Think Like A Franchise Owner
You’ve got a quota, a product, and a territory. Your territory might be defined geographically, or maybe you’re selling into a specific vertical market, a set of one or more named accounts, or some combination thereof.
How to begin?
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Think like a franchise owner. Know why your customers buy your product. Know your competition. I’ve heard “think like a franchise owner” so frequently I decided to actually ask a franchise owner how he runs his business. I have a friend who is a multi-unit fast food franchisee who also serves on a non-profit board with me. The key things he mentioned are research (especially regarding potential locations), understanding your path to profitability for each location, and how hard it is to hire good people at minimum wage. I think two out of three of these apply…
It’s your business – start by taking stock of what your ideal customer looks like, the corporate assets you might have (brand awareness, a great technical team, high-profile investments by VC’s, a respected management team, etc.) and any potential risk factors (maybe minimal brand awareness, no local technical support, etc.) In any case, there will be pros and cons. If you don’t find any cons, check out the messaging your competition uses.
Do you have existing customers? If so, meet them as soon as possible. They could need more of what you’ve got, and they also have friends. If they’re not happy (very possible if there’s been turnover in the territory), better to find out sooner rather than later. You want happy, referenceable local customers if at all possible.
Do you have partner relationships? Find out what a win looks like for your partner, then nurture those partner relationships. Partnerships are often announced with great fanfare at the corporate level, but unless you understand how a partnership impacts the local partner reps (especially regarding commissions and quota attainment), you may have a polite lunch and no follow-up. Ask the question “How does this impact how you get paid?” Salespeople love to talk about commissions. Usually you can find an area that will be a net win for both parties.
Special Territory Planning Notes for TOLA (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas)
A large geography requires focus. It will be almost impossible to make your number out of TOLA without really killing it in Texas, and you won’t kill it in Texas without doing well in Dallas and Houston. Here’s one way to understand why this is true – think of the Fortune 1000 as a proxy for overall business activity. The breakdown by state goes like this:
State # of Fortune 1000 HQ’s
Texas 103
Oklahoma 12
Louisiana 4
Arkansas 8
That means that out of the 127 largest accounts in the territory, 103 are in Texas.
As an aside, if you’re a national sales manager without a Texas presence, that’s more than 10% of the largest firms in America without local coverage…
But Texas itself is a big place, so where to focus? The short answer is to start with Dallas and Houston. Considering just the super-sized Fortune 500 by HQ location, Houston has the second largest number in the United States with twenty-four, and Dallas checks in fourth with nineteen. So, out of 54 Fortune 500 firms headquartered in Texas, 43 are in either Dallas or Houston. After than, then I look to San Antonio and Austin. Outside of Texas, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Tulsa and Little Rock are my go-to’s in some order depending upon the product/market fit. There’s business elsewhere – the nation’s largest company by revenue is in NW Arkansas, and I’ve personally sold a bunch in Monroe, Louisiana – but it helps to understand the raw numbers.