Maps are part of everyday life, from old-school fold-outs to those integrated with your car and apps on your phone, and they help us get from where we are to where we want to be. In the case of a sales territory map, it’s a way to hit – and hopefully pass – sales targets. […]
Maps are part of everyday life, from old-school fold-outs to those integrated with your car and apps on your phone, and they help us get from where we are to where we want to be. In the case of a sales territory map, it’s a way to hit – and hopefully pass – sales targets. When it comes to sales territory mapping, the idea is to give every person on your sales team the right turf. An effective mapping strategy that accounts for key market, customer, product, and team dynamics can make all the difference in sales – and satisfaction for your sellers. No pressure.
What Is Sales Territory Mapping?
Mapping sales territories is the process of dividing up prospects according to certain characteristics, and then assigning them to the most relevant salesperson. There are multiple ways to classify potential customers, and it’s up to sales managers to decide which categories best match company strategy and the abilities of the sales staff.
Let’s say that you are selling a SaaS product that has both basic and advanced features. Customers for the basic package are probably SMBs, while large corporations are more likely to purchase advanced features. So in this case, you would map sales territory according to size, i.e., SMBs and large enterprises. Then, you might assign a more experienced salesperson to go after the enterprise accounts and juniors to look after the SMBs.
What Is the Importance of Territory Mapping?
Without territory mapping, a hungry sales team can turn into a dog fight. Every salesperson wants the hottest leads and the strongest intent signals. But it’s not fair, or even smart, to take the route of survival of the fittest. Mapping allows sales to be more productive, in a few important ways:
Team Talents
In a typical sales team, there are seasoned veterans and green newbies. Some have a knack for the technical aspects of a product, while others are great at outside sales. A wise manager will know the strengths of every person in the group and give them the right kinds of territories.
Morale
Whether it’s true or not, even just the accusation of unfair sales assignments will cause more whining than winning. The team will start blaming the sales map for both failures and successes. Managers can avoid this by dividing territories in a thoughtful, considerate way, giving their team a good starting point for success.
Balance
You also need to split opportunities according to their sales cycle. You don’t want half your team to have closed multiple deals while others are still waiting for their first client meeting. Accounting for time-to-close ensures that everybody has enough to do without anyone being snowed under.
Efficiency
Repetition breeds familiarity. When a salesperson works on similar accounts, they gain certain insights from experience and develop a “knack” for them. By getting a feel for the prospects in their territory, salespeople progress through a learning curve and build expertise.
What Are the Different Types of Sales Territory?
Sales “territories” are called that because they were once set based on the geographical location of prospects. But today, companies customize their divisions according to all types of factors including the product, strategy, and market.
One famous example is Uber. It was a unique concept when it entered the market, and its founders had to map sales territories based on two types of customers: drivers and riders. Uber also needed categorization according to geography, illustrating the fact that effective sales territory mapping is multidimensional.
But in general, there’s a set of common territory parameters that might apply to your sales efforts:
- Product – Different products are sold to certain customers, for example, basic products and upgrades.
- Geographic – This is now more important than ever because a 24/7, ‘round-the-world prospect base requires language and cultural skills– not to mention a sales team that is available at the right times.
- Technographic – “Technographic” intent signals describe a prospect according to the technology that they use. Your team might be selling different products according to a prospect’s marketing stack, for instance, with different sales reps as the “product experts” for different offerings.
- Firmographic – This is about a company’s essential qualities, such as number of employees, industry type, and revenue.
- Sales channel – Your sales strategy might use a number of channels to reach the end customer, such as wholesale and retail.
How Do Sales Managers Determine Sales Territories?
Territory planning is an important part of management because it can mean the difference between making a deal and breaking it. The process of territory planning is a complex part of your Go-To-Market strategy, because it requires in-depth knowledge of the following:
- The market – your ideal customer profile and pain points
- Competitors – how and where your competitors are managing territories
- The team – strengths, weaknesses, and experience
- The sales plan – goals, strategies, action items, and schedules
- Metrics – assessments of closing rates and other productivity factors
This last factor is particularly valuable. No map is set in stone. If a performance review shows a big difference between success rates in different territories, or poor overall closing rates, then the map can be revised and put through another cycle.
How Do I Make a Sales Territory Map?
Many companies still use simple, old-fashioned methods for creating a sales territory map. Geography is one of the most popular categories, and there are software vendors that allow you to create actual maps of designated territories. One of the best known examples is good ol’ Google Maps.
For organizations that use other categorizations, simple tools like Microsoft Excel are useful. Recent versions of Excel even have a function that puts sales mapping data on a world map. The common approach is to start with a sales prospect list, rank prospects according to the sales plan, and assign them to the sales staff.
Finally, territory mapping has moved into the 21st century with software packages, often based on a CRM, that make it easy to input criteria, assign territories, and monitor results. One example is Maptive, which takes input from spreadsheets, CRMs, and the platform itself to build sales territories of different types based on chosen variables.
Key Takeaways
- Sales territory mapping allows managers to divide prospects according to specific qualities and strategies with the goal of maximizing team productivity.
- Each company needs to build its own set of mapping categories, but the basic ones are geographic, technographic, product, firmographic, and sales channel.
- A sales territory map is created after an extensive research process, but there are software packages that can make it easier.
