Jeff Bajorek believes that salespeople underrate territory sales planning because it’s boring—and they lack a growth mindset. But if you’re a full-cycle sales rep, you need to know where your revenue is coming from. So you need a good grasp of your territory, the players in it, and who’s moving in and out of it. You need a handle on price increases and must know your products inside and out. It’s not all buying dinners and playing golf with prospects. Territory sales planning is where many people could make up ground if they do the work.
Do you want to be at the whim of your territory? Or do you want to have an impact and influence on what your territory produces (from a revenue perspective)? If you’re waiting for a customer to wave their arms in the air, you’ll be waiting a long time—and doing activities that won’t move the needle. Can your calendar be used against you in a court of law to convict you of being a salesperson?
Do you have time blocked to prospect? Do you have time blocked to contact your regular customers? Do you have time blocked to research and develop accounts in your territory? Or are you completely winging it? Are you taking control—or waiting for things to happen? Jeff points out that you know what the right answer is but you’re probably still not doing enough of it.
Who are the players in your territory? Who is growable? There are a lot of companies talking about fresh opportunities but “new” versus “old” is the wrong paradigm. Growable versus not growable is what you need to focus on and accessibility is the issue. Jeff breaks things down into quadrants: growability and accessibility.
You feel productive when you gain the attention of quadrant three. If you can’t grow them, they’re the best source for referrals or introductions. Use them for market research to help you gain access to clients in quadrant two.
But people spend so much time in quadrant three. They could spend half the amount of time maintaining business and spend it gaining access to new accounts. Where are you spending your time? Spend it all in quadrant one if you can. Once you fill that demand, you’ll have a void. You need to make inaccessible opportunities in quadrant two more accessible. Then, use your best customers to understand what it takes to gain access—whether introductions or referrals. Now you’re selling.
Every year, you start from square one. Your company likely asks for 7%. Every January, Jeff went to a national sales meeting. They’d get information about fee increases, new products, line extensions, etc. Jeff had his notebook open and a pen in his hand. He took diligent notes and knew exactly who he’d call on with new products. By the time he left that weekend, he’d have his territory sales plan sketched out. He knew who to call, who would be a great target, who would buy, who was already using similar products and how much they were using, and the value of each customer. He left those meetings fired up and set appointments for the next week.
Jeff points out that pen and paper is an under-utilized tool. You don’t need fancy technology to plan your territory—you just need to set aside time to do the work. Opportunities won’t fall in your lap. Where do you have good access and growability? Write it down. Who are your dream clients? Who are a great fit and you just don’t know? Write it down. How do you plan to reach them? Who are your rockstar clients? Write it down. That can translate to introductions and referrals. You need to understand the players in your territory before you can do anything else.
Find a buddy. Jeff worked with another salesperson and they got together once a quarter. They met in the middle and planned for the next quarter. They held each other accountable. Every quarter, they presented what they accomplished, what their revenue looked like, how they executed against their plan, and how successful they were. It’s tremendously beneficial. If you don’t have leadership that will hold you accountable, find a buddy—in or outside of your organization.
The bottom line is that sales is a verb. You have to act on your plan. You can’t afford to sit and wait for sales to happen. Create opportunities, steward them to close business, and maintain those relationships to earn referrals.
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Too many salespeople wing it. They just wanna “See what’s out there.” But Mark Hunter emphasizes that planning is the only way you’ll maximize the opportunities in your territory. You can’t react to whatever business is out there.
Mark loves to say, “Tomorrow begins today.” You have to plan your day, week, and month. Why? It allows you to use your time efficiently. Many salespeople are busy but not as productive as they could be if they had planned how they’d use their time. Listen to this episode of Sales Reinvented to hear Mark share more about his planning process!
The first question you must ask is who is your ideal customer? No matter the size of your territory, there will always be opportunities. You want to focus your time on the best of the best. If you don’t know your ICP, you’ll waste a tremendous amount of your time on other people.
You have to understand the outcome that you can create. No customer buys anything. They invest. They invest because they want a return on their investment. So what can you help them achieve?
Don't overlook the value of your calendar. Block time to work on projects. Mark follows the “10 am Rule.” By 10 am, he wants to have accomplished something significant. If you can do that, it motivates you. If the day were to fall apart you could still consider it successful. By mid-morning, Mark had already sent out a major proposal to a client. What has it resulted in? He’s accomplished so much more.
Your head needs to be in the right place. You have to focus on using your time efficiently—while helping customers—and never be satisfied with where you are today. Mark points out that it’s not his job as a sales manager to motivate his salespeople. His goal is to create an environment for them to motivate themselves. There are a few things Mark shares that lead to success:
How can you become more proficient? How can you be more productive? The measure of productivity is the results your customers achieve from the outcomes they’re able to achieve based on how you’ve helped them.
Mark shares some things you should—and shouldn’t do—to achieve your goals:
Mark was young and enthusiastic when he started in sales. He had a large territory assigned to him. He soon realized that territory included demanding customers. He felt he had to step up and deliver them more service. The result? He could leave their office and they’d call 20 minutes later and ask for something else.
He had been working the territory for 3 months when his boss asked him to meet for breakfast. Mark was an hour and a half late because he was visiting a customer taking care of a problem. He thought his boss would be happy. His boss was actually livid and threatened to fire him on the spot. It wasn’t because he was let. It was because he allowed his priorities to get disrupted. He was allowing problem accounts to control how he operated his territory. It’s one of the worst problems new salespeople have: the desire to want to serve and please everyone out there.
Mark’s boss told him that he would never be able to satisfy every demanding customer. Instead, the objective is to minimize them. Allow them a small percentage of your time. If not, you’ll never have time to develop customers to create the incremental business you need to meet your numbers. Failure to make your number will get you fired in a quarter.
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There are actions, tasks, and disciplines that must be accomplished to create a perpetual business. Tom Ninness points out that it’s important to know what activities drive your business. When Tom first entered the mortgage industry he was assigned to a territory. He knew that to use his time wisely, he needed a plan. So he planned where he would go when. So much so that all of his customers knew which days he was coming to visit. What else does Tom do to support his territory planning? Learn more in this episode of Sales Reinvented.
If you have a plan laid out so you know what you’re doing hour by hour, you’ll get a great ROI. Tom has the loan officers he works with complete an exercise to calculate their hourly rate. If they want to make $250,000 and want a week off every quarter. They have to work 40 effective hours a week. That averages $130 an hour. Are the sales folks completing value-based activities that will earn them $130 an hour? When you place a value on your time it makes the necessity of a plan even more apparent. And, it will help you be more successful.
A salesperson has to be likable and servant-minded. People will want to do business with you. Many salespeople view selling as something they do “to” another person instead of something they do “for” another person. Tom firmly believes that he “gets” because he gives without expectation of anything in return.
Tim Sanders wrote a book, “Love Is the Killer App,” in which he posits that business people are looking for knowledge. Your knowledge is worthless if you don’t share it. Secondly, you have to have a network to share it with. The larger your network, the greater your opportunities. Lastly, give with no strings attached. That’s where the law of reciprocity kicks in.
Salespeople can do business with friends, family, and coworkers. But there are other people in your network. Tom’s end customer has friends, families, and coworkers. They can refer business to him. If he does a great job and a happy customer fills out a survey for him, he believes there are at least four more opportunities for him to do additional business.
So how do you get these names? Tom uses a form where he asks happy clients for a list of professionals in their circle of influence. They gladly provide that to him. He can then share the survey they’ve completed with that list and cultivate appointments. When you delight your customers, they’ll want to refer you to their friends and colleagues.
Tom represents the financing for a builder. Someone else that represents a builder wanted to buy a unit from Tom’s builder but wanted to use his own lender. Tom’s builder flat out told him no—he had to work with Tom or he wouldn’t sell the property to him. The builder warned Tom that the customer was upset and to be mindful of that when they spoke.
Tom gave him a call and asked him to call his lender to see what they’d offer him. He agreed to match it. Tom had Googled him and done some research and really liked this guy. So throughout the next year, he sent him information and resources and gave him ideas. Tom always asks people, “What is the biggest challenge you’re having in your business?” The answer is usually something they’re having problems with. After a year and a half of offering value to this guy, Tom gets a call from him, asking him out to lunch.
After the waiter took their order, he said “Tom, I feel like I’m having an affair.” Dumbfounded, Tom said “What?!” Tom had given him so much value while the lender he had worked with for 20 years wasn’t motivated to help him. This man landed a new builder with 55 townhomes and made Tom his new lender. Tom emphasizes that just because you hear the word “no” doesn’t mean you give up. You can give someone value with no strings attached. Don’t be surprised if it comes back to you tenfold.
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At the beginning of a year or quarter, you must take the opportunity to evaluate your territory. How effectively are you using their time? Where are the dollars gonna come from? A simple spreadsheet of your sales reports for the past 2–3 years will help you realize there’s gold within your territory. You don’t have to spend time doing more prospecting. Why? You can fish in your own territory.
Lisa believes that there’s not a perfect sales territory plan—it must always evolve. This is her general recipe for success:
Most salespeople put together a territory plan and shelve it. To be successful, you must review it monthly and quarterly. Forecast a number and lock it in. Challenge yourself to meet your working forecast. It will help you validate how accurate your forecasts are at the beginning of your territory planning.
Lisa and her Director of Sales worked together to dive into and conquer their territory sales plan. When they did a thorough forecast—based on the previous 4 years—they realized that 92% of their business would come from existing customers. Some of them didn’t buy from them in 2020 because of COVID. That showed that they could reignite old client relationships. It helped direct their prospecting.
This exercise also helped the sales team gain clarity on who is responsible for what—especially when dividing up an existing plan. It’s a team effort to get business and create their next best year ever. A sales professional will create and work a plan and reinvent themselves as a trusted advisor because they know the value they can bring to their clients.
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The top-performing salespeople understand the importance of territory sales planning. They know that if they create a plan and work the plan they’ll outperform their peers. But John Smibert believes that a strategic plan applying the 80/20 rule is. He fleshes out what that could look like in this episode of the Sales Reinvented podcast!
It’s no secret that the top salespeople are great planners. They routinely run a SWOT analysis and look at their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s a key strategic planning tool. You also need to identify your target and objective. Your company may give you an objective but you’re the boss of your own business. You certainly need to plan for what your company expects from you but why not shoot for more?
Put the quota aside. What do you need to do to achieve your objective? Then look at your territory—identify where opportunities are likely to be. What 20% of accounts will get you 80% of the value? Secondly, look at your ICP. Who are they? Do some research, identify them, and focus activity on them alone. If you don’t have a plan you grab onto the first opportunities that come your way. You’ll find that you’ve filled your pipeline with average opportunities at best.
John hears a lot of sales managers complain that they don’t see the right level of activity from their salespeople. But if their salespeople have a plan in place that has been thought through strategically, less activity is sometimes good. But John nails down some dos and don'ts that can help you focus in the right place.
Learn how to say no. You don’t want to chase every opportunity that comes through the door. The top salespeople say no far more than yes because they know where the value is.
John recently co-authored a book called “The Wentworth Prospect” about a young lady who progressed well in her sales career with the help of a coach. It’s based on a true story about a woman John actually coached. This woman—named Sue—was selling cybersecurity solutions. She had learned the product well and had studied cybersecurity in university, so she had developed some domain expertise.
John asked her where she wanted to focus her territory. She stated her goal was to approach mid-level organizations but that she didn’t have an industry chosen. So they did some research and landed on a focus in the banking and finance industry. Why? She had a background in banking. She knew she had a unique perspective to bring to the table, her product fit well, and they were an ideal customer.
In that year, because she eliminated 80% of her territory and focused on the 20%, she blew her quota out of the water. All because she created a plan that she followed diligently.
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