Sales Force Sizing and Deployment
A company with too many sales people will have a higher than optimal cost of sales. And one with too few will leave profitable revenue on the table.
Resource sizing asks two questions:
1. How many people do we need (in each role) to meet our forecast?, or…
2. How many people do we need to cover the market profitably?
■ I.e., to maximize sales, with each individual resource being profitable
Sizing generally starts from a point where:
■ Customer segments have been defined
■ The channels and types of sales resources assigned to each segment has been determined
■ The sales process has been designed
The primary objective of deployment is to “balance” territories
■ The primary consideration is workload balancing
– If a territory has too much workload, then profitable accounts and prospects will be uncovered, leaving money on the table
– If a territory has insufficient workload, the rep will need to cover unprofitable accounts, and be less efficient, making it harder to achieve quota
■ Sales potential is also a consideration
– A territory must have sufficient sales potential to support the rep
– But a territory with very high sales potential and one FTE of workload is not necessarily a problem
= The degree to which it is or is not a problem is partly a function of the incentive plan
■ A third consideration is configuration of geography and accounts
– Consider roads, natural barriers, market boundaries, and industry concentrations
A quick overview of the process for determining optimal sizing and deployment is as follows
■ Define target market and accessible market
■ Quantify accessible market (number, size, and type of current and new accounts to cover)
■ Define sales capacity, time required to cover existing accounts and prospects across sales roles, expected close ratios, average sale values, etc.
■ Model FTEs required to cover market and achieve forecast and/or which parts of market to cover to maximize sales given a fixed headcount
■ Use GIS software to map workload and sales potential, prioritize geographical markets to cover, and define territories
Please see the attached presentation for futher detail.
Resource sizing asks two questions:
1. How many people do we need (in each role) to meet our forecast?, or…
2. How many people do we need to cover the market profitably?
■ I.e., to maximize sales, with each individual resource being profitable
Sizing generally starts from a point where:
■ Customer segments have been defined
■ The channels and types of sales resources assigned to each segment has been determined
■ The sales process has been designed
The primary objective of deployment is to “balance” territories
■ The primary consideration is workload balancing
– If a territory has too much workload, then profitable accounts and prospects will be uncovered, leaving money on the table
– If a territory has insufficient workload, the rep will need to cover unprofitable accounts, and be less efficient, making it harder to achieve quota
■ Sales potential is also a consideration
– A territory must have sufficient sales potential to support the rep
– But a territory with very high sales potential and one FTE of workload is not necessarily a problem
= The degree to which it is or is not a problem is partly a function of the incentive plan
■ A third consideration is configuration of geography and accounts
– Consider roads, natural barriers, market boundaries, and industry concentrations
A quick overview of the process for determining optimal sizing and deployment is as follows
■ Define target market and accessible market
■ Quantify accessible market (number, size, and type of current and new accounts to cover)
■ Define sales capacity, time required to cover existing accounts and prospects across sales roles, expected close ratios, average sale values, etc.
■ Model FTEs required to cover market and achieve forecast and/or which parts of market to cover to maximize sales given a fixed headcount
■ Use GIS software to map workload and sales potential, prioritize geographical markets to cover, and define territories
Please see the attached presentation for futher detail.
