You just scored a new field sales job, and you’re excited. The company is great, the pay is better, and you can’t wait to start. Then you have your first day…
You should have remembered how challenging it could be to start a sales pipeline from scratch. Now that you’re selling new products in a new territory, you can’t rely on your old contacts like you used to. You begin to wonder if you made a terrible mistake.
I get it. Starting a new job is always tough. Starting a new job in sales is even harder. It’s only natural that you feel out of your depth and overwhelmed.
Fortunately, you don’t have to keep feeling these things. In this article, we will show you how to attack a new sales territory. That way, you can crush quota sooner and actually enjoy that fancy new gig you locked down. Sound good? Let’s do it!
8 Steps to Attack a New Sales Territory
Learning to manage a new sales territory takes significant time and effort. The eight-step system below will make it easier. Follow these tips, and you’ll find success in less time.
Define your ideal customer profile (ICP)
Before you do anything else, figure out who you’re selling to.
One of the worst things you can do when you take over a new territory is trying to sell to every single organization in it. Talk about a waste of time.
Instead, pinpoint the specific companies that will benefit most from your offerings. Then use this information to make an ideal customer profile (ICP). Here’s how:
- Identify your top 5 – 10 customer
- Find similarities between these companies
- Learn about these companies and how they use your products
- Build an ICP that includes customer industry, budget, and pain point data.
Map existing customer data
Are you the first employee to manage your new territory? Skip this step.
If you’re taking over for another person, dig through your company’s CRM software and map the companies that already have a history with your brand.
Why is this important? Think about it: time is your most valuable resource. You don’t want to waste it talking to businesses that aren’t a good fit for what you sell. A former employee may have been able to understand these businesses in the past.
Mapping existing customer data will also help you determine who your top prospects are. I.e., the companies that purchase consistently and make larger-than-average orders. You’ll want to pay special attention to these customers.
Use ICP data to find new prospects
At this point, you’ve created an ICP and mapped existing customer data. So you should have a good idea of who is in your territory and who you want to sell to.
Now it’s time to use this information for prospecting purposes. That way, you can generate quality leads and close deals at a consistent clip.
One of the best ways to prospect with ICP data is to use a tool like SPOTIO, which is equipped with sales intelligence and will let you filter potential customers by 200+ attributes. The result? A leads list that fits your ideal customer profile to a tee.
Segment sales territories
Next, divvy up your sales territory based on prospects and customers. This will help you organize your outreach efforts and focus on the right buyers.
Here are a few segments we suggest you create:
- Group 1: Companies that are easy to work with and buy frequently.
- Group 2: Companies that require extra effort to make a sale but are worth it.
- Group 3: Companies that don’t justify the effort it takes to sell to them.
Once again, a tool like SPOTIO will make this task easier. With SPOTIO, you can quickly segment leads and customers, then visualize them on a digital map.
Establish minimum daily sales activities
To learn how to manage and grow a sales territory effectively, you have to hold yourself accountable. That means establishing minimum daily sales activities.
How many new leads will you generate every week? How many customers will you visit? You should have a goal for sales calls and emails, too. Why? Because you can’t control who buys from you. But you can control how much effort you put in.
By establishing minimum daily sales activities, you’ll ensure consistency, which will help you manage a new sales territory effectively. Maybe not at first, but over time.
Put your sales process on autopilot
Remember what I said earlier? Time is your most valuable resource. You can protect it by focusing on quality leads who actually want to buy from you.
You can also automate your sales processes. That way, menial tasks, like updating CRM records, and time-consuming tasks, like sending follow-up emails, are handled for you. This will allow you to focus on other, more important activities.
There are tons of sales automation tools on the market. SPOTIO Autoplays was specifically designed for field sales teams, though, making it a preferred option. Once you invest in Autoplays, you’ll be able to automate everything from simple administrative duties to entire sales sequences. Win back your day with SPOTIO!
Optimize your sales routes
You’ve come a long way, and your sales pipeline looks great.
But don’t take your foot off the gas yet. Now it’s time to optimize your sales routes. Doing so will help you get from prospect to prospect in less time and boost sales.
The easiest way to optimize sales routes is to use technology. Guess what—SPOTIO happens to include route planning software. It’s super easy to use, too.
All you have to do is tell SPOTIO where you want to go. The platform will then find the most efficient route for you and track your mileage along the way.
Track territory performance metrics
There’s one last piece of the puzzle: tracking your efforts.
Are you generating quality leads and closing deals on a regular basis? Have you automated your sales process so that you don’t have to spend as much time on tedious data entry tasks? Can you travel from customer to customer efficiently?
Take an honest look at your current sales pipeline and process. Ask yourself, “What can I do better?” Then brainstorm ways to make it happen.
When it comes to sales reports, SPOTIO has you covered. Easily view performance metrics and forecast future results. Then use what you learn to build a better sales territory plan and squeeze every ounce of juice out of your assigned areas.
Manage new sales territories with SPOTIO
Congratulations, you now know how to attack a new sales territory effectively. It will be challenging, but if you follow the eight-step plan above, you will find success.
Just remember, you don’t have to do it by yourself. Tools like SPOTIO can help. Whether you want to automate tasks, plan more efficient routes, or generate helpful reports, SPOTIO can simplify the territory management process.
Sign up for a free demo of SPOTIO today to see if our platform is right for you!
