Conquering territory management - The ultimate guide

Introduction

Try for free

In today's fiercely competitive environment, effective territory management is an essential pillar of any successful strategy. By prioritizing prospects and customers across various data densities, industries and geographies, you can drive dramatic improvements in sales performance to reach and exceed your goals.

With careful planning and the right solutions, companies can:

  • Boost revenue while reducing costs
  • Maximize productivity and efficiency
  • Align around customer segments or industries

In addition, territory management software can help you build, balance, and re-align territories faster than ever - what used to take a week or more, you can now do in just hours. And advanced visualization tools provide a deeper understanding of your data, delivering actionable insights that help you identify under or over-served areas.

What will you learn from this guide?

So, how can you divide and conquer your sales territories? Here’s what you'll learn from this guide:

  • What is territory management, and why it's vital for your business?
  • How territory management can benefit sales operations and salespeople
  • Why you should be using territory mapping software to manage your alignments
  • How to select the right mapping software for your needs

What is a sales territory?

Let's begin with the basics: A sales territory is a specific geographic area, business industry, or customer account segment that's assigned to an individual salesperson or team.

Analyze your sales territories with mappingsoftware

Each territory is defined based on a combination of various factors, including:

  • Geography
  • Sales potential
  • Past performance
  • Rep workloads
  • And more

The ultimate goal of dividing regions, groups and sectors into these territories is to target a specific market with a tailored strategy that boosts sales effectiveness while reducing costs. However, this is easier said than done.

The structure, distribution and borders of your territories will have a significant impact on team performance, sales efficiency and your organization's overall bottom line. From balancing and alignment to management and mapping, you and your reps need a firm grasp on the specific customer groups, industries and regions for which you're responsible. That means effective territory management is key.

What is territory management?

Territory management is a comprehensive process and methodology designed to control, optimize and improve sales territory alignment and resource allocation. By monitoring and evaluating the performance of your various territories, you can refine their structure as you go to boost efficiency and sales effectiveness.

The primary objective here is to maximize your profitable selling time and optimize resource distribution to invest more in your high-potential areas and high-priority customers. However, territory management must also take sales reps into account, ensuring they have the opportunity to meet quotas and maintain existing client relationships.

In the process, you'll likely face challenges, such as unbalanced or underserved territories. When resources and sales activities are misdirected to low-value verticals, it can have significant impacts on sales rep productivity and client relationships, not to mention your revenue. The best way to prevent this from happening is through effective territory alignment and balancing.