Territory Management – The Numbers Count
By: T.J. Tedesco
For: High Volume Printing
Published: February, 2000

Numbers count.  As professional baseball players are judged by their performance, so are professional sales representatives.  Occasionally, players will reach base on dropped third strikes, but usually they’ll be out.  Sometimes sales reps may land the big Kahuna by shear luck, but most of the time they won’t.  In either profession, a lot effort is required before stats improve.  Baseball players need a lot of at bats.  Sales reps must make a lot of sales calls.

The old school of selling says, “Knock on doors until your knuckles bleed.”  The new school says, “Prepare properly and offer customized, valuable information on every sales call.”  Which is right?  You guessed it – both are.  Although the management trend has been moving away from tracking sales call quantity, playing the “numbers game” is still important for sales success, especially for rookies or those in slumps.  Unfortunately, a lot of sales reps hide behind statements like, “I plan so well that I can only make two quality sales calls a day,” or “Since every sales call I make costs my company $500 ($200,000 compensation and expenses ¸ 2 calls per day ¸ 4 days per week ¸ 50 weeks per year = $500), I must be extra choosy about whom I bless with my presence.” 

Always have a clearly defined purpose for every sales call – no one is arguing any differently.  Choosing the right prospects is as essential as active listening, genuine empathy and creative solutions.  The numbers game is essential too, although for some inexplicable reason it isn’t in vogue anymore.  This doesn’t mean knocking blindly on all doors of an office building; but it does mean using your time better, and God forbid, working harder.  People will sell more if they make more of the right types of sales calls.  Period. 

How Many Calls Do You Need To Make?

Ask yourself, “How many “A” customers do I have?”  Assume you have a few years selling experience, your shop is a 6-color, 40” sheetfed house and you have five “A” customers.  How often should you see them?  During hairy jobs, you will be there everyday, but at other times, you may go a couple of weeks without walking in the door.  Let’s say you should see these “A” customers once a week on average throughout the course of a year.  This means these five customers will consume 250 calls per year (5 clients ´ 1 visit per week ´ 50 weeks = 250).

Now, how many “A” prospects do you have?  Let’s say you have ten.  Assume you should see these companies every other week until they either become good customers or are dropped from your list.  This means that you will need 250 sales calls (10 customers ´ 50 weeks ¸ 2 (every other week)) to properly nurture them over the course of a year.

Next, consider your “B” customers.  These may be companies that you do business with, but for some reason, aren’t in your sweet spot.  Although you’re grateful for the work, and would like it to continue, they just aren’t the perfect fit for you.  Let’s say you have ten of these “B” customers and on average you believe you need to see each one every third week.  This adds another 166 annual sales calls (10 customers ´ 50 weeks ¸ 3 (every third week)) to your territory plan.

How about your “B” prospects?  These may be companies that you’re just beginning to nurture, or where there’s a significant roadblock to navigate around.  Assume you have ten of these “B” prospects, and that on average you need to see each one every fifth week, giving you another 100 sales calls each year (10 prospects ´ 50 weeks ¸ 5 (every fifth week)). 

Lastly, there are cold calls and referrals.  Every successful sales representative knows that some percentage of their time should be allocated to making these types of telephone calls.  Some will be converted into sales visits.  If you average one cold or referral sales visit each week, you will have 50 more sales calls over the course of a year.  Given these assumptions (your actual numbers will be different), you need to plan for about 800 sales calls a year (250 + 250 + 166 + 100 + 50 » 800).

How Many Calls Can You Make?

The next step toward developing an effective territory management plan is to determine how many sales calls you can reasonably make.  Only you and your manager know what is realistic for your territory.  Reps calling in rural areas lose a lot of time traversing vast distances.  Those in major cities must contend with time-limiting traffic delays.  Count the number of in-person sales calls you made last month.  Is it lower than you thought?  (Hint: It is for many people.)  Let’s say you average slightly more than thirty sales calls a month, excluding mundane activities such as dropping off proofs, getting approvals, etc.  That’s about two calls a day, four days a week.  At this rate you’ll make about 400 sales calls a year – if you’re lucky. 

Hold on!  In our example above, you need to make 800 sales calls a year to properly manage your territory.  Houston, we have a problem. 

Luckily, the situation may not be so dire.  If some days you can only make two sales calls and others you can make as many as six, a daily average of four should be possible.  Just realizing this is the first step toward better territory management.  It’s amazing what people can do if they frame the problem correctly.  Sales reps that know they absolutely must make 800 calls a year (four calls a day, four days a week) to be successful will find a way to do it.  They will make better use of their dead time.  They may discover that some of their clients and prospects would rather see them before or after traditional business hours.  Although it may seem a stretch at first, attaining your sales call quantity goals, without jeopardizing quality, is possible for motivated sales representatives.

Complete your territory plan by trying to minimize travel time between accounts.  Plot your customers and prospects on either an electronic or paper map.  Look for logical groupings centered on your A accounts.  Hopefully geographic clusters will emerge.  Do your best to plan your selling days around these clusters and try to avoid multiple-hour trips for just one sales call.  This may be difficult, and yes, sometimes impossible, but nonetheless try.  Seasoned pros know that dead time is a fact.  Some kill it by checking in with the plant a little more than necessary, or by having a lot of coffee breaks.  If you plan well, you should be able to identify potential dead times and schedule tentative drop-by visits to some accounts.  Not all prospects will be able to accommodate flexible appointments, but some will.

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In graphic arts sales, “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” still rings true.  Since time is your most precious resource, invest it wisely.  Although playing the numbers game may seem an old-school tactic, it is vitally important.  Don’t hide behind sentiments like, “it’s the quality of the sales calls; not the quantity.”  Hit more homeruns by narrowing the gap between how many calls you need to make and how many calls you’re able to make.  Put effective territory management in your corner … your future success depends on it.

T.J. Tedesco is a “hands-on” marketing, sales, coaching and training consultant to the post press industry. He is the author of Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, and Win Top-of-Mind Positioning, both published by GATFPress and available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com.