Good Territory Alignments Require Local Knowledge

Why you need to involve your field managers when realigning sales territories

WIthout field manager input your territories are likely to be flawed and you risk alienating your sales staff..

By David Pinals, President & CEO, TTG, Incorporated

With over 25 years of experience in designing and realigning field sales and service territories there is one piece of the puzzle that we find to be of critical importance - soliciting the feedback of your field managers. When we assist clients in redeploying their sales resources, we always recommend involving field sales management in the decision making process. The benefits of this practice include:

• Local knowledge of customers and prospects results in a better fit with the strengths and weaknesses of each sales representative.
• Inside information on local travel networks, traffic patterns and the ability to get from here to there creates more travel efficient territories.
• "Buy-in" from field sales managers allows them to "own" the new territory alignment and makes it easier to sell to their field sales reps.
• Territories that are custom tailored to your business work better for you and yield higher sales and happier sales reps.
• Field managers appreciate the fact that their knowledge and opinions are valued by management.

New Generation of Optimization Technology leads to false sense of security.

A troubling trend has emerged in recent years which may lead to a decline in the quality of field sales territories for some businesses. A new generation of readily available, low cost, territory optimization software has enabled businesses to perform territory alignments quickly and efficiently. However, a false sense of security in the optimized solutions produced by the software has led some businesses to cut the field sales managers out of the decision-making process thereby eliminating valuable information useful for fine-tuning the design.

Good Territory Design Requires Local Knowledge.

It is no secret that a good territory alignment incorporates local knowledge. Field managers are close to the action and have valuable qualitative information not available to optimization algorithms. Keeping them involved in the decision making process is still key to creating truly optimal and efficient territories. Field managers not only know their field sales staff better than anyone else in the organization, they also know the customers, prospects and local geography. Field sales managers frequently get inside information on corporate upsizing, downsizing, new products and other changes that may be occurring at your customer locations. They are also tuned into your competition and may know of changes here as well.

Listen to Your Field Managers When They Talk.

Your field sales managers are like your local field based intelligence task force. They interact daily with your sales reps, your customers, your prospects and even get intelligence on your competition. Listen to them when they talk and use this information to help you sell and compete more effectively.

Ask Your Field Managers for Their Opinion.

When you ask your sales managers for their opinion you are actually doing several things simultaneously. You are:

• Asking them for information that only they have access to
• Giving them an opportunity to help the company succeed
• Letting them know that you value their opinion
• Telling them that the job they do is important

Territory alignments are often difficult for companies to accomplish. Up sizing, downsizing and restructuring will directly impact your sales reps lives and their livelihood. By soliciting advice from your field team you are allowing them to take ownership in the process.

New Web-Based Alignment Technology Can Help.

The internet is a fantastic technology for collaboration. It is ubiquitous, inexpensive and allows for easy management of information. New web-based territory alignment software is now available to make collaboration with your field managers simple. Suggested alignments can be posted to a web server for viewing by others. You can invite your sales managers to view data and edit territory alignments based on their local knowledge. A vetting process can be easily established where all changes are reviewed and validated by a sales operations specialist before being accepted. The cycle can be repeated as often as necessary until the alignment is complete. If you are not already using one of these web-based territory alignment systems you may want to inquire about them with your current alignment software vendor.

Here is a sample of the work flow in a typical web-based territory alignment system:

Collaborative web-based territory alignment work flow.

Recommendation.

Organizations are always striving to find ways to grow their sales and reduce costs. A relatively easy way to achieve sales gains while keeping a lid on costs is through the redeployment process. If you can find ways to improve efficiencies in your field sales alignment you will realize these benefits many times over with increased revenues, reduced travel costs and personnel retention.

While we continue to recommend the use of optimization technology for improving territory alignments and reducing windshield time, we recognize that optimizers do not produce final solutions. Optimized solutions are not "deployment ready". At best, a good optimized solution is only 80% to 90% complete. To make it a truly "optimized" solution you need to solicit the opinions and expertise of your field sales managers.

David Pinals is the President and CEO of TTG, Inc. in Bedford, MA. He is one of the founders of TTG and the creator of several territory design software applications including Territory Planner®, STARmanager®, ASTRO®, Territory Mapper, AlignStar® and most recently, AlignStar Online™ a web-based territory alignment solution. Mr. Pinals holds a graduate degree in Applied Geography and has assisted businesses in realigning their sales forces since 1982. TTG provides solutions for their clients that include software, data and consulting services. David Pinals may be reached at TTG, Inc. by calling (339) 970-2002 or via the contact form on this web site.

©Copyright TTG, Inc. 2010. All rights reserved. Under copyright laws, this article may not be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of TTG, Inc.