My first job was selling computer systems. I was 19 years old and it was an easy job at first. As more salespeople joined, we had to continuously change sales territories. As the company continued to grow, matters related to sales territories became increasingly complicated.
Being part of a growing sales team, there were many things that kept us awake at night. Are sales territories planned to give us all the same potential? Do other salespeople own customers inside my territory? Am I getting the right commission payout? What are my colleagues’ territory borders?
Ever since my first job, these questions turned out to be similar across most sales teams that grow or change over time. We figured there must be a better way to manage territories.
What if we build an app for Salesforce.com that will
- Use zip codes as the base for sales territories.
- Connect zip codes to all existing CRM data in Salesforce.
- Allow one sales rep or many reps to own each zip code.
- The territory information is then shared across the organization.
Every zip code should be available inside your CRM system. Each zip code should have information related to all sales territory information. Here’s an example of territory information for zip code 10019 in New York:
With the app we built, it is now possible to empower the sales team to drive their success. By making all territory-related information available to everyone in the organization, issues regarding to territory borders becomes a thing of the past. The Salesforce Administrator can add as many salespeople to each zip code as needed, in case your organization operates in for example industry verticals. Resellers, stores and partners can be added to each zip code in the RealZips app.
Sharing territory information for success
When your organization openly shares territory changes, it creates full transparency and reasons to collaborate across the team. The end goal is to connect faster with your customers, which drives success both for customers and your team.
As market conditions change, sales territories must change to better serve customers and balance potential across the territories. Sales territory changes create complexity for the sales team, as territory borders are moved and customers change hands.
By simply tracking all territory changes with full transparency in Salesforce.com, the uncertainty related to territory changes is a thing of the past:
By using our app in your Salesforce CRM system, your team will be empowered to faster connect the right salesperson with the right customer. Uncertainty around sales territories will no longer hold back the team. Instead, everyone has information on sales territories to drive both individual and team sales goals.
Customer feedback
For the team behind the app, it’s a truly exciting journey to help our customers be even more successful. People using RealZips are telling us:
- Everyone can quickly reference the sales team members in every zip code, city, county, metropolitan area, state and sales territory.
- At trade shows we can instantly tell prospects who their sales person is.
- Territory changes can be viewed by everyone, clearing up challenges related to ownership of customers, quota attainment, and commission payouts.