Blog · Territory, capacity and quota planning
A method for assigning accounts to tiers from the ledger and the norm rather than from who owns them: two axes, current revenue and gap at norm, four tiers that follow, the touch cadence each tier gets, the identity that keeps the tiers summing to the book, and the quarterly re-tiering that moves accounts on evidence rather than on argument.
Most account tiers were set in a workshop, by the people who own the accounts, from what they remembered. The ledger and the norm can set them from evidence, in a way a rep can check and a manager can defend. This guide sets out the two axes, the four tiers, the cadence, and the quarterly re-tiering.
Per account:
Current revenue = trailing twelve months with you Gap at norm = what similar accounts spend at norm − current revenue, floored at zero
Both from the ledger and the norm. Nothing else.
| Gap small | Gap large | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue large | Tier 1: keep. Protect the relationship | Tier 2: grow. The biggest upside in the book |
| Revenue small | Tier 4: maintain. Serve efficiently | Tier 3: develop. Small now, should be larger |
Boundaries: a stated revenue percentile for large; a stated gap threshold for large. Both on the report, per segment.
| Tier | Touches per quarter | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Account manager |
| 2 | 8 | Account manager, with a growth plan |
| 3 | 3 | Rep |
| 4 | 1, or inside sales | Inside sales |
The cadence is what the tier means in practice, and coverage is measured against it.
accounts = tier 1 + tier 2 + tier 3 + tier 4 + insufficient data
Every account in exactly one tier. Accounts with no norm, because their segment has too few members, are listed as insufficient data rather than defaulted to tier 4.
Segment: mid-sized manufacturers. Large revenue over $150,000. Large gap over $100,000.
| Account | Revenue | Norm | Gap | Tier | Flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2207 | $410,000 | $430,000 | $20,000 | 1 | |
| 4471 | $180,000 | $610,000 | $430,000 | 2 | |
| 9034 | $40,000 | $290,000 | $250,000 | 3 | |
| 1187 | $60,000 | $70,000 | $10,000 | 4 | Strategic: new plant opening, R-04, March |
Account 4471 is the growth account in this segment, and the tier says so with a number. Account 1187 is tier 4 by the data and flagged by the rep with a reason; the tier stands and the flag is visible.
Every quarter, the same two figures, the same boundaries. Movements are listed:
| Account | Was | Now | Because |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9034 | 3 | 2 | Revenue crossed $150,000 |
| 4471 | 2 | 1 | Gap closed to $60,000 |
An account moves because its numbers moved. The argument is about the boundaries, once a year, not about accounts, every week.
Tiers from ownership. The senior rep's accounts are tier 1 by definition.
A score nobody can explain. Two figures, checkable, beat eight weights.
Flags that change tiers. Then the flags are the tiering. Flags annotate; data tiers.
No re-tiering. The tiers describe the book of three years ago.
Mapped once, the ledger and the norm produce the two axes, the tiers, the cadence targets and the movement list every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The territory planning solution describes the setup, and the norm guide covers where the gap axis comes from.
A weighted score of eight factors cannot be explained to a rep or checked by a manager. Two figures from the ledger and the norm can be, and the tier follows from where the account sits on them. Anything a score adds can be a flag on the line.
From the distribution: a stated percentile of revenue for large versus small, and a stated gap in dollars or as a share of norm for gap versus full. The boundaries are on the report and the same for every account in a segment.
A flag, with a reason and a date, that does not change the tier. The report shows the flagged accounts beside their data tier, and the number of flags per rep. Ten flags is a plan; forty is a rep re-tiering by hand.