Global vs Local – Sales and Territory Management
A global sales management framework balances corporate home office responsibilities with local office responsibilities in four areas: culture, strategy, metrics and sales/territory management.
Previous posts have highlighted culture, strategy and metrics. Now, let’s look at sales/territory management in the context of a global effort.
Sales/Territory Management
Corporate
The corporate home office (or an office in another country or region) may retain responsibility for directly managing key global accounts. Local office support may be provided as needed, or to maintain local relationships. Key global accounts may be managed centrally for several reasons, including need for a consistent sales approach and message across the account, sales that may affect the customer across multiple locations, or need for a single point of contact for the customer.
Other factors that may determine central management of a customer include:
- Value to the company in revenue or profitability
- Size and scope of the company — Does it span multiple geographies?
- Decision-making location
- Customer’s history with the company
- Local team’s experience and history — Have they worked successfully with the customer?
Local
Each local sales management team has responsibility for local, non-key accounts. They have decision-making and negotiation authority for accounts in their territory. The corporate home office empowers the local sales management team to drive the business so they reach their goals.
Working together, corporate and local sales teams can deliver the service and the sales necessary to meet and surpass their sales goals. Each has a role to play. However, there are four additional keys to global sales success. We’ll discuss those in the next post.
Wallace Management Group helps companies implement sales management structure at both the corporate and local levels to meet the needs of both your company and your customers. We help you present your business so that you can succeed wherever you sell.
