Farquharson/Tedesco on Business Development: Sales Territory Management

The holiday season is here, and while not all of us celebrate Christmas we can all agree on one thing: Santa Claus is the world's best sales territory manager.

Think your authors have been dipping into the holiday eggnog a little early? Consider the tremendous territory challenge that Santa faces. Not only does the old guy have to visit millions of houses all over the world, he has to deliver the right toy to every kiddie. And he does it all in one night. You thought your territory was tough!

How does Santa do it? Simple: He keeps going until everyone has a present, no matter how tired his reindeer get. And he never sacrifices quality for quantity—he's always prepared with the right presents for the right kids.

In other words, Santa combines the best aspects of the old and new schools of selling. The old school says "knock on doors until your knuckles bleed," while the new school says "prepare properly and offer customized information on every sales call." As Santa shows us, both approaches are essential for effectively covering your territory.

You will sell more if you make more of the right types of sales calls. Period. Here's a territory management guide to help you do just that, inspired by lessons from Jolly Old Saint Nick himself.

Step 1: Determine How Many Calls You Need to Make. Santa never leaves the North Pole without knowing how many houses he needs to visit and how long he should expect to spend at each. Since kids on his nice list get more presents, for instance, they require longer visits. Knowing how much time will be required to finish his route helps Santa plan out his night to ensure every house gets presents.

Similarly, begin your territory management planning by determining how many calls you need to make in a given year. Divide all your sales calls into A customers, A prospects, B customers and B prospects, and figure out how many calls you should make to each batch. Here's a quick exercise to help you do this.

A Customers—Let's assume you have five "A" customers, and that you need to see them once a week on average over the course of a year. This means these five customers will consume 250 calls per year (5 clients x 1 visit per week x 50 weeks = 250).

A Prospects—Let's say you have 10 "A" prospects. Assume you should see these companies every other week until they become good customers or are dropped from your list. This means you'll need 250 sales calls (10 customers x 50 weeks ÷ 2 [every other week]) to properly nurture them during the course of a year.

B Customers—Let's say you have 10 "B" customers and on average you need to see each one every third week. This adds another 166 annual sales calls (10 customers x 50 weeks ÷ 3 [every third week]) to your territory plan.

B Prospects—Assume you have 10 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 x 50 weeks ÷ 5 [every fifth week]).

Don't forget cold calls and referrals! For the sake of argument let's say you average one of these per week—that's 50 cold calls during the course of a year.

Now, let's add it all up! Given these assumptions, you need to plan for about 800 sales calls a year (250 + 250 + 166 + 100 + 50 = 816). Your actual numbers will be different, of course; just plug 'em into our handy dandy equations and figure out your own total.

Step 2: Figure Out How Many Calls You Can Make. Scientists have calculated that to deliver presents to all 378 million Christmas-celebrating children around the world, Santa would have to visit 822.6 houses a second!

We don't expect you to go at Santa speeds, but you should push yourself to make as many good sales calls as you can. Only you and your owner/manager know what's realistic for your territory. 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 30 sales calls a month. At this rate you'll make about 400 sales calls a year, if you're lucky.

Hold the phone! This number's a lot lower than 800. If you notice a gap between your Step 1 and Step 2 number, you're not alone. Here are a few tips to help you drag reality up to expectations.

• It's all about averages. You may not have a high-powered sleigh, but you have one luxury Santa doesn't: time. If you only make two good calls on some days, don't sweat it too much. Tomorrow you can make six or seven. Take the "long view" and focus on your daily average.
• Think outside the 9-to-5. Ol' Saint Nick gets his work done at night. You can do a lot of catch-up while your competitors are sleeping or watching TV. Attaining your sales call quantity goals without jeopardizing quality is absolutely possible if you're motivated enough.

Step 3: Make Your Territory Plan as Efficient as Possible. From a lightning-fast sleigh to a red-nosed reindeer, Santa has a whole bag of tricks to help him achieve his lofty annual goal. Here are some tips to help you be as efficient as possible out in the field:

• Minimize travel time. Plot out your customers and prospects on an online mapping program or app. 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. Try to avoid multiple-hour trips for just one sales call. Sometimes this will be difficult or even impossible, but that shouldn't stop you from trying!
• Put dead time to good use. Dead time comes with the salesperson territory (no pun intended). Learn to identify these potential dead times ahead of time and schedule tentative drop-by visits to some accounts.

Print salespeople could learn a thing or two from Santa Claus. Efficiency and call volume matter, but so does the quality of your calls. If Santa can deliver nearly 400 million presents in one night, you can narrow the gap between how many calls you need to make and how many you do. Put effective territory management in your corner...your future success depends on it. And Happy Holidays! PI

About the Authors

T.J. Tedesco is team leader at Grow Sales Inc., a marketing and PR services company that has served graphic arts companies since 1996. He wrote "Direct Mail Pal 2012" and seven other books. Contact Tedesco at (301) 294-9900 or e-mail tj@growsales.com. Bill Farquharson is a vice president at NAPL. Farquharson can help drive your sales. Visit www.aspirefor.com or call him at (781) 934-7036.