Managing Sales Territories Through CRM

Here’s a quick way to use a core dynamic books principle to empower your reps, sharpen outbound focus and improve your CRM data — all without big changes. Here’s the problem. Reps have worked their territories for 6 months and learned a ton. Some accounts have bad data, have been acquired, are a bad fit or can’t move forward because they’re mid-contract with a competitor. Your reps are doing bookkeeping to stash those accounts away so they don’t waste time going back to a bum account. Over time this cruft builds up and saps rep focus. Even worse, all that bookkeeping is a double waste because each rep does it differently, so you can’t actually use it to improve your CRM data. The solution is to set up a returns process to standardize and track this behavior. Give the reps a structured way to “return” an account with a logged reason. Typically this means that you’ll reassign the account to a pool user of some kind but it could also just mean setting a status and a few fields on an account. This makes it easy for reps to avoid these accounts when prospecting. And it gives RevOps a standardized way to identify and deal with data issues. Check out the video below for a simple version of the process for a rep using Gradient Works. You can do something similar in your CRM. Just make sure you’re validating ROE, flagging the account as a return, and storing the return reasons in a structured way. Give it a shot. If you’ve got questions, hit me up. Your reps, pipeline and CRM data will thank you. — PS: One of our customers’ favorite more advanced plays here is “Get Back to Me” which records a better time to reach out to the prospect when the account is returned. These accounts can be removed from the rep’s book and then reassigned to them at the appropriate time.

Poor territory management sinks even the best sales reps. Here are my three rules to help you get territory management right: 1) Ongoing, not static Reps should have smaller territories so they can focus attention. Then, when AEs uncover details that make an assigned account a poor fit, replace it with another high-potential account. If a territory is too big, AEs will be pulled thin. If it's too static, AEs will spin their wheels in poor-fit accounts. I've found focused but evolving territories most effective for all but strategic account segments. 2) Accounts belong to the company, not the rep High-potential accounts with unengaged reps are a massive waste of territory. If a rep doesn't give an account the attention it deserves, leaders should move it to a rep who will. I've seen "stagnant" accounts turn into six-figure wins by moving an account to a rep willing to do the work. 3) Balance propensity and TAM A territory full of potential whales is a slog - reps may work for quarters without closing a deal and getting paid. A territory full of small transactions is a drain—reps will be on a hamster wheel, unable to focus on significant revenue opportunities. Great territory build requires understanding what drives TAM for your product (hint: it's not just revenue and the number of employees) and using tools like Common Room to uncover propensity to buy via mentions, signals, multi-threading, etc., across different sources. Accurate TAM projections + understanding buying propensity = balanced and scalable territory management. Any other territory management rules you have seen drive success?

$1.1M of my 2023 closed won pipeline, had a previous user in the deal cycle. It's the easiest new pipeline, but most reps don't know how to find previous users systematically. Lightning absolutely does strike twice. In fact, it's more likely to strike twice. Previous users will have a higher likelihood to respond right away, take a meeting, and have a much shorter sales cycle. The hardest part is just identifying / tracking them in the first place. Here's how to set up a saved search in Sales Navigator that will alert you when previous users join your current accounts: 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗯𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽: 1. Sign in to Sales Navigator 2. Click Leads at the top of the page 3. Click Lead Filters + 4. Click "Past Company" and click on your past customer list under "Account Lists" - mark INCLUDE 5. Click "Current Company" and click on your past customer list under "Account Lists" - mark EXCLUDE 6. Under "Workflow" go to Account Lists and highlight your current CRM accounts you own This way - you're finding people that worked at previous customer companies but EXCLUDING those who are now at customer accounts or at the same place. 7. Under "Function" add any that match who you currently target 8. Click the toggle for "Save search to get notified of new results" People are constantly changing jobs, so always look for this when targeting a new account. This is one of your strongest signals. Keep your raving fans in the family. P.S. Built out an email template for previous users + 6 other use cases, here: https://lnkd.in/gAyuvKkt