Territory optimization can majorly impact meeting quotas and reaching sales goals. However, the work involved in adjusting territories can be challenging.
As companies grow, existing territories outgrow their boundaries. It’s a common problem and one that’s best solved with transparent communication and clear goals. A well-planned approach can help keep productivity high even during economic turmoil or uncertainty.
Focus on the Big Picture
Territory optimization is one of sales leaders’ most important tasks to improve performance. Research shows it can boost sales by 2% to 7% (without any other changes)! To do this, sales leaders must collect a comprehensive dataset of customers and prospects to analyze and score them based on their value. This helps them create territories that are aligned with the goals of their team and company.
It’s also important to remember that effective sales territories should be designed with the future in mind. While it’s essential to maintain and nurture relationships with existing accounts, it’s equally important to pursue new opportunities consistently. This will help your company grow and ensure that your reps have enough work to keep them satisfied and productive.
Lastly, it’s crucial to assess any weaknesses in your territories. These can include factors like leaks in the pipeline, untapped markets, and underperforming sales regions. By identifying these issues, you can design environments that minimize these weaknesses and encourage growth for your business.
Organize Your Week
Peak productivity is a goal that all sales teams aspire to achieve. However, it is easier said than done. While there are countless tips and tricks to improve sales productivity, a formalized approach is critical to empowering your team to meet — and even exceed quota regularly.
The first step is to create a sales strategy that defines the business environment, revenue goals, and territory objectives. This will allow you to analyze the sales process and identify the most effective method for your team.
Afterward, you can start defining the sales territories and routes your team will be assigned. This will ensure that each rep is evenly covered and can provide consistent customer service to their client base.
To measure the effectiveness of your new strategy, you can use a time-tracking tool to track the number of hours spent on revenue-generating activities versus administrative tasks. You can then compare this data to your previous benchmarks and determine if the new strategy works. If you need help, you can determine why and make any necessary changes to improve sales productivity.
Prioritize Your Tasks
There’s much to do to meet sales quotas, but effective prioritization is necessary for every sales leader. The best way to prioritize tasks is to look at each item on your list and determine its urgency and importance.
Tasks that must be done first should be addressed as soon as possible. This category also includes items that must be completed within a specific timeframe (like filing taxes). If you can only meet some of the tasks on your list, consider putting them off until later or delegating them to someone else.
The next category is essential but not urgent tasks. This includes preparing for an upcoming meeting or researching a client’s industry. These tasks should be completed as soon as possible, as they are essential for meeting sales goals.
Once you’ve done all the “do first” and “delegate” tasks, you should have a list of important but not urgent tasks and a master list of deferred charges. Once you plan, work on tackling the most important tasks each day.
Prioritize Your Time
Having a lot on your plate is a reality for most people – even successful sales leaders can’t continuously operate at peak productivity. But there are simple tricks you can implement to increase your efficiency and make that end-of-day glance at your (reasonably short) to-do list feel less disheartening.
Prioritizing tasks is the best way to optimize your time. To do this, determine which tasks are most important to you and your business. These are your MITs and should be the first items on your to-do list each day. Anything else should be considered a bonus, such as “nice to do if you have the time” tasks. By focusing on your MITs each day, you can ensure that your most important goals are being achieved.
This can be particularly helpful for sales managers who are working with a limited amount of resources, like reps and budget. Effective territory optimization will help you divide up territories fairly so that each sales team member spends enough time with customers to meet their quotas. It also helps reduce travel costs and improves revenue by ensuring that you’re zeroing in on the most lucrative opportunities.
Multitask
Territory optimization is a valuable tool for many roles within sales organizations, including sales managers, field sales managers, and direct sales teams. It helps to optimize workloads and create an equitable distribution of opportunities between territories. But it’s essential to tweak your plan occasionally to keep up with changes in the market. For example, a new competitor may enter your marketplace, or customer demand might change. These things can affect how many reps you need in each territory to achieve a company’s sales goals.
Fortunately, modern territory mapping tools make tweak and align your sales territory plan easy. These tools help create balanced workloads, reducing burnout rates and increasing sales productivity.
Moreover, these tools can also help to reduce travel time and costs. This will help your sales team spend more time with clients and prospects, increasing the likelihood of lead conversion. This, in turn, will maximize your team’s overall performance and revenue. This will, in turn, lead to a happier and more successful workplace environment.