Do you operate with clearly defined sales territories? Sales territories can create focus and accountability. But how do they improve sales? Read how these companies are moving away from traditional sales territories in this issue of Promotional Consultant Today.

Silverpop, a demand generation company, has found success by segmenting territories into inbound and outbound. Inbound reps receive leads via a round-robin approach, and outbound reps are aligned by market segment such as enterprise, mid-market and small- to medium-sized businesses.

Attempting to fairly assign targeted performance goals and distribute inbound lead volume to demand generation teams can be problematic. A reliance on strict geographic territories usually leads to some individuals receiving low volumes of leads with an inability to achieve goals despite skill and effort while others may achieve their goals too easily.

Using a round-robin approach has allowed Silverpop to create a truly level playing field and provides greater visibility into the abilities of star performers.

HootSuite, a social media management company, has taken the no-geo territories philosophy all the way to their sales team. Inside sales reps are assigned 250 accounts across geographies. All other accounts are kept in a pool of prospects that can be accessed by anyone. The inbound sales reps can own a contact, but not the account until an opportunity is created.

A rep with particular expertise from past experience has the freedom to explore it without being boxed in by a territory. Also, referrals are key to expanding business. A rep who gets a referral from a client is free to run with it versus having to pass it to another rep. By knowing that other reps can go after accounts, there is more urgency to get to them.

ConnectAndSell is a sales management company that has no lead generation team on the front end of the sales process. All leads go directly to the sales department. Second, there are no territories. From an inbound perspective, the leads are queued in a lead pool that the reps can pull from to build call lists. From an outbound perspective, prospect accounts are pooled and reps can reach out to any subset in which they have interest.

The approach relies on team effort for sales as well as a sense of ownership in getting the job done right. To me, this approach reads, "You don't own a bunch of accounts. You own a revenue quota— good selling!"

Source: Trish Bertuzzi is passionate about inside sales. She is part of The Bridge Group, helping sales and marketing leaders make the big decisions on implementation strategy, processes to improve performance, supporting technology, metrics and measurement.