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Blog · Coverage and territory · Sales teams

Coverage is the number under every other number: measuring it for any B2B sales team

Why pipeline, forecast and win rate all rest on whether anyone contacted the account, and how any B2B sales team measures coverage from CRM activity: untouched accounts, rep load, territory trend against plan, and the reconciliation to invoiced revenue.

The short answerCoverage for a B2B sales team is accounts with logged activity in the window divided by accounts assigned, per rep and per territory, from the CRM's activity export. Add rep load, accounts per rep against what one person can work, and the trend by territory against plan, then reconcile the revenue behind the accounts to invoiced revenue. Pipeline and forecast only mean something for the accounts someone actually touched.

Pipeline reviews argue about deals. Forecast calls argue about close dates. Both sit on a number nobody looks at: how many of the accounts in the territory has anyone spoken to this quarter. Where the answer is a third, the pipeline describes a third of the territory and the forecast is a forecast of that third. This guide sets out coverage for any B2B sales team, from the CRM activity the team already logs.

The measures

Per rep:

Coverage = accounts with qualifying activity in the window ÷ accounts assigned Load = accounts assigned ÷ accounts one rep can work in the window

Per territory:

Coverage, week on week, against the plan's target

Per account:

Untouched = no qualifying activity in the window, ranked by revenue and potential

The rows you need

  • CRM accounts: account, owner, territory, segment.
  • CRM activity: account, rep, date, type.
  • Revenue: by account and period, from billing or finance, optional but recommended.

Account identifiers only.

The roll-up

  1. Account: last qualifying activity, untouched flag, revenue.
  2. Rep: assigned, covered, coverage, load, untouched list ranked by revenue. Assert that account revenue sums to the rep's book.
  3. Territory: coverage, trend, plan.
  4. Region and company: assert reps to the territory, territories to the region, the region to invoiced revenue.

invoiced revenue = Σ regions = Σ territories = Σ reps = Σ accounts

The by-rep equality catches an account owned by two reps after a reassignment without a date.

A worked example

One territory, four reps, ninety-day window, capacity of seventy accounts per rep.

Rep Assigned Covered Coverage Load Untouched revenue
Rep A 64 58 91% 0.9 $40k
Rep B 91 49 54% 1.3 $610k
Rep C 70 61 87% 1.0 $85k
Rep D 55 22 40% 0.8 $720k

Two findings that look alike and are not. Rep B is over capacity with 91 accounts; the untouched revenue is a workload problem and the fix is a reassignment. Rep D is under capacity with 55 accounts and 40 percent coverage; that is a coaching conversation. The number is the same shape; the list of untouched accounts, ranked by revenue, is what tells them apart.

Coverage and the forecast

Pipeline in this territory is $2.4m. Untouched accounts carry $1.45m of last year's revenue. Any forecast built on the pipeline is a forecast of the covered accounts only, and a renewal in the untouched set is a surprise waiting for the quarter end. Coverage is the number that says how much of the territory the forecast can see.

Where it goes wrong

Activity types too broad. Automated emails count, coverage reads as 100 percent, and the measure is discarded. Two-way contact only.

Ownership without dates. Reassigned accounts appear under both reps. The rep assertion fails; the CRM needs the transfer date.

Capacity as a guess. Seventy accounts per rep is a starting point. Calibrate from the reps who are covering well and adjust by segment.

Coverage as a target. A rep told to reach 90 percent will log activity to reach it. Read coverage with the untouched list ranked by value, and manage the list, not the percentage.

Every week, per rep

Mapped once, the CRM export produces the untouched list per rep, the load, and the territory trend every week, reconciled to invoiced revenue where it is loaded. Covirage builds this from the export as it is. The sales teams page describes the setup, and you can upload a sample CRM export and see the roll-up on your own rows.

Questions people ask

What window should coverage use?

The sales cycle sets it. Ninety days is common for considered B2B sales; thirty for transactional. The test is whether an account with no activity in the window is one the team would call neglected. If yes, the window is right.

What counts as activity?

A logged call, meeting or two-way email. Automated sequences and marketing sends do not count, or coverage reads as complete when nobody has spoken to anyone. Fix the list of activity types and apply it to every rep.

Do we need revenue data?

No. CRM activity alone gives coverage and load. Revenue ranks the untouched list by value and reconciles the book to finance, which is what makes the list worth arguing over.