Basic guide for new sellers of enterprise software

1. How to successfully
plan your sales territory
Simple and practical approach to build an initial plan for
your business - designed for new sellers
By Camilo Rojas - @camilo_rojas

2. High Level Process
•
Prepare. Customer, Play, Routes,
Competitors
•
Establish target.
Target = Quota * 1.15
•
Establish pipeline targets.
Pipe target = Target / Win Rate
•
Assess current pipeline.
•
Identify Pipeline Gaps.
Gap = Pipe target - Current Pipe
•
For each gap, establish a territory plan.
Gap = Plays * Customers * Routes
•
Consolidate plan on an execution plan
Execution = Customer * Action *
Responsible * Dates

3. First, prepare…

4. Understand your customers
•
Agree on coverage model with
customer set and brands
•
Know renewal dates for S&S
Evaluate sell cycles
•
Understand financials and key
business drivers
Discover competitor footprint and
relationship
•
References documented
•
Analyze previous year results.
•
Cluster by industry if possible
•
•
Customer
Industry
Customer 1
Telco
Customer 2 Banking
Key driver Footprint S&S aniv Competitor
Rev Growth
BPM
01/05/14
Oracle
…
Risk contain
ECM
20/03/14
HP
…
Customer 3
Retail
Margin +
MM
15/07/14
SAP
…
Customer 4
Telco
Churn -
NAA
01/02/14
Cloudera
…

5. Understand your sales plays
•
Review your sales plays available.
•
Review the business needs
addressed with the play
•
Understand industries that best
applies to them. Find the average sell
cycle. Plan your average sell ticket
Plays Industries Avg $
Sell
cycle
•
Be aware of dependencies,
appliances, special services
Play 1
Telco
250k
90 days
•
Leverage accelerators, references
and pre-sales assets
Play 2
Banking
100k
60 days
•
Document your sales plays and land
them to your territory
Play 3
Retail
300k
120 day

6. Understand your competitors
•
For each one of the plays
selected do your homework
understanding their products,
sales strategies, silver bullets.
•
Subscribe to their newsletters
•
Assist to their marketing
events
•
Keep up on the IMAZ
competitive information for
tactics

7. Understand your routes
•
For selected plays map
your BP’s
•
Evaluate their tech, sales,
marketing, services ability
•
Review previous year
performance
•
Consider SI’s, ISV’s,
VAD’s, internal services,
etc.

8. Enable routes for plays
•
Plan with your BPR the
deals that you need your
BP to be ready.
•
Work together on a plan to
enable them from a sales,
tech sales and services
perspective
•
Make sure the BP has IBM
“readiness” to sell the
business

9. Second, build your
plan…

10. First establish your objective
•
Understand the past. Clearly
assess what was the business for
the previous year. Segment by
route, play, product, industry.
Establish your win rate.
•
See how you did against your
competition. Measure by quantity of
sales won / lost, revenue won / lost.
•
•
Clearly understand the growth
requested by your plan. Segment
the objective by route, play, quarter.
Target to make 115% each quarter.
Even if you miss, you will be close
to plan.
Target = Quota * 1.15!
!
Example!
Quota
Target
1’000k
1’150k

11. Establish your pipeline targets
•
•
With target
establish your
pipeline targets.
Ideally separate
for each one of
your sales plays.
Review each
quarter for target
pipeline
Target Pipe = Target / Win Rate!
!
Example!
Last Year win rate 1/5 deals won
Win rate
5x
0.2
!
Pipeline target
1’150/0.2
5’750k

12. Assess current pipeline
•
Check your current pipeline
•
Make sure you have real,
controlled pipeline
•
Segment current pipeline by
play, sales cycle, pipe age,
deal size, volume of deals
•
•
Leverage pipeline standard
reports they have most of the
info, weekly. Contact your
marketing leader for this info.
This should be a biweekly
practice, this shows the health
of your business.
Pipe
Validated Qualified
Age
Volume
Play 1
1150
600
65
3 opps
Play 2
1600
1400
80
5 opps
Play 3
1400
1000
120
6 opps
Total
4150
2000
88
14 opps

13. Target Pipe
Validated Pipe
Gap
Play 1
1450
1150
300
Play 2
2500
1600
900
Play 3
1800
1400
400
Total
5750
4150
1600
Identify Pipeline Gap
Subtract your target pipeline with your existing pipeline by play. Alternatively by
customer

14. Establish a territory plan
•
•
•
•
Work on a matrix to
understand the play coverage
in your customer accounts.
Identify pipeline potential for
each account
Mark where the competition is
incumbent. Make a plan on
how to attack them.
Make sure your total
prospecting plan covers your
gap.
Play 1
Play 2
Total
Client 1
100k
700k
800k
Client 2
500k
SAP
500k
300k
300k
1000k
1600k
Client 3 Oracle
Total
600k

15. Play
Activity
Responsible
Date
Outcome
Play 1
100k
Briefing
Rep 1
01/03/14
Vision
CVE
TSS 1
15/03/14
Qualify
PoC
Tiger 1
30/03/14 Tech Qua
Propose
Rep 1
15/04/14
Verbal
Negotiate
Rep 1
20/04/14
Close
Sign & Book
Client 1
Rev
Rep 1
28/04/14 Happiness
Play 2
700k
Exec meet
Rep 1
02/03/14
Vision
…
…
…
…
…
…
Consolidate an execution plan
Share it with your team, get them aligned, ask for help
early

16. Third, and the most important step.
!
Execute your plan.