How will a Sales Territory Plan actually help me sell more?

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I was training a sales team on Territory Planning last week.  Everyone was really positive, but I did get the question... How will this help me? 

The key here is two fold... First.. FOCUS.  As sales people we have to have focus or we will not work on the things that are the most important and will drive the most revenue.  The problem is that we THINK we have that focus.  We assume that we know our top accounts, and we know our best prospects.  In reality, I have found that our assumptions can be wrong... WAY wrong.  Back to this team I was working with... When we started, the assumption was that it was all about driving new business through new relationships.  The team was spending a great deal of time prospecting and going on new sales calls.  After we analyzed the business, we discovered that 90% of last quarters "new" business came from companies that had an EXISTING relationship with us.  While is was new business, it came to us because they already new us, and new what we could do!  Therefore the sales cycle was shorter, and the process simpler.  But this exercise had additional benefits.  By understanding who these customers were, and WHY they bought, we were able to hone our message, and began prospecting in a way that was much more effective.  Since doing this exercise the prospect funnel has increase dramatically, and the focus on re-igniting the relationships with the installed base has been given a greater importance.  Net new deals have increased and even the customer satisfaction has increased.

The next way a good plan will help you sell more is in monitoring your ACTIVITY or ACTION.  I have said before and I will say again here... "Do not confuse Activity with Action!"... As my friend the MIT Genius says "Motion does NOT equal Movement".  By creating a good list of actions based on real data and market realities, you can monitor your progress, make changes as you go and really understand what works and does not.

If you haven't built a plan.. Start now.  If you don't know how, download a trial version of Territory Plan 2008 and give it a try.  If you don't want to try software and want the theory and practice behind planning and strategy.. download a free white paper.

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