Since the beginning of time, man (or woman) have fought over boundaries defining, their farm, their country and yes, even their sales territory. Gangs kill over turf and so do nation states. Drug wars are all about territory with millions at stake, so we can see that territories defined has universal value.
In this series on improving sales management we will explore the strategies of the various territory alignments, costs and benefits of the various strategies and what are the options for your business. After all, it’s all about growing your sales…Let’s start with the basics. Types of territory sales strategies include:
- Geographical-city, state, region, country
- Account Size-SMB vs. Enterprise, fixed dollar amounts for a sale (all accounts under x dollars go to one group of sales reps, over that amount go to another group)
- Product-breaking out responsibility by groups of products
- Verticals-Government, Healthcare, Finance etc. as defined markets & team assignments
- Open-no assigned territory, free for all
- Hybrid-combination of any of the above
In a 2010 study, Gartner estimated that, “on average, enterprises will miss the equivalent of 10 percent of total sales in lost opportunity revenue that could have been captured with improved processes for defining, assigning and managing territories, quotas and incentives and compensation plans”…
In my next blog, we’ll discover why.