Territory Assignment Innovation: High-Velocity Techniques to Maximize Sales with Gusto’s CRO and Head of GTM Ops Speakers: Tolithia Kornweibel, CRO @ Gusto and Jamie Edwards, Head of Go-to-Market Operations and Tools @ Gusto

2. Territory
Assignment
Innovation
(And More!)
High-Velocity Techniques to
Maximize Sales
Jamie Edwards
VP, RevOps
Tolithia Kornweibel
CRO

3. You might find this interesting if you…
Sell SaaS to SMBs (read: at least some high-velocity, inbound web leads)
Use round robin but aren’t sure about it
Have geographic territories but aren’t sure about that
Are spending way too much time building territories

4. Dynamic Territories Books

5. “The old fashioned way of dividing sales territory
was roughly by states. Progressive firms have
found this to be unsatisfactory because, as a rule,
a state… has no bearing whatever on the sales
situation.”

6. “The old fashioned way of dividing
sales territory was roughly by states.
Progressive firms have found this to
be unsatisfactory because, as a rule,
a state… has no bearing whatever
on the sales situation.”
Modern Salesmanagement
Published 1919
1919:

7. Territories kill
Rep Productivity
Source: SMA, HBR
Bad territories can reduce
revenue by 10%, yet…
76% of sale teams use
geographic territories
83% do all territory planning
manually
And 64% aren’t satisfied
with their territories

8. Q: If localization and in-person don’t matter, what does?
Account segmentation, scoring, and assignment is best based on:
Account potential
Industry
Company revenue or size
Account qualification or engagement
Rep capacity or performance
Nope, doesn’t solve for likelihood
Nope, doesn’t solve for business model
Nope, doesn’t solve for engagement paradigm
Nope, doesn’t solve for incrementality
Nope, doesn’t solve for rep skill match

9. 1. Prepare Reps
Ensure comp (attainment), talent,
and enablement fit
2. Prepare Data
Best clusters you can for what
works for which accounts
3. First Assignments
Fresh start to re-engage and see
what moves needles
4. V1 Recipes
Codify for reps how to engage.
Book and account plans to triggers
and talk tracks.
5. Track everything
Activities count as the precursor;
regress on style, content, quality
6. Coverage required
If the activities aren’t there,
production <> incremental
7. Dynamic Retrieval
Review current coverage, analyze
target accounts.
New rep assignment
Unmanaged
Rep assignment sticks

10. 7. Dynamic Retrieval
Review current coverage, analyze
target accounts.
New rep assignment
Unmanaged
Rep assignment sticks
Coverage + production = rep
is making a difference. Keep
going! And…
Coverage but no production
= something doesn’t fit
between the rep and the
account
No coverage but production
= rep not required (but
consider pooled engagement
and future assignment)
Replace any retrieved
accounts with a new
assignment for this rep!

11. Real world example
Rep 1 & rep 2 start out with 70 accounts, producing 1X MRR
Over the course of 3 quarters:
- Rep 1
- 70 → 90 accounts. 10 retrieved; 30 assigned.
- 1.4X MRR.
- Rep 2
- 70 → 70 accounts. 10 retrieved; 10 assigned
- 1.2x MRR so far; 1.6x MRR projected

12. Next Best Action

13. Process Flow:
Web leads arrive
Rep is prompted which lead to work
Rep is prompted how to work the lead
Enablement:
Rep onboarded (classroom)
Tool tells rep what to do in real-time
Rep relies less on memory
Pitch is more dynamic, customized
Rep gets good on the fly in weeks
Process Flow:
Web leads arrive
Pooled reps pick up leads
Reps work leads
Enablement:
Rep onboarded (classroom)
Rep “remembers” what to do
Rep is coached
Rep gets good on the fly in quarters
FROM TO

14. Bigger Fish < > Bigger Boat

15. ● Small deals today can be companies on
the verge of growth
● Complexity matters more than potential
revenue
● Sales CAC is a portion of what it costs
to acquire business
● If you have inbound web leads Sales
CAC can be an offset against
substantial sunk costs
● A/B test: “bigger deals” simultaneously
given to a pooled team v. quota team.
→ Discover the break points! They may not
be what you think!
Bigger potential deals need more
and better attention, which
requires a higher paid rep and
account assignment, so we always
have a different motion for them v.
smaller deals.
MYTH BUSTED

16. 3 takeaways
There are alternatives to traditional territory assignment or book construction
Prime work for reps
Question traditional “breakpoints” for your sales segments