Sales territory plan template: the six tables a territory plan needs, and the one page that holds them

A territory plan answers four questions: what have I got, where will I spend my time, which accounts will grow or shrink, and does it add up to the number? Six tables answer them.

Table 1: the territory in numbers

From the ledger and the assignment file. It sets the scale of what follows.

Table 2: accounts tiered by value and potential

Potential is the valued gap against similar customers. The bottom-left cell, small with us and large elsewhere, is where most plans have nothing and most growth is. The ABC analysis guide builds the tiers, and territory potential from your own ledger covers the potential figure.

Table 3: coverage owed against time available

This table is the reality check. If touches needed were 1,400 against 880 available, the plan would fail whatever else it said, and the choice would be to cut the cadence for the low group, move it to an inside team, or reduce the book. See sales coverage and sales capacity.

Table 4: the growth list

Named accounts, valued gaps, specific actions. Ten to fifteen rows.

Total of list: $1.1m. Expected conversion, from the territory's own history of closing such gaps: 25 percent. Expected growth: $275,000.

Table 5: the retention list

Expected losses, stated honestly. Most plans assume the base holds. It never does entirely; the territory's own history gives the rate. Here: gross retention last year was 93 percent, so expect to lose about $335,000 of the $4.8m base unless the retention list changes it.

Table 6: the target built up

The gap is on the page. Closing it needs one of: four more new customers, a second large growth account, or a conversation about the quota. Each line can be checked at the end of each quarter against what happened.

The one-page outline

Territory plan: [rep], [year]

1. Territory in numbers: accounts, revenue, growth, concentration, dormant value, target.
2. Tiering: two-by-two of value and potential, with counts and revenue.
3. Coverage: touches needed by group against touches available.
4. Growth list: named accounts, valued gaps, actions, dates. Expected value at stated conversion.
5. Retention list: named risks, actions, dates. Expected losses at historical retention.
6. Build-up: base, losses, price, growth, retention recovery, new customers, total against quota.

Judgement, five lines: what the numbers do not show.

Reviewed quarterly: each line, plan against actual.

Where it goes wrong

No arithmetic. Strategies and focus areas; nothing that sums to the quota.

The base assumed to hold. Every year 5 to 10 percent of it goes, and the plan is short by that from day one.

Growth without names. Increase share in key accounts, with no accounts and no categories.

Coverage never costed. A cadence that would need 1,400 touches from a rep who can make 880.

Written once. Never compared with what happened, so next year's plan is no better.

The short version

Six tables: what I have, how it is tiered, whether the coverage fits the time, who will grow, who is at risk, and whether it adds up. Every line is a number or a name, so the plan can be checked. For comparing alternative territory designs, see compare two plans that reconcile. Covirage fills tables 1, 2, 4 and 5 from the ledger, assignment and activity exports, so the rep's day goes on the judgement and the build-up.