A Guide on How to Manage a New Sales Territory

1
A Guide on How to Manage a New Sales Territory
One of the most common challenges that most sales
managers and reps face is managing sales
territories. Especially when a territory is new
or unknown to you, it can be an even bigger
challenge. When you create a new territory, you
dont have any leads, and even if you have, they
are few and unqualified. They are all cold leads
that need nurturing before they turn into
customers. In short, managing a new sales
territory is no cakewalk. However, if you follow
the proper strategies of time and territory
management in sales, it can be more
manageable. So, if you are a sales manager
looking to manage a new sales territory, this
post will guide you on how to do that. Youll
first learn about various challenges in sales
territory management and then the ways to handle
sales territory management efficiently. Challenge
s in Sales Territory Management Whenever you
manage a new sales territory, one of the main
causes of missed prospects and opportunities is
inefficient mapping of territories. The use of
outdated tools and processes leaves many sales
managers with only one option of mapping and
2
managing the sales reps territories manually.
This often leads to inequitable distribution of
territories, which fails to provide equal
opportunities. This unequal distribution of
territories results in improper time and
territory management in sales. This is because
some sales reps have many more accounts to handle
than they can, while others have fewer accounts
to handle. In this process, the over-utilized
reps sometimes handle the easy accounts first,
which saves them time and easily reaches sales
quotas. What happens here is that they hit the
numbers fast but at the same time miss out on
very potential high-value accounts that require
more follow-ups and efforts. If you talk about
the sales territories with fewer opportunities,
sales reps there wouldnt have much work, sit
idle, and miss their daily quotas. This may
force them into thinking of leaving the
organization as they may feel under-utilized. Wh
y Isnt Manual Mapping Effective? Out of a number
of challenges in sales territory management,
manual mapping of territories in spreadsheets is
cumbersome and causes inefficiencies.
Spreadsheets dont provide visualization
capabilities to help you experiment with
different territory designs, nor do they provide
access to scaled analytics. Further, with no
flexibility to develop spreadsheets in
real-time, scaling these sheets as the
organization grows turns impossible. How to
Create and Manage a New Sales Territory? Creating
and managing a new sales territory requires a
strong sales territory plan. Basically, it is a
strategy that your sales team uses to target and
approach new prospects, leads, and existing
customers to close more deals. Here are the six
steps to manage a new sales territory
3

• Define Your Sales Goals
• Be clear about your goals before making a plan.
  There are various approaches that you can take
  to determine sales goals. Typically, you can
  start with the big sales numbers and then break
  them down into quarters, months, or weeks.
• For instance, if your annual sales goal is
  1200K, your quarterly goal will be 300K, and
  your monthly goal will be 100K. In case you are
  not sure what your annual goal for your new
  territory should be, you can take help from past
  territories performance.
• Lets say one of your already existing
  territories is performing well and gives you an
  annual income of 1000K. This territory is double
  the size of your new sales territory. So, you
  can set your monthly goal of this new territory
  somewhere around 500K as it is half the size of
  your old territory.
• Define Your Market
• Once you define your sales goal, your next step
  is to define the industries and people you
  target. Defining your target market and customers
  helps you understand their specific needs,
  goals, and pain points. You can also segment the
  target audience on the basis of their needs and
  revenue-generating potential.
• Assess Previous Prospects and Accounts
  Qualities
• When you manage a new sales territory, you dont
  know much about your new leads. If you take the
  help of your existing customers in other sales
  territories, it can help you make the process
  easier. You can analyze what your previous
  customers demanded, how you fulfilled their
  demands, and the success you got with them.
• Based on that, you can prioritize targeting those
  leads and accounts with similar needs as your
  existing customers. This will help you launch
  your sales strategies in less time and in a more
  focused way.

4

• Analyze Competition
• While analyzing previous leads data can help,
  you also need to analyze the competition in your
  new sales territory. Find out your competitors in
  your new target territory and gauge the level of
  competition. Observe those competitors
  customers preferences, strategies, and tactics.
  You can refer to their sites and track their
  offline sales activities to find out more about
  them.
• Once you gather all the information about your
  competitors, use that to form a plan to stand
  out from all your competitors.
• Distribute Territories according to Sales Reps
• Every sales rep is not the same. While some are
  better at closing deals with new vendors or
  customers, the others are better at maintaining
  relationships with the old customers. Start
  mapping out the strengths and weaknesses of your
  reps and distribute the sales territories
  accordingly.
• You can assign big territories to more
  experienced reps who can deal with new leads
  more productively. On the other hand, if you have
  a new territory that is small in size with
  low-potential leads, you can assign it to a new
  sales rep.
• If you cater to multiple industries like
  education, IT, etc., you can also assign new
  territories as per your sales reps niche. For
  example, if your rep is good at closing deals
  with educational institutions, you can assign the
  territory where there are education-related
  leads. Similarly, if you have a sales rep who can
  sell IT products easily, you can assign them
  IT-related leads.
• Visualize Sales Territories
• Use a mapping tool to map all your CRM accounts
  on the map and visualize them for better
  visibility. There are various mapping tools
  available in the market for time and territory
  management in sales that you can pick from.

5
About AppJetty AppJetty can help you manage your
new sales territories better and more
efficiently. Our Dynamics Mappyfield 365 is a
cutting-edge mapping tool that you can use to
plot and visualize all your CRM records on the
map. It also features check-in/check-outs,
auto-scheduling, territory management, route
optimization and sharing, user-level
configuration, advanced search, heat maps, and
more. So, if you are also looking to manage your
new sales territory, it is time you integrated
Mappyfield 365. To know more about how Mappyfield
helps manage territories, you can visit Simplify
Dynamics 365 Territory Management with Mappyfield
365. Original Blog https//www.appjetty.com/blog
/a-guide-on-how-to-manage-a-new-sales-territory/