals, get more referrals, and increase productivity .

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Chances are that your calendar is going to be slammed in the first few months. In the third month, you should make it your mission to have your schedule under control. 

You want to avoid overlapping appointments . An overwhelming schedule prevents you from prioritizing important customers. Even worse, your appointments might fall on different areas of your territory, forcing you to waste time (and gas) driving to two wildly different places.

Using a CRM software can do wonders. Look for software that has features that allow you to prioritize accounts , keep notes and tabs on each individual profile, pick a date for the next follow-up , and also remind you of your prospect's preferred method of communication.

With Badger Maps , CRM integration is built right in. You can secure your upcoming follow-ups and never miss an opportunity to contact a prospect on time.

Managing how you report your time is an important aspect in sales, which it's often overlooked. It's useful to check in often and provide feedback on your progress. 

Here are some important tips for reporting the activity in your territory.

• Don’t make assumptions . This can apply to any situation, but make sure that you understand the context of the sales situations you find yourself in. 
• Make sure you and your manager are on the same page when discussing deals. 
• Have open conversations about how your pipeline looks and any deals you've forecasted already. There is no such thing as "over-communication" in outside sales.

Each quarter of the year, you should project your revenue . Do this by looking at your territory and all of the active deals in play. It gives you and your manager an overview of how your revenue has grown and what goals are achievable next quarter.

Congratulations! You've completed your 90-day sales territory plan! But now the question is: what’s next ?

Constant improvement is the key to continuing your success as a sales professional. There is always room for finding new leads, improving your CRM, optimizing your schedule, and learning more. 

Keep up with popular sales trends by subscribing to our newsletters

Success starts by taking action.

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For your 30-60-90 day territory plan, using this template can help you feel more at ease in the first few months. 

If you feel like making things easier for yourself, look into different sales software or apps to help streamline different areas of your sales process. For help with route optimization, territory division, customer relationship management , and much more, make sure to check out Badger Maps .

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• Sales Mapping

Territory Plan Templates for Successful Sales Teams

• On Aug 9, 2022

Your business wants to grow by adding new and profitable customers. Your team wants to earn by identifying and closing attractive prospects.

It’s a simple, mutually beneficial relationship. But there’s a third party that disproportionately impacts a sales team’s success or failure. That third party is sales territories.

And it’s not easy to create and optimize them, making it hard to generate the consistent sales growth your business needs.

Many companies use a territory plan template to help them move into new areas and scale their reach. Technology plays an important role in the process.

To help you create effective sales territory plan templates, we will explore foundational information, best practices, and approaches you need to build a successful territory planning.

Important Factors for a Successful Sales Territory Plan Template

Before we jump into the different templates, what factors help create a successful sales territory plan? There are three simple things that you need to consider before starting the sales territory plan process:

• Data: What data will you use to inform your sales territory planning? (See below for more information on this.)
• Equity: How will your plan give each sales rep an equitable opportunity and equitable resources to maximize their earnings?
• Balance: Does every territory in your plan offer sales coverage that matches the sales capacity?

These are your ultimate goals when working on sales territory plan templates: using the right data to create equity and balance. And a 30-60-90 plan is one of the best approaches to reaching those goals.

What is a 30-60-90 Day Sales Territory Plan?

Like all sales territory plan templates, a 30-60-90 day sales territory plan serves as a framework. It’s a blueprint for building out a highly profitable territory for the business. A 30-60-90 day sales territory plan covers the following three things:

• Research: Spend the first 30 days defining the market, creating customer personas, evaluating from a SWOT perspective, getting to know the competition, and identifying top opportunities.
• Launch: Before 60 days have expired, launch your territory plan by doing the following: setting sales goals, finding leads, optimizing routes, and setting monthly quotas.
• Scale: The last portion is optimizing territories to scale for the future. This can include getting feedback from reps, conducting quantitative analyses of performance, talking to customers, etc. All companies want consistent sales growth, and this approach to sales territory plans helps you get there.

This is just a high-level overview of what it’s like to use a 30-60-90 day sales territory plan template. But you’ll want to consider your sales reps and your unique circumstances and needs when creating this type of plan for your business and sales team.

How to Create a 30-60-90 Day Territory Plan

How do you create a 30-60-90 day sales strategy for your target market? To use this approach to creating a sales territory plan, follow these steps to develop strategies that help build your sales pipeline:

• Personas: Who is your perfect customer? Build out a persona that reflects all of the characteristics that you are looking for in a client, as well as the unique challenges and needs of that ideal customer.
• SWOT analysis: Look at your team and business from a strengths and weaknesses perspective, and then evaluate the territory from an opportunities and threats standpoint. That’s the simplest way to conduct a SWOT analysis.
• Competitive research: Who is the competition in the territory? What does your business offer that theirs does not? In other words, what is your competitive advantage?
• Profitable accounts: Who are your top prospects? Find the accounts that can be most profitable and use them as a starting point in the territory.
• Sales goals: Set specific goals for your team in the territory. What results will they be able to deliver? And by when?
• KPIs: Create a dashboard that includes all of the metrics that really matter to your success in the territory — the key performance indicators.
• Additional leads: Beyond the top prospects established in No. 4 above, what other leads look attractive?
• Route optimization: Optimize routes for your salespeople so that they can spend more time selling and less time traveling.
• Monthly quotas: Create monthly quotas for your representatives to hit. These quotes should derive from the information gathered in the previous steps.
• Feedback: Get feedback from your reps on how things are going in the territory. They are on the ground in the area and should be one of your best sources of information.
• Analytics: Look at the performance numbers. Where are you exceeding expectations? What areas need more attention?
• Customer interviews: Talk to customers about their experience with your business and its salespeople. You can learn a lot from the people who have said “yes” to your pitch.

And then, it’s time to carry on into the future, continually optimizing and making adjustments as circumstances change. While there’s no end to the tweaks you’ll need to make to your sales territory plan, the 30-60-90 day approach accelerates your work and helps you build a viable territory as quickly as possible.

Other Sales Territory Plan Template Strategies

The 30-60-90 day approach to sales territory planning isn’t the only one available to you. You have other options you can use for your sales plan, which we explore below.

Biggest Potential

The simplest template for territory planning is looking at the biggest potential. This can include finding large metropolitan areas where prospects will be close in proximity. These areas are full of opportunity, and they allow your salespeople to maximize that opportunity by spending less time traveling and more time selling.

Internal Data

As an existing business, you likely have reams of data that can be used to create a territory plan template. Get geolocation data indicating where your existing customers are, where your latest opportunities are, and where your accounts sit in the pipeline.

The drawback to this approach is the echo-chamber effect. You’re working from your existing data, so there’s no opportunity to bring in third-party learnings that can positively impact your business.

Industry Data

Industry data can help you overcome the echo-chamber effect. Industry data that could be helpful include incorporation filings in various states, permit filings in various cities, as well as new developments in markets of interest.

The drawback to this approach is that it gives you information on areas that you’re already interested in. It cannot help you identify areas that you should be interested in.

Multiple Data Sources

There’s no shortage of data available to you. If you have time to get complex with your territory planning, you can combine your internal data and industry data with other information like census results, economic factors, consumer trends, etc.

This level of data can be incredibly insightful when planning territories, but it can also be unwieldy. You need a great deal of time and resources to properly use this approach to territory planning.

How to Use Maptive Mapping Software for Territory Planning

To properly use territory plan templates, you need technology that accelerates processes and gives you accurate data to make decisions.

At Maptive, we offer a platform that allows you to plan territories that are fully aligned with your sales goals. Our software offers a suite of tools that lets you take a data-driven approach to planning. Use Maptive in your sales process to:

• Use demographic and census data to drive decisions.
• Leverage heat mapping to identify opportunities.
• Create drive radius maps .
• Optimize multi-stop routes .
• Calculate distances .
• Put the right customers into fully optimized territories .

We’ll soon introduce a feature that allows you to automate territory creation and optimization .

Maximize your territory planning and gain more market share when you start a free Maptive trial .

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