Brooke Hattie · Apr 26, 2024 · Case Studies
About this engagement
Our client is a leading supply chain technology company. They were updating their go-to-market strategy and expected to double the size of their global sales team within the next year, so their territories had to change to match, with a deadline approaching fast.
They brought us in to carve the new patches and move the team onto them with as little disruption as possible.
Our partnership enabled the following results:
The Challenge
The new territories had to reflect the updated strategy, share customers and prospects fairly across a sales team about to double, and be ready for the new fiscal year. Moving accounts between reps also meant moving their open opportunities and upcoming renewals, and every change of ownership risked disrupting deals already in progress.
The Solution
We built territories on geography, industry and segment for an equitable spread of accounts, and introduced an Ultimate Parent hierarchy so ownership is managed across a whole account family. Rules for holdovers and a separate territory field kept the transition orderly.
At a high level, here is what changed:
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Territories built for the old strategy | → | 37 territories by geography, industry and segment |
| Ownership set account by account | → | An Ultimate Parent field that owns the whole hierarchy |
| The account owner as the only record of a patch | → | A separate Territory field, apart from any temporary owner |
And now, here is how we got there.
Choosing how to carve the patches
We worked with sales management on their list of requested accounts, modeled a few ways to build the territories and set out how much disruption each would cause. Once we agreed on the best option, we carved the patches by geography, industry and segment so customers and prospects were shared out equitably.
An Ultimate Parent hierarchy
We identified the Ultimate Parent account at the top of each hierarchy and created a field to manage ownership of the whole hierarchy. Subsidiaries and regional offices were then reassigned by hand where the strategy called for it.
Planning for disruption
We analyzed the disruption the changes would cause to account ownership, open opportunities and upcoming renewals that no longer sat in a rep's patch. Each rep got a list of the accounts in their new patch, the accounts temporarily owned by a previous owner and their own holdovers.
Rules of engagement and exceptions
We defined the rules of engagement for holdovers of open opportunities and upcoming renewals, and gathered the exception requests for the VP of RevOps and the CRO to review and approve.
Loading the territories
The territories were loaded into a new Territory field, separate from the account owner, so an account's final patch and its temporary owner are tracked apart. Ownership can then be updated easily once the transition ends or new hires start.
The Results
The work was finished in five weeks, ready for the new fiscal year. We created 37 equitable territories with minimal disruption to sales operations, and identified 2,732 Ultimate Parent hierarchies, so account ownership is clear and simpler to manage.
The new territories let the client double its sales team without adding operational complexity.
Request a free consultation to see how we can help you increase your pipeline too!