“People treat territory management as a chore that has to be done, but it’s actually incredibly important.” - Hayes Davis
It’s time to set your sights on territory management for 2024. Hayes Davis, CEO and Cofounder of Gradient Works, and Jasmine Carnell, Sales Operations Manager at Rentable, share everything you need to know to plan your territories for a better year.
Figuring out which sales reps should work on which accounts, and when, has a huge impact on your revenue. Territory planning is your chance to ensure your reps have the opportunity to deliver at the level you have planned.
“I see myself as the janitor of the sales team. I do all the data. I clean it up and make sure everything is functioning. I use my wrench and bucket and fix things.” - Jasmine Carnell
Territory design is how you parallelize the way you sell—the more reps you hire, the more money you’ll make. The key to a good design is bringing the data straight to your reps, rather than having them find the right accounts on their own.
Most companies choose between 2 styles of territory design, the static model or the dynamic model. Regardless of which you choose, Jasmine and Hayes recommend making ongoing adjustments throughout the year.
The traditional static model:
The dynamic model:
“It's an incredibly complicated optimization problem. The important thing to take away from this is, there is no right answer.” - Hayes Davis
There are also two ways to model your territory requirements, the top down approach and the bottom up approach. In the top down approach you start by identifying the number you want to hit for the year and work backwards to determine what you need.
The bottom up approach starts with information you have, like how the market looks and how many inbound leads and accounts you have. Apply your existing conversion rate to these realities. For both models, be realistic about your expectations.
Finally, balance ICP fit with the right timing. As Jasmine said, sales reps are not data scientists. Don’t waste your reps' time, continuously feed them the right accounts so they don’t chase tire kickers.
“If you waste quota capacity today, you can never get it back.” - Hayes Davis
Now that you have your new territory plan, communicate any changes to your reps, like how you came to your decisions, what will change in their day to day, and any new expectations. No one can create the perfect sales territory design so be transparent about your goals, be realistic about your assumptions, and focus on maximizing the quota capacity of your reps.
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