One of the most important actions an individual sales rep can take to ensure success is to create a strong territory plan. This plan is the sales rep’s personal business plan. If done properly it will provide the rep a roadmap for success and a means of quickly identifying when the rep has strayed from the path to success.
So what does a good territory plan look like? I believe they should be:
Short: The more concisely you can express your strategies the better.
Focused: Don’t try to do too much with a account/territory plan. Its one use is to help you identify and close business. It should be simple.
Achievable: Don’t set yourself up for failure at the start.
Measurable: You must be able to easily determine if you have been successful
Current: To be useful, you must update your plan constantly. Things change and your plan must change with them.
Now lets take a look at the components of a well written plan:
One Page Summary: This summary should have four sections. First in just 2 or 3 sentences it should express your vision for your territory. That vision should be supported by some number of clearly stated objectives or goals that are in turn supported by a number of strategies. The last section should be a list of actions.
Pipeline Visualization: One question every sales rep has to be able to answer is what does a full pipeline look like? Once you know what a pipeline that will generate your number looks like then you must compare it to your current pipeline so you can find and fill your gaps. This process is very important in a long sales cycle business because of the reaction time. If your average sales cycle is six months and you don’t react to pipeline holes until the second quarter you can’t make your number!
Targeted Account List: The number of accounts on this list varies but in general this list should include the prospects in your territory that represent the best opportunity for a sale. These prospects are where the majority of your time will be spent and most of the new entries into your sales funnel will come from this list. Usually this list is at least 20 accounts and no more than 50. These are the accounts that you will run specific prospecting campaigns to penetrate.
Prospect Profiles: In addition to your targeted accounts you will have groups of prospects. To break the rest of your territory into groups you will need to create some number of Prospect Profiles. These are pictures of what a great prospect looks like. For example you might have a product that has worked really well for mid sized retailers with 20 to 150 locations. Build yourself a group of these accounts so that you can run prospecting campaigns that are targeted to this group.
Territory Analysis: To be successful you need to understand what is occurring in your territory. Are there trends that you can identify? What are the current “hot issues”? Are there compelling events that you can leverage? This sort of analysis should be articulated in a couple of pages and will serve as background for the strategies you plan to pursue.
SWOT: Just a simple four block SWOT with key bullet points in each block will help keep your focus where it belongs.
Metrics: There have to be some key metrics that you check on a regular basis. Maybe it’s customer touches or $ value of opportunities, or number of sales calls. Whatever the ones you use write them down and keep a running history. That way you will be able to judge your performance over time.
Resources: Lastly you will need to make a list of what resources you need to be successful and how you will obtain them.
When you are finished you will have a plan of 12-15 pages that can will be your key to success. Now you have to work your plan. Each month you need to review your progress, make any needed adjustments and plan your next actions. Build your territory planning habits and you will find that success becomes the natural end result.