NotInterested

Business Development Manager

Taking On Untouched Territory

Hey friends. I am taking on two untouched territories within my organization. Not sure who here is familiar with Michigan, but Kalamazoo and Lansing are both being added to my territory at the end of summer. To those of you that have experienced a territory expansion into untouched areas, how do you suggest I tackle this beast? Call, call, call? Any and all advice is appreciated.

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JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

I have taken on virgin territory for Startups and established companies alike. No territory is the same as the next, and your product is likely not what I've sold either.

Top tips:
- Do a Total Market Analysis using a tool like Discoverorg. Understand how many companies that are targets for you are there.
- Divide these targets into classifications. A, B, C, is a popular way. A accounts are places where you have a connection / in or are a major strategic target.
- Set realistic goals on outreach and design a prospecting process that lets you manage that volume and continuously roll out curiosity-generating content
- Attend as many local trade shows, user events, networking events, etc... as possible. Again, don't know what you sell, but these types of groups perform a dual purpose of concentrating people that are interested in the solution your product provides and also give you a sense of what the 'word on the street' is for your area and industry.

I cannot stress enough that you need to actually get out there and meet people in person, and learn the territory's way of doing business to be successful. This is why conferences, etc... are such a great opportunity.

You may get asked about budget for conferences and events. A good rule of thumb for many tech products is $1000/ lead. So if the event costs $5K, you better bring home 5 leads to convert.

Hope that helps. Good luck! Territory expansion is almost always a great opportunity just waiting for the right rep to capture it.

NotInterested

Catalyst

Business Development Manager

This is really great advice, wow. Thank you very much for the insight. I will definitely be applying this to my strategy.

Thesamiam13x

Celebrated Contributor

Sales

The data provider my company uses suck, I plan on spending my own money on a decent one to find more leads.

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

Garbage in, garbage out. You need good data to get good results.

I am in no way affiliated with DiscoverOrg / Zoominfo. But I have tested just about every data platform out there for prospecting and found that DO is simply the best in terms of completeness of information and ease of performing a search.

If you're handy with Boolean logic you can get so much out of their database it's amazing.

I'm not a big fan of Zoominfo's new interface and prefer the pre-merger layout of DO though.

That said, they know they're the best and charge you for it. However your pipeline will very quickly justify the cost.

Thesamiam13x

Celebrated Contributor

Sales

I always thought those 2 companies merged since Zoominfo bought DO.

What are your thoughts on leadIQ?

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

Honestly I have not tested that one!

Yeah DO and Zoominfo merged. We piloted ZI at my company and generally reps liked the DO interface more. I think they use the same database but I could be wrong.

I know they want you on ZI more then DO though, they were pushing it pretty hard.

Thesamiam13x

Celebrated Contributor

Sales

Yea I was thrown in the NW territories where we dont have a lot of business in, they keep telling me its a gold mine because of it.

I plan on just identifying my ICP's there and going at it.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Run reports in your CRM to see if the companies are loaded into the system and when the last activity was.

I'd also use Google. Headquarters search for the area. Off the top of my head I know Stryker is in Kalamazoo. Great if you have a product they could use 😉

washedD1soccer

Politicker

Regional Sales Manager

The territory reps could always use more protein powder if anyone here works at GNC.

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

Yea I was thrown in the NW territories where we dont have a lot of business in, they keep telling me its a gold mine because of it.

Error32

Politicker

ISR

I cannot stress enough that you need to actually get out there and meet people in person, and learn the territory's way of doing business to be successful. This is why conferences, etc... are such a great opportunity.

Clashingsoulsspell

Politicker

ISR

Set realistic goals on outreach and design a prospecting process that lets you manage that volume and continuously roll out curiosity-generating content

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NotInterested

Taking On Untouched Territory

12 comments

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