A predictable sales planning process gives sales managers the ability to control the critical few high-performance sales activities that make a difference to sellers and the entire sales team. A great sales plan should provide sales leaders with clear and real-time visibility into the performance of their sales organization.
It should also act as a mechanism for sellers to provide reliable information to their sales managers. Still, many sales leaders struggle with creating a consistent plan to maximize territories and build better pipelines.
How are your sellers managing their territories?
- Do they understand the geography, vertical markets, and prominent players?
- Do they understand their target account profile and how to identify these accounts?
- Do they understand the current market conditions and the impact these conditions have on their ability to sell certain solutions?
Building a consistent highly-qualified pipeline demands sellers have a solid grasp of their territories from four perspectives:
- Installed Account
- New Account
- Partner-Led Account
- Competitive Account
Considering these perspectives, think about the key territories in your sales organization:
- Have the characteristics of the territory changed over the last year?
- What is the mix of new vs. existing accounts and how does that impact the territory?
- What impact has the competition had on the territory?
- How do changes (past or future) in our product offerings impact the territory?
- What marketing efforts have been effective in the territory?
Effective territory management is a key enabler of building a successful pipeline. If you run your sales organization focused on building pipeline, you can’t fail.
When your reps have a solid grasp of their territories, they’ll focus on building their pipeline at the territory level rather than scrambling to fuel the forecast at the opportunity level. Targeted and coordinated sales activities at the territory level will drive a healthy pipeline that can make the difference between your meeting this quarter’s revenue goals and falling short. As a sales leader, it’s important that you take the critical steps to coach your team to maximize their territories and pipeline opportunities. A comprehensive approach to sales planning maximizes your efforts as a sales leader.
Develop a cadence around your sales planning activities.
The right operating rhythm not only provides sellers with a credible and executable account strategy, it also drives metrics that provide management with a clear line-of-sight into the performance of their entire sales organization.
