Sales Analytics for Effective Territory Management

"Let's just divide accounts evenly among reps." Famous last words from every sales leader who's never done territory math. Six months later: Rep A closes $800K, Rep B closes $200K. Same quota. Same comp plan. Different territories. Folks - territory planning isn't about fairness. It's about math. Here's the formula to always keep in mind: Territory Value = (Account Potential x Win Probability x Coverage Capacity) - Competitive Density. So, how do you apply the formula? Let's bust out our TI-82s and break this down... Step 1: Calculate the true account potential. Don't use company size alone. Use buying indicators: - Recent funding rounds (+50% potential). - Executive hiring sprees (+30% potential). - Tech modernization projects (+40% potential). Example: 500-employee company = $50K base potential + $10M Series B = $75K total. Step 2: Determine the win probability by account type. - Green field (no solution): 25-30% win rate, 4-6 month cycle. - Competitive displacement: 15-20% win rate, 6-9 month cycle. - Expansion accounts: 60-75% win rate, 2-4 month cycle. Step 3: Eval the coverage capacity reality. Each rep can effectively work: - 25-30 ENT accounts (15-20 hours/month each). - 50-75 MM accounts (8-12 hours/month each). - 100-150 SMB accounts (3-5 hours/month each). Step 4: Inspect geographic efficiency. - Dense metro: 8-10 meetings/week (1.0x capacity). - Regional spread: 4-6 meetings/week (0.75x capacity). - National territory: 3-4 meetings/week (0.6x capacity). Step 5: Measure the competitive density tax. - Low competition: +20-30% win rates. - Saturated markets: -25-35% win rates. Here's an example of how to score territories: 1. Territory A: 40 enterprise accounts x $90K potential x 25% win rate x 0.8 geography x 0.9 competition = $648K. 2. Territory B: 60 mid-market accounts x $35K potential x 35% win rate x 1.0 geography x 1.1 competition = $809K. As you'll see, territory B wins despite LOWER account values. Once you've run the math, don't treat all accounts equally. Allocate effort thusly: - Tier 1 (20% accounts, 60% revenue): Weekly touches, exec relationships. - Tier 2 (30% accounts, 30% revenue): Bi-weekly touches, manager relationships. - Tier 3 (50% accounts, 10% revenue): Monthly touches, inside sales. At the end of the day, good territory planning is applied mathematics, not office politics. Equal doesn't mean fair when account potential varies 10x. Run the math. Weight the factors. Track the results. Because the rep with the better territory will always outperform the rep with more accounts. Remember that math doesn't lie, but territory assignments definitely do. :)

A few years ago, all revenue was good revenue. Now, revenue leaders think about revenue through several different layers: - Will it renew or am I buying churn? - Will it expand or am I overpaying to acquire? - Will it close quickly enough to keep reasonable payback periods for sales? As if sales weren’t hard enough already. To ensure success across all layers, I focus on two metrics for territory management: 1) Total addressable market (TAM) TAM tells me the long-term potential of an account. Since my organization usually follows a land and expand motion, it’s critical we close initial deals in accounts where meaningful expansion can follow. TAM is the easier of the two metrics to pull from data. At LaunchDarkly, I look at the number of developers and applications to infer potential spend. 2) Propensity Propensity tells me how likely a company is to purchase. Like most companies, I don’t have a massive sales organization that can chase down all high TAM accounts. Since coverage is limited, I don’t want to chase high TAM accounts that are unlikely to purchase while high TAM accounts that are likely to purchase sit uncovered. Some of my favorite signals to calculate propensity: - Funding - Current tech stack - Hiring engineers with relevant skills - Product usage (our free product or trials of our paid products) - Mentions on community platforms, social platforms, and forums That's why I'm so bullish on platforms like Common Room. They pull signals across first, second, and third-party sources to increase the volume of prospects your team can call while maintaining (or improving!) the quality of prospects, the relevance of your message, and conversion across sales stages. That way, you don’t have to choose between TAM or propensity. And all the revenue you close will be good revenue. I know I’ve got some people in my network that love signals - what are some of your favorites?

Want to maximize your your sales territory? Build a heat map. Here’s how to create one in 6 steps: A well-built sales territory heat map shows you: ✔ Where to focus your time and energy. ✔ Which accounts are ready to engage. ✔ How to prioritize for maximum results. 1️⃣ Gather Your Data Before you can build a heat map, you need solid inputs. Collect: • Open Opportunities: Deals in progress and their current stage. • Prospect Lists: Key targets, grouped by company size, geography, or vertical. • Historical Performance: Closed-won and closed-lost data from the past 12 months. 2️⃣ Define Your Prioritization Criteria To decide where to focus, score your accounts based on: • Revenue: What’s the potential deal size? • Engagement: Have they attended events, opened emails, or responded to outreach? • Timeline: How soon are they likely to make a decision? • Strategic Value: Are they a logo win, market leader, or reference account? Create a scoring system (e.g., 1-10) for each. 3️⃣ Assign a Heat Level to Each Account Using your scores, categorize accounts into tiers: • Red (High Priority): High potential revenue, active engagement, short buying timeline. • Yellow (Mid Priority): Decent revenue potential, less engagement, longer timeline. • Green (Low Priority): Low revenue or engagement, no immediate buying signals. This shows you where to focus. 4️⃣ Visualize Your Heat Map Use Excel or Google Sheets to map accounts. • Columns: Account name, location, industry, revenue potential, heat level. • Rows: Key data points for each account. • Color Coding: Apply conditional formatting to highlight Red, Yellow, and Green accounts. 5️⃣ Identify Hot Zones and Gaps Once your heat map is built, look for: • Clusters of Red: Focus your energy here. • Yellows Near Reds: Engage these accounts next to warm them up. • Green Gaps: Are there territories with little opportunity? If so, expand prospecting efforts or consider reallocating resources. 6️⃣ Take Action A heat map is useless without execution. Here’s how to use it: • Spend 80% of your time on Red accounts. These are your best bets for hitting quota. • Dedicate 20% of your time to nurturing Yellow accounts and warming up Green prospects. • Use your CRM/tech stack to track progress and keep the heat map updated monthly. A sales territory heat map takes a bit of work to build initially, but it can help you focus on the right opportunities, avoid wasted effort, and consistently hit your number throughout the year. #SalesStrategy #TerritoryPlanning #B2BSales #SellSmarter