Blog · Territory, capacity and quota planning
Review customer-confirmed sourcing dates, agreement scope, qualification and transition dependencies before treating an account-expansion opportunity as currently accessible.
A share-of-wallet report may show an attractive category gap while the customer has no current route to change supplier. The practical question is when, and under what customer-confirmed conditions, that category can be evaluated. Treating every gap as immediately accessible makes an expansion plan look larger than the work available this quarter.
The customer-gap conversation starts with questions about need and existing arrangements. This article follows the answer into a sourcing-window review rather than redefining the wallet calculation.
Identify the products, services, sites and period involved. A customer can be bound to an incumbent for one category while free to consider another. Similarly, a local site may not control a centrally sourced category even if it places the orders.
Use the buying-group map to identify who can confirm the process. Ask that person what information may be shared and for what purpose. Record the customer's summary without collecting unrelated commercial details.
Keep a declared status such as accessible, conditionally accessible, deferred or unknown. Each status needs dated evidence. Unknown is not an automatic reason to reject the account, but it is a reason to ask a specific question before committing pursuit effort.
Relevant planning evidence may include the agreement's category scope, review date, customer-confirmed notice deadline, renewal options and the qualification required for a replacement. Contract interpretation belongs to the customer's authorized procurement and legal reviewers.
The UK government's contract-management principles provide useful public-sector context on clear ownership, governance and managed changes. They are not universal private-sector contract terms or a prescribed sourcing timetable.
Avoid asking the customer to breach confidentiality. A reviewed constraint summary may answer the planning question without distributing the full incumbent agreement. Attribute a date to its source and confirmation rather than presenting it as an independently verified fact.
The DEMO cases below are invented. Candidate values are conditional annual sales amounts, not customer commitments or measured market demand.
| Candidate | Value | Customer-confirmed position | This-period decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEMO-A | $80,000 | Category review open; evaluation required | Prepare evaluation |
| DEMO-B | $120,000 | Customer says incumbent category remains committed this period | Defer and record recheck |
| DEMO-C | $50,000 | Approval and agreement scope unresolved | Investigate |
The candidate list totals $250,000. Only $80,000 is currently accessible under this review, or 32% of the conditional total. Deferred value is 48% and unknown value is 20%. The accessible amount still needs fit, economics and buyer approval; it is not a revenue forecast.
A useful sales list preserves all three amounts with their states. Removing deferred candidates would lose future context. Adding them to this quarter's pursued total would hide the constraint.
Qualification, compatibility, stock changes, staff preparation and dual-supplier operation can determine whether a switch is workable. Ask the customer which dependencies matter for this category instead of applying a standard checklist indiscriminately.
For example, an open sourcing review may permit an evaluation but not a full replacement before the current inventory is consumed. The supplier-trial guide describes bounded operational testing. The customer buying-process guide connects that test to approvals and purchase timing.
Specify who owns each dependency and what evidence clears it. A seller's promised lead time should not silently replace a customer's approved transition plan.
Review the status after a customer-confirmed scope change, procurement decision or revised sourcing date. Preserve the earlier basis so a move from deferred to accessible has an explanation. A salesperson hearing informal dissatisfaction is a reason to ask, not evidence that an agreement has ended.
Record accepted exceptions separately. A customer may authorize a narrow backup supply or a trial while retaining its incumbent. That opportunity has its own scope and should not be valued as the entire category switching.
Each candidate should end with a next step: obtain approved scope confirmation, arrange evaluation, revisit a date or stop pursuit. Read this beside the completed customer-growth review, keeping constraints separate from the measured gap.
Bring an authorized customer sample to Covirage contact to agree a switching-window view and its review scope.
No. Notice provisions, options, category scope, purchasing approvals and transition requirements may affect the decision. The customer and its authorized advisers must confirm the applicable terms.
Use only information the customer is authorized and willing to share. A customer-confirmed summary of relevant dates and constraints may be sufficient for planning.
No. A currently blocked sourcing window means the opportunity is not accessible in the stated period. It does not establish whether the customer will later buy from you.