Blog · Territory, capacity and quota planning · Pharma
How a pharmaceutical commercial team redraws territories from access-weighted potential rather than raw prescriber counts: each account's category volume times its access status, summed per candidate territory, the balance across territories, the accounts moved and the continuity of rep relationships, the calls released from blocked accounts, and the identity that the territories' weighted potential sums to the region's.
A pharma field force is realigned on prescriber counts, and the rep with the territory full of blocked accounts misses number for two years. The access file, dated, weights each account by whether the product can be prescribed there, and territories balanced on that weight give reps equal writable opportunity. This guide sets out access-weighted potential, the balanced map, continuity, and the identity.
Per account:
Access weight: open 1.0, restricted a stated fraction, blocked 0, unknown a stated fraction Weighted potential = category volume × access weight
Per candidate territory:
Σ weighted potential; accounts; calls required at cadence Continuity = weighted potential of accounts keeping their current rep ÷ territory weighted potential
Account and rep identifiers only.
Σ territories' weighted potential = region weighted potential every account in exactly one territory
Region, four territories. Balance tolerance: largest ÷ smallest weighted potential under 1.3.
| Territory | Accounts | Raw volume | Weighted potential | Current rep continuity | Calls to blocked accounts, current |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-04, current | 210 | 41,000 | 19,800 | 284 per cycle | |
| T-11, current | 205 | 40,500 | 33,100 | 60 | |
| Ratio | 1.01 | 1.67 |
Equal on raw volume; unequal by two thirds on what can be written. Rep T-04 spends half their calls where nothing can be prescribed.
| Territory | Accounts | Weighted potential | Continuity | Accounts moved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-04, proposed | 190 | 26,200 | 84% | 31 in, 51 out |
| T-11, proposed | 225 | 26,700 | 91% | 51 in, 31 out |
| Ratio | 1.02 |
Balanced on writable opportunity, with continuity above eighty percent, moving eighty-two accounts. The calls that were going to blocked accounts in T-04 are released to the open accounts that arrived.
Access changes. The weighted potential per territory is recomputed with the dated access file each cycle; the ratio drifts. A drift past the tolerance flags the next realignment, and the territories stay stable between.
Balanced on prescriber count. Equal accounts; unequal opportunity.
Access undated. Last cycle's formulary weights this cycle's map.
Continuity ignored. Balanced perfectly; every relationship broken.
Redrawn monthly. No rep builds anything.
Mapped once, the account master, the dated access file and the candidate maps produce weighted potential per territory, the balance, continuity and the moves, and the drift check every cycle. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The pharma page describes the setup, and the formulary status guide covers the access dimension the weights come from.
Because a call on a blocked account cannot produce a prescription whatever the rep does. Two territories with equal prescriber counts and different access mixes are not equal, and the rep with the worse access mix is set up to miss. Weighting by access is what makes the balance real.
By counting the accounts that keep their rep under the new map, weighted by their volume, and by preferring, among balanced maps, the one that moves least. The report shows the continuity share and the accounts that move, so the trade-off between balance and relationships is a decision with numbers.
The weighted potential per territory is recomputed with the dated access file each cycle, and the balance drifts as formularies change. A drift past a stated tolerance is a flag for the next realignment, not a monthly redraw, because reps need stable territories to build relationships in.