Blog · Coverage and territory · Sales teams
When a sales rep or account manager leaves, the accounts they owned are at their most exposed and receive the least attention. This page gives a handover checklist for the first thirty days: reassigning every account the same week, ranking the book by value and by risk so the new owner knows where to start, the first-contact deadline per tier, what to capture from the leaver before they go, the contracts and renewals due in the next six months, and the two measures, time to first touch and ninety-day retention of the inherited book, that show whether the handover worked.
A rep resigns. For the next quarter their accounts are the most at-risk revenue in the company and, usually, the least attended. This checklist is what to do in the first thirty days, and how to tell whether it worked.
Every account gets a named owner this week. Not a pool, not the manager's name as a placeholder, not "pending hire". An account with no owner is on nobody's list.
Rank the book before dividing it.
| Column | Why |
|---|---|
| Trailing twelve-month revenue and margin | Where the value is |
| Tier | What contact the account is owed |
| Days since last touch | Some were already neglected |
| Order pattern against own norm | Already slowing? |
| Contract or renewal date | Anything due in six months is urgent |
| Number of contacts known at the account | One contact means the relationship left with the rep |
| Trend against same period last year | Declining accounts need the strongest new owner |
Divide by capacity, not by convenience. Giving the whole book to the neighbouring rep doubles their load and halves everyone's coverage. Spread the top tier across people with room; see sales coverage and sales capacity and mid-year rebalancing.
For the top twenty accounts, one page each, written by the leaver, reviewed by the manager:
A joint call or visit with the new owner for the top ten, while the leaver is still employed, is worth more than any document. The one-page account plan is the format.
| Tier | First two-way contact by new owner | By whom |
|---|---|---|
| A, and any account with a renewal inside six months | 5 working days | New owner, with the manager for the top ten |
| B | 15 working days | New owner |
| C | 30 working days | New owner or inside team |
| Any account with one known contact | As tier A | New owner |
An introduction email does not count. A conversation does.
The top accounts should hear from the company before they hear from the leaver, a competitor or the grapevine. A short call from the manager: the rep is moving on, here is who will look after you, they will call this week, here is my number. Customers mostly forgive a change. They do not forgive finding out by accident.
| Day | Item | Done |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Book exported and ranked; risk flags added | |
| 1 to 2 | Every account assigned to a named owner in the CRM | |
| 1 to 3 | Manager calls top ten customers | |
| 1 to 5 | Leaver writes top-twenty pages; joint calls for top ten | |
| 5 | All tier A and renewal-due accounts contacted by new owner | |
| 5 | Informal pricing and promises logged | |
| 10 | Open issues on inherited accounts each have an owner and a date | |
| 15 | All tier B contacted | |
| 30 | All tier C contacted; time-to-first-touch report reviewed | |
| 30 | Accounts with one contact: second contact identified | |
| 90 | Inherited book revenue against same period last year reviewed |
Time to first touch. For each inherited account, days from reassignment to the first two-way contact by the new owner. Report the median by tier and the list of accounts not yet touched, ranked by value. The time to first touch guide covers the measure.
| Tier | Accounts | Touched within deadline | Median days | Not yet touched |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 18 | 15 | 4 | 3 accounts, $410,000 |
| B | 52 | 31 | 19 | 21 accounts, $390,000 |
| C | 140 | 60 | 34 | 80 accounts, $210,000 |
Ninety-day retention of the inherited book. Revenue from the inherited accounts in the ninety days after handover against the same ninety days a year earlier, compared with the same figure for the rest of the team's accounts. A gap of more than a few points is the cost of the handover. Split it by whether the account was touched inside its deadline; the difference is usually the whole story.
| Inherited accounts | Revenue vs same period last year |
|---|---|
| Touched within deadline | +1% |
| Touched late | −9% |
| Not touched in 90 days | −24% |
| Rest of team, for comparison | +2% |
Accounts parked until the hire. Six months of silence.
The whole book to one neighbour. Coverage falls on both books.
Introduction by email only. Counted as contact; heard by the customer as nothing.
No capture from the leaver. The customer quotes a price nobody can find.
No measurement. The revenue loss shows up two quarters later, unattributed.
Reassign everything in a week, rank by value and risk, set contact deadlines by tier, capture what the leaver knows, call the top customers first, and measure time to first touch and ninety-day retention. The loss in a handover is almost entirely in accounts nobody called. Covirage ranks a departing rep's book from the ledger and activity exports the day it is needed, and reports time to first touch on the inherited accounts each week after.
Three reasons at once. The relationship was with a person who has gone, possibly to a competitor. The new owner already has a full book and works the accounts they know first. And the accounts often sit unassigned or with a manager for weeks while a replacement is hired. The customer experiences silence at exactly the moment a competitor's new rep is calling them.
No. Assign them now, to existing people, even temporarily, with the tier deadlines applying. A replacement takes three months to hire and three more to be effective. An account that hears nothing for six months has made other arrangements. Rebalance again when the hire arrives.
Then the top accounts need a senior call within days, not weeks, and the list of accounts with a single contact, all of whom knew only the leaver, is the priority list. Check which accounts have pricing or terms that were agreed informally, because those are what the customer will quote back.