Territory and Channel Management
Organizations must be able to efficiently manage changes to sales territories and channels to control the costs of sales, target the right opportunities, and maximize revenue and profits.
When sales organizations lack the ability to properly align sales force and distribution channel structures and strategy, they often experience territory infighting, undesired sales behaviors, low sales force productivity, missed opportunities, and unrealized sales potential.
Challenges
Without effective territory and channel management, organizations struggle with the following challenges:
- salespeople and agents who target the wrong customers, in the wrong locations, with the wrong products and services
- misalignment of territories and distribution channels because local market conditions and other factors are not taken into account
- inaccurate definitions of territories and channels because information regarding hierarchies and participants is out of date
- misdirected sales behaviors and efforts due to unclear customer, geographic, and other territory and channel assignments
- lack of insight into how to modify territories and channels as changes in the business occur
Capabilities
To address these challenges with poor territory and channel management, companies need the ability to:
- define and optimize territories and channels based on factors such as geographies, customer mix, and demographics to balance workload and ensure alignment with sales strategy
- quickly and efficiently adjust territories and channels on an ongoing basis through automated processes
- centrally manage and effectively integrate territory and channel updates into sales compensation and other sales performance management processes
- clearly and consistently communicate territory and channel alignments and the impact on sales, quotas, incentive payments, and performance metrics as changes occur
- analyze sales performance across territories and channels to identify imbalances, take advantage of opportunities, and determine necessary changes
