The economic recovery is an opportunity for responsive vendors to gain market share – so many are changing their approach to put more feet on the street and make people more accountable for primary revenue. In some of our clients Territory managers who must work through channel partners  are replacing the traditional channel manager as overlay quotas are being abandoned in favor of individual primary revenue accountability. Their focus is on managing partner sales pipeline in a sales territory working with both the end user customers and the channel partners who fulfill the demand.

I understand the need for having as many people carrying an end user sales quota as possible but this type of change has both short and long term implications that need to be considered and managed.  The short term benefit is clear for all to see – greater focus on revenue with fewer overlays. The long term benefit should be increased capability and independence of partners through better alignment with the vendor in the sales territory.

In the short term the desire to control every sale will result in increased revenues as deals that are currently in the pipeline are brought forward. The territory manager who attempts to develop a leveraged and sustainable sales model using indirect channels will be less successful in the short term than their colleagues who are controlling every sale.

So in a regime or culture that is putting more and more emphasis on revenue, the pressure will be on the Territory manager to behave more like a direct sales person. Control the deal and book it early!

Territory managers will respond better to partners who do what they are told.  The risk is over time partners will  become less independent and be valued for their abilty to pick up closed deals and  fulfil rather than develop opportunities independantly and own the entire sales process.  Channel partner development will be pushed aside as a activity until the lack of channel capacity and competency is identified and someone changes the role.

The territory manager role has been proven to be a successful with some considered changes such as:
· Develop new territory role definitions and metrics – include MBO’s that are aligned with the leading indicators
· Clear definition on how territories are aligned to how customers want to buy and from whom, and make sure internal measurements and ‘Rules of Engagement’ do not drive inappropriate behaviors
· Developing a very clear territory management process that forces the issue of how the territory will be covered both from a customer and product/solution perspective. Force every territory manager or team to plan in their territory early in Q1 and review every 90 days
· Making territory managers responsible for new partner identification (against a very strict criteria list) but have a separate specialist team that is responsible for actual recruitment as well as new and existing partner enablement
· Developing  a full training curriculum to support the change in skills required – they are now virtual sales mangers as well as direct sales people and channel managers
· Train your sales managers as their role has changed as well – they are now managers of managers not just running the sales forecast.  They need to reinforce the leading and lagging indicators,  and coach  territory managers in the virtual sales manager role  and not just as “super reps” and  channel managers.