How To Grow A New Sales Territory From Scratch

You're at an established company that wants to break into a new market or new geography. Where do you start?

RUN A GREENFIELD TERRITORY LIKE A BUSINESS
A GOOD rep follows proven sales principles to find prospects and win their business.

A GREAT rep is also an excellent networker who can hop from one connection to the next to get into any account. 

An EXCELLENT rep not only does the above but also operationalizes their greenfield territory likes their own business, ie. constantly monitoring every stage of their personal funnel and understanding where to double down, where there are bottlenecks in conversion, how do I build up the brand, make my lead gen engines automatic and repeatable, how do I pull in the right staff to help me at every stage? ​

Read more: How Do I Generate MQLs at a New Startup?

STEP 1: GATHER INTEL

Spend some time gathering as much intel as possible from internal and external sources about the company and its new greenfield market, things like:

• Why have customers bought from this company in its traditional geographies, verticals markets, etc. Is this applicable in the new market we are trying to penetrate?
• In the new market, what’s the competitive landscape? What messaging and differentiators seem to be working for competitors?
• What is our SWOT analysis in the new market? What strengths do we bring, what weaknesses compared to established players, and what opportunities and threats should we anticipate?
• Get a list of target accounts in the space. Who are your customer organizations?
• Within an account, who do we suspect is the economic buyer, influencer, champion, etc. at the target accounts?
• Where do the target buyers and influencers from this market spend their time (online publications, conferences, etc.)? We need to go to them.
• What motivates a customer in this new space to pick up the phone and have a conversation? To see a demo or proof of concept? To sign up for a free trial?  
• What does the ecosystem look like, what do motivated channel partners look like (access and influence the buyer, strategic fit with products and brand, etc.) ​

Read more: What is a Single Threaded Owner?

STEP 2: INITIAL HYPOTHESIS

From all this we come up with some initial hypothesis on the right message, most motivated buyer/influencer targets, and tactics to reach the audience. The goal initially is volume of meetings, how can I get a number of meetings not necessarily with the goal to buy but goal to test, refine and learn as well as start getting referred to the right prospects. 

STEP 3: OUTREACH AND CONTINUOUSLY REFINE HYPOTHESIS

As we start to refine the message and target segments most likely to buy, tackle prospecting using 2-3 tactics we think will work best. Some I have had a lot of success with in past companies: 

• Visit existing customers, leads, etc. in person, goal is always to get to the next meeting and learn more 
• Obvious: check public RFPs, look at where competitors are going and be there too
• Follow the regulatory compliance trail! Nothing motivates a sale like an urgent need to demonstrate compliance so understanding what regulations are top of mind for customers in the new market that your company solves
• Very targeted email marketing, the trick is to be honest, provide value (ie. link to true thought leadership or useful content) and focus on a hook to get to the next meeting, not on making a sale. 
• Building your own website with thought leadership, specifically around the product and territory. Use conversations with customers to feed into thought leadership, every time a problem or pattern is detected write a piece on it 
• Engage your company's marketing team to get your "unfair share" of marketing support. Developing a new territory should be a partnership between sales and marketing. A sales person who is going it alone without marketing cover along the way will not be set up to succeed. 
• Engage company staff – how can we leverage as many staff as possible helping to make referrals, generate thought leadership, help in selling, etc. Basically the principle of leverage, we’ll move much faster if we can get an army contributing to the cause rather than just 1 guy in territory 
• Select a motivated channel partner (have to be very picky about this because you can waste a lot of time if you choose the wrong partner) 
• Go speak at local forums where you know your customers will be. Big conferences are good for appointment setting but my favorite are the intimate influencer forums with a smaller number of C-levels. ​

Whatever you learn, use it to continually refine your hypothesis and change course when needed. Keep a written log of your findings and report back regularly to leadership to demonstrate your progress and keep their confidence.

Read more: Identify Your "Must-Have" Customers

STEP 4: FIGURE OUT YOUR DIFFERENTIATORS

As a new player in the market, you need to establish what your strengths are compared to the incumbents, and clearly communicate these differentiators to customers so that you are not just perceived as a "me too" vendor in the space.

If you are a big company entering a new market (e.g. Microsoft entering the healthcare space), your advantages over established companies might include:

• Trusted brand
• More reliable product
• Better service
• Economies of scale
• Unique technology differentiators that you are bringing over from other markets

If you are a small player entering a new market (e.g. startup), advantages over bigger more established companies in the space might include:

• Faster and more nimble
• Better service
• Buyer can influence the roadmap (or even features "customized" to the buyer's unique needs)
• Unique technology differentiators that established companies don't have

Whatever your differentiators, be clear on them and make sure that they are real. Being a "me too" player that doesn't bring anything new to the market does not set up the sales person for success. ​