Territory

A territory is the part of the market a seller owns. It can be a region, a language, an industry, a deal size or a named list of accounts. Inside it, that seller answers the inquiries and works the customers. Outside it, they hand over.

In a CRM a territory is usually a field on the company or contact, plus a routing rule that reads it. Some teams keep it as a simple list: account name and seller. What matters is that anyone can look up who owns a given customer in seconds.

For example, one seller owns all inquiries from Europe, and another owns a named list of the largest existing customers.

The head of sales reviews territories once a quarter, not every week. Weekly, you only look for collisions: two sellers in the same account, or inquiries landing outside any territory. Fix those at the pipeline review, then let the map stand.

Territories change decisions about quota and hiring. A territory with many inquiries and a full pipeline may need a second seller. A thin one may need prospecting work, not a lower quota. Compare territories on the same numbers: inquiries, open deals, win rate and revenue.

Lead routing uses the territory to pick the lead owner. The quota of each seller should match the size of their territory, or the plan becomes a lottery. Sales capacity is the sum of what each territory can produce with the people it has.

• Drawing territories without data. A map by gut feeling gives one seller the busy city and another the quiet edge. Count inquiries and revenue per area for the last months before you split.
• Changing territories in the middle of a quarter. Sellers lose deals they worked on and stop trusting the plan. Change the map at the start of a period, and say what happens to open deals.
• Leaving no rule for a customer that fits two territories. A company with offices in two regions starts a fight. Write one tie-breaker, for example the location of the person who decides.
• Treating the territory as private property. A seller sits on accounts they do not work, and nobody else may touch them. Agree a rule: an account with no activity for a set period returns to the pool.

By Friday, the head of sales exports open deals and active customers with their owner and the territory field. Count the rows with an empty territory and the accounts that two sellers have touched. Settle each collision with one owner. Then write the tie-breaker rule in one sentence and add it to the routing description.

A weekly meeting on stuck deals that ends with a decision and an owner for each.