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Blog · Coverage and territory · Sales teams

What is a good account coverage rate? The answer depends on three things you can measure

The honest answer to what share of a sales book should be covered: it depends on what counts as a touch on the desk, on the cadence each account is owed, and on whether coverage is measured by account count or by the value in the accounts. This page gives the ranges by desk, the three measurable things that set the right figure for one team, and the table to compute before anyone quotes a percentage.

The short answerA good account coverage rate depends on the cadence each account is owed. Against a single 90-day window, most B2B teams touch 50 to 75 percent of their named accounts; against a cadence set per tier, where top accounts are owed a touch every 30 days and the tail every 180, a well-run book is at 80 to 90 percent. By value the figure should be higher than by count, because the large accounts should be the covered ones; when it is lower, the largest accounts are the neglected ones. And the touch has to be a real one: a logged email blast is not coverage. Compute coverage at cadence, by count and by value, with the touch defined, and compare it to the team's own prior quarter.

Coverage is covered accounts over all accounts, and the question is what it should be. Three things on the team's own data decide it.

The ranges, by desk

Desk Window Coverage by count, typical
Field sales, named accounts 90 days 55 to 75 percent
Inside sales, SMB book 90 days 35 to 60 percent
Distribution, territory reps 30 days 60 to 80 percent
Pharma, target list One cycle 70 to 90 percent
Sales trading, client list 30 days 50 to 70 percent
Wealth, client book 12 months, review 70 to 95 percent

The coverage by industry hub has the touch definition and window for each.

The three things that decide it

1. The touch, defined

Logged item Touch?
Meeting held Yes
Call connected, named contact Yes
Email with a reply Yes
Order taken by phone Yes
Sequence email, no reply No
Voicemail No
Marketing email No

A team that counts everything reports 95 percent and has spoken to a third of its accounts. The activity metrics piece covers why the definition matters more than the volume.

2. The cadence per tier

Covered at cadence = last touch within the cadence owed to the account's tier

Tier Accounts Cadence owed Covered at cadence Rate
A 20 30 days 17 85%
B 60 90 days 48 80%
C 220 180 days 190 86%
All 300 255 85%

Against a single 90-day window the same book reads 50 percent, because most of tier C was last touched four months ago, which is inside what it is owed. The single window penalises a sensible rep; the cadence view does not.

3. By count and by value

Basis Covered Total Rate
Count 255 300 85%
Value $6,200,000 $10,000,000 62%

Eighty-five by count, sixty-two by value: three uncovered tier-A accounts hold most of the gap. The worked example on a ten-account book shows the same split by hand.

The table to compute

Measure Formula From
Touch, by rule Logged items meeting the definition CRM activity
Days since last touch Today − last touch date, per account Same
Covered at cadence Days since ≤ tier cadence Same, with the tier file
Coverage by count Covered ÷ assigned accounts Assignment file
Coverage by value Revenue of covered ÷ revenue of assigned Ledger
Same, prior quarter Same Same
Identity Assigned = covered + uncovered; no account in two books Assignment file

Where the question goes wrong

Everything is a touch. Ninety-five percent, by sequence email.

One window for all tiers. The tail drags the number down and the rep is told to call accounts that do not need it.

Count only. The three largest accounts untouched inside an 85.

Calls per day instead. Volume rewarded; the book's shape never seen.

The short answer

A good account coverage rate is 80 to 90 percent at cadence, with value coverage above count coverage, on a stated touch definition, at or above the team's own prior quarter. The uncovered list, ranked by value, is the output that matters more than the rate. Covirage computes it from the activity export, the assignment file and the ledger every week. The coverage foundation piece explains why this number sits under every other one.

Questions people ask

What counts as a touch?

A two-way interaction with a named contact at the account, logged with a date: a meeting, a call that connected, a reply to an email, an order taken by a person. A mass email, an automated sequence step and a voicemail are not. The definition is stated per desk, and the coverage by industry hub on this site has twelve of them.

Why by value as well as count?

Because 60 percent by count tells you nothing about which 60. If the covered accounts hold 85 percent of the revenue, the rep has prioritised. If they hold 40, the rep is working the easy small accounts and the largest are untouched. Count and value side by side is the read.

Is 100 percent the target?

No. A rep with three hundred accounts cannot touch them all every quarter and should not try. The target is 100 percent of accounts touched within the cadence their tier is owed, and the cadence for the tail can be long. Coverage at cadence can reach the nineties; coverage against one window for every account should not.