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How does a sales team generate the greatest amount of consistent revenue each year?  The standard answers are by being aggressive, doing proactive prospecting, and keeping the pipeline full. The answer typically isn’t “planning.”  When sales are running well, the need to plan stays in the background.  But whether times are good or not, the question that always needs to be asked is: are we uncovering and closing all the available opportunities in each territory?  Usually, the answer is no.  A handful of sales representatives may be really penetrating their territory – but the majority are aiming for any low hanging fruit they can find, rather than working their territory to maximum revenue advantage. 

Territory Planning is the process a sales team uses to analyze and plan around key accounts and opportunities within their assigned sales territory.  A plan includes analysis and goal setting around the company’s products and services, market segments, competition, trends, and profiles of key accounts.  The end result is a developed strategy for the territory, that territory being a mix of customers and prospects in a geographic territory or large named account territory. Core attributes of a territory plan include opportunity/threat analysis, objectives, strategy, account identification and analysis, situational analysis, estimates of account potential, and detail on territory/account tactics. It should be updated each quarter based on on-going planning activities.  An effective plan that drives revenue gain must include both strategy and tactics, resulting in a tightly defined set of accounts, prospects, and other opportunities for the sales teams to focus their efforts on.

 A typical Territory Plan will include:

:·        Identification of territory opportunities and challenges

·        Set Territory objectives

                                    Increase $ volume
                                    Increase the % in volume year over year
                                    Increase sales of a certain product type
                                    Increase average deal size
                                    Decrease average length of sale
                                    Increase $ volume by customer
                                    Break into new prospect accounts
                                   D to C ratio improvement

·        Territory strategy

                                    Account identification and analysis
                                                Prospects
                                                Existing Accounts
                                    Situation Analysis
                                    Estimate of potential

·        Territory tactics

·        Finalized set of Revenue and Relationship Objectives

·        Detailed Action Plans for each objective

Who Should Attend:

Account Managers (Field and Inside)
Account Representatives (Field and Inside)
Business Development Representatives
Sales Managers
Sales Directors
Sales Vice Presidents

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