How smart territory planning can drive higher medtech sales

Success in medtech sales doesn't happen by accident. While strong product knowledge and relationship building are crucial, achieving consistent sales results requires a strategic roadmap. This is where territory planning comes in. By taking the time to map out your approach to a specific territory, you can focus on high-potential areas and accounts, make the best use of resources, and ultimately achieve your sales goals faster. Here’s a rundown of what it involves. For a deeper dive into these concepts, download our comprehensive guide to medtech sales.

What is territory management?

Territory management is the process of dividing sales regions or territories and effectively managing them to achieve sales goals. It involves allocating resources, assigning sales reps or teams to specific territories, and implementing strategies to improve sales performance within each designated area. The goal of territory management is to ultimately drive revenue growth. Key components typically include territory planning, resource allocation, performance monitoring, and adaptation to market dynamics. Among these, territory planning stands as the foundation for success.

The importance of territory planning in medical device sales

Within territory management, territory planning takes on a particularly crucial role in medical device sales. Territory planning involves strategically managing sales regions to get the most out of market opportunities. It ensures that resources are used efficiently, customers are well-served, and sales opportunities are maximized. It is crucial for several reasons:

• Equitable distribution of resources: Effective territory alignment ensures a balanced allocation of resources across the sales team. This prevents market oversaturation in some areas and underrepresentation in others and ensures efforts are directed where they are most likely to yield results.
• Minimizes redundancies: Proper territory alignment can limit gaps in coverage and overlaps in sales efforts, where multiple reps might inadvertently target the same healthcare providers or organizations. This prevents customer confusion and the dilution of brand messaging.
• Enhances customer relationships: With clear territory assignments, sales reps can build stronger, more personal relationships with customers. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction, which is essential for long-term success.
• Improves sales efficiency: Proper territory planning helps reduce travel time and costs for sales reps, allowing them to spend more time with customers and less time on the road.
• Increases accountability: With clearly defined territories, sales reps have specific targets and areas of responsibility. This increases accountability and helps in setting clear performance metrics and goals.
• Adapts to market changes: Effective territory planning is flexible and can adapt to market changes. As new opportunities arise or market conditions shift, territories can be adjusted to ensure continued alignment with business goals.
• Boosts sales performance: Ultimately, well-planned territories lead to better sales performance by ensuring that each sales rep is focused on the right opportunities. Aligning sales goals with market realities and resource availability within each territory also helps set realistic sales targets, empowering sales teams.

Key healthcare data and intelligence for territory planning

Effective territory planning in the medical device industry hinges on a data-driven approach. This empowers you to move beyond guesswork and tailor your medtech sales strategies to real opportunities, not intuition. Here's a breakdown of the key data crucial for successful territory planning:

• Market landscape: Start with a deep dive into market size and growth trends within each territory. This includes understanding the overall healthcare market value and the prevalence of specific health conditions your technology addresses.
• Healthcare provider insights: In-depth information on healthcare providers and organizations is also vital. Identify hospitals, clinics, and specialties within each territory. Look at the volume of relevant procedures performed that could benefit from your technology.
• Competitive landscape: Gain a comprehensive understanding of your competitors' market shares, product offerings, and sales strategies within each territory.
• Technology adoption rates: Understand the market’s openness to new and innovative solutions using technology installation data. This helps you gauge market receptivity to your medical devices.
• Geospatial data: Beyond demographics and firmographics, incorporating geospatial data is key for mapping out territories. Visual mapping tools help aid fair and strategic distribution of sales efforts across your team.

What should be included in a territory plan?

In addition to data, a comprehensive territory plan typically includes the following elements. Including these elements in a territory plan helps sales teams better manage their territories, improve sales performance, and grow in their target markets.

• Territory definition: Clearly define the geographic boundaries and segments of the territory. This includes identifying key markets, customer types, and potential growth areas.
• Sales objectives: Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) sales objectives for the territory that align with overall company goals and sales targets.
• Sales tactics and activities: Outline specific tactics and activities that sales representatives will undertake to achieve sales objectives. This could include cold calling, client visits, demos, negotiations, and follow-up activities.
• Performance metrics: Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of sales efforts in the territory. KPIs may include sales volume, market share, customer acquisition rates, customer satisfaction scores, and revenue growth.
• Timeline and milestones: Establish a timeline with specific milestones and checkpoints to track progress towards goals. This helps in monitoring performance, adjusting as necessary, and ensuring accountability.
• Training and development: Identify any training needs for sales teams to enhance skills and knowledge related to the territory's market, product, and sales techniques.
• Feedback and review mechanism: Implement a mechanism for gathering feedback from sales teams, customers, and stakeholders. Regularly review and evaluate the territory plan's effectiveness, adjusting based on feedback and market changes.
• Contingency plans: Develop contingency plans to address potential challenges or unforeseen circumstances that may impact the execution of the territory plan.

Effective medtech territory planning is not just about organizing sales operations—it is a strategic imperative for medtech companies. By harnessing the power of data-driven insights, companies can align resources strategically and forge deeper customer relationships. This translates to optimized sales efforts that can drive growth and a clear competitive edge. It's about putting the right people, with the right tools, in the right places to make a real difference for patients and the healthcare system.

Learn more

For a more comprehensive look into territory planning for medical devices, download our e-book. Want to put these insights into action even faster? Book a demo of our newest medtech solution Carevoyance and gain access to the intelligence you need to streamline your medical device sales process and increase your impact.