I am amazed at the number of salespeople who I meet who do not write a territory plan unless their manager asks them to write a plan. Yet, how many salespeople would raise their hand in confirmation when asked, "are salespeople, in a sense, in business for themselves?"

Without a plan, we plan to fail. A former manager, Dick Boren, used to tell me "Plan your work, and work your plan." It was great advice. Our branch went from being a dog at $300K a month to over $1M within one year of Dick's management methods.

This article will outline the crucial elements of your territory plan.  What you put in it is up to you.  If you like, you are granted permission to copy this article and use it as an outline for your own personal territory plan.

The elements are as follows:

Cover Page (these first two elements are only if you need to submit your plan to a manager)

Executive Summary (this is just good protocol)

What are the highlights of the plan?  Write this last.

Mission

What is my mission?  This should be no longer than a paragraph, and succinctly state my primary focus.  

"Achieve Quota, be significant contributor in company, enable path to promotion to occur."

Objectives

What are my primary objectives?  List 3 - 7 items I must accomplish to realize my mission.

"Overachieve Quota each month, Sign 5 new accounts by June 1, develop vertical market strategy by July 1."    

Set SMART objectives:  specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-activated.

Keys to Success

Identify key items over course of year which will enable attainment of objectives to occur most easily.

"Identify key value proposition, articulate through email, phone, and in-person." 

"Solid utilization of company resources, including upper management and technical team."

Territory Summary

Provide overview of territory I am targeting: 

Current partnerships

Current customers and reference accounts

Geographical description of territory - where accounts are clustered, by vertical market

Current Competitive landscape, by product/service offering

This is important.  Many salespeople overlook their competition.

Sales Strategy

Define Customer Buying Criteria, by product/service/solution

Define My Company's solutions, by product/service/solution

Define Account list by geography, vertical market, solution category (service offering)

Define which solutions I want to target to which group of prospects/accounts

Sales Approach