For many companies, moving from managing accounts to managing sales territories can be tricky. Countless such moves fail.
Territory management is about a lot more than just assigning individual accounts to specific sales reps. To succeed, sales leaders must redefine and implement new strategies, skills, processes, and systems with their teams and channels while avoiding three common mistakes:
- Unclear Sales Territory Strategy. First and foremost, you need to develop a clear and coherent territory strategy that aligns with the overall corporate strategy, go-to-market plans, and sales strategy. As with most changes, start with a clear and agreed-upon direction with clear success metrics.
- Ambiguous Guidelines. Adding or shifting to sales territories can create significant problems with your direct sales force unless you create clear and agreed-upon rules of engagement that include each and every sales channel that you will be using to hit your targets.
- Poorly Aligned Compensation. Because territory managers must worry about geographical revenue streams, they cannot be solely rewarded on individual deals. Before moving to a sales territory model, get an expert to help you align your compensation plan.
