Territory Analysis involves segmenting the territory into four groups of accounts (strategic, development, tactical and investigate) in order to prioritise the investment of sales resources. We provide the definitions for Influence and Potential against which we plot the accounts against. The analysis will help determine the level of business expected from accounts in each segment and thereafter to monitor actual business against expectations.

All accounts in the territory are proactively managed. Plans are put in place to move accounts from Tactical to Strategic and from Development to Strategic. Accounts in the Investigate segment need to be developed or surrendered to another team or removed altogether as the likely resource requirement will not balance against the return gained.

We can go from helping you develop Key Account Management plans with a forty page (empty) document down to a four page (empty) document which we call an Account Profile. This document will suffice for most sales roles. Therefore we will not burden your scarce selling resource with unnecessary, non value added, planning.

The key aspects to consider are the business issues within that affect the account, the buying practices, buying history, competitive situation, the potential, the relationships (see diagram) and the objectives. The secret to developing a good account plan is to develop it such that if your customer read it they would go "wow, are you really looking to do that for us?" Which means the plan is about them - not what you want, but what you can do for them. The business will come if you focus on your customer’s needs and imperatives.

The Business Issue Analysis is the proactive part of the process from which the customer should get most benefit. It is this process that distinguishes the product led sales people from the business led sales people. We could call this solution selling, value selling, customer centric selling or whatever else - in the main it is about being able to talk to your customer about their business and what you can do to help them improve it.

Your customer has two basic issues to address - what is happening internally in their business and what is happening externally that is likely to have an impact. Both types of issue can be opportunities or threats. A threat for one customer may be an opportunity for another. For example when the price of oil rises dramatically then anyone in the oil industry - and associated supply industries - will be awash with money. However, anyone who has to consume oil or associated energy will be facing huge increase in raw material costs. Therefore, an important part of business issue analysis is to understand the vertical markets in which your customers operate.

We will help you identify external and internal issues. We will provide you with the tools to quickly and easily gather evidence about the business issue and then provide you with the process and help guide you from issue recognition to solution identification - the basis on which you can start discussions with your customer.

Like most sales professionals, you will have competitors operating in your accounts and across your territory. The relationship you have with the account will often determine how much of an immediate issue the competition is for you. Equally, you may be targeting an account where you will be viewed as the competitor trying to secure a foot-hold in the account, and your competitor will be doing everything to stop you from achieving that objective.

Your job therefore is to understand your competitors. Not just their products, but the way that they sell, the way they develop relationships and the way the position their organisation. In short, what are their strengths and weaknesses, not generally, but specifically in the account? You will also need to understand your own strengths and weaknesses. Maximise your strengths and minimise theirs. Minimise your weaknesses and maximise theirs.

Our methodology and tools will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses and through our training workshops we will help you deploy competitive strategies - one of which may well be to praise your competition! We will work with you to tell you how and why.

Resource Analysis is about combining your Territory Objectives, your Territory Analysis and your Competitor Analysis with the Resources you require for managing each of the territory quadrants of Strategic, Develop, Tactical and Investigate. It is about outlining what should be known, how often the accounts are contacted, what they should be contacted about, the main account objectives, the time required and what resources you will need from your organisation to help manage the territory.

If is often stated that accounts follow Pareto's principle that 20% of your accounts produce 80% of your revenue. This probably means that most people concentrate on the 20% of the accounts that produce the revenue and therefore there is no real focus on the other 80% of accounts. Would any of these "80%" accounts feature in a competitor's "20%" list? Probably. Therefore, it is important that if you want to develop your territory you need a plan, resources and intent. The Resource Analysis brings everything together into an overall plan.

The Call Plan is the output of the Territory planning phase and details the topics of conversation with the accounts. It is arranged by vertical market and then by the territory quadrants. These are the external and generic internal issues that have been identified and developed into solution discussion points - what you provide to help resolve the issues. The basis of the Call Plan is that all accounts must be 'touched' at least once within a sales period. If they are not, then you are potentially losing business to the competition. As mentioned under the Resource Analysis means working with the 80% of accounts that currently only produce 20% of the revenue – this will not change unless you proactively work with them.