Routing - Territory Management Overview

Contents:

• Overview
• Definitions
• Setting Up Territory Management
• Creating Your Territory Segment
• Creating Your CSV File
• Exporting Territories
• Incorporating Your Territories in FlowBuilder
• Using the Territory Action Node
• Additional Options in the Territory Node
• Maintaining Your Territories
• FAQs
• Best Practices

Overview

Companies typically manage a complex sales team by organizing them in territories that are mapped to an individual salesperson or a team. Sales territories can be defined based on parameters such as Country, State, City, Postal Code or a combination of these factors. LeanData brings you the easiest way to ensure that your Leads, Contacts, Accounts, and Opportunities are automatically routed based on these territory definitions.

While the LeanData Flow Builder interface allows you to set up your Territory based routing using the standard node-and-branch logic, LeanData Territory Management allows you to leverage existing Territory spreadsheets to define your Territory assignments, then reference them within your Flow Builder interface. This can greatly consolidate your Routing flow into a smaller number of nodes.

Note: LeanData's Territory Management feature is not related to Salesforce Enterprise Territory Management. You can use either feature or both at your own discretion.

Definitions

Territory 

• A set of geographic criteria assigned to a single Rep or Round Robin Pool. 

Territory Segment

• A grouping of Territories that you can define (i.e. Mid Market).

Setting Up Territory Management

Creating Your Territory Segment

You will first need to create a Territory Segment by going to Routing → Territory Management → Create Segment.

You can create as many segments as you wish if you have different Territory breakdowns depending on some Segment criteria (i.e. Annual Revenue, Number of Employees, Industry, etc). Many companies only need to utilize one Territory Segment.

Creating Your CSV File

You will need to upload a CSV file defining your Territories in that segment. You can download a template to use under Routing → Territory Management → CSV Upload Instructions. Each Territory Segment should be a separate CSV.

On the popup page, you can click Download sample CSV for a template using the expected format.

In your CSV, each row will describe a set of Country, State, City, Postal Code values and which Territory it belongs to. You will also have to specify either a User ID or the Name of a Round Robin Pool to determine how to assign records that fit the criteria in that row.

Multiple rows with different criteria can be part of the same Territory, but each Territory should be associated with only one Owner or Round Robin Pool. If more than one User is responsible for a single Territory, consider splitting it into two Territories (with some distinguishing criteria), or use a Round Robin Pool containing those users.

You do not have to fill out every column, but you will at least need to fill out Country or Custom Field. If you use custom Country, State, City, or Postal Code fields, don’t worry about mapping them here. You can map to your custom fields within the Flow Builder configuration later.

Please Note: When creating names for your territories, please use the following guidelines:

• No spaces in a Territory Name with hyphens
• No ampersands &
• Avoid special characters such as ! @ # $ %

LeanData will automatically accommodate common variations in Country or State names. For example, you will not need to add a row for both “California, United States” and also “CA, USA”. These will be flagged as duplicates.

Please Note: LeanData currently supports state/province variations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. 

Currently, LeanData also allows you to look at one additional field beyond the Country, State, City, and Postal Code fields. This is the Custom Field column. You can use this to specify an Industry, a Lead Source, a Lead Tier, a Title or any other field you would like. You will get the chance to map this column later in the Flow Builder interface.

Once you have completed your CSV, click on the Actions dropdown for the Segment you are creating and Upload your CSV. LeanData will validate the CSV and alert if there are any errors or missing information in your CSV.

Because territory segments can take a few minutes to upload, LeanData will display a status on the progress of the upload so that you do not accidentally upload the same file multiple times.

Exporting Territories

On the Territory page you have the ability to export your territories. Typically LeanData customers will develop and test their territories in a sandbox or development environment but deploy them in their production environment. On the Territory page you can export 1 or more territories.

Select the desired territories by clicking the box to the left of the Territory Name. You can select all the Territories on the page by clicking the box to the left of Segment Name. Once you have selected the Territories to export, Click Export.

After exporting your Territory Segments, you can upload them in the same manner as you would upload a new Territory Segment CSV.

Incorporating Your Territories in FlowBuilder

Once you have created your Territory Segment, you will need to reference it in a Territory Action Node in your LeanData FlowBuilder configuration.

Using the Territory Action Node

Open the LeanData Flow Builder configuration where you intend to utilize your Territory Assignments. We recommend creating a copy of the intended configuration and working in the copy.

In the Node Bar in the upper right hand corner of your graph, hover over Action, then Route,  then drag in a Territory Segment node.

Open the Route to Territory node, and select the Territory Segment you’d like to utilize in the dropdown. Once you select the Territory Segment, you will see options to map the columns from your CSV to the corresponding fields you would like LeanData to look at. By default, we will pre-select the standard address fields.

Please Note: You will not be able to use Territory Segments that reference Round Robin Pools for a different object. 

Connect your Territory node at the point in your configuration where you would like the assignment to happen. Any time a record enters this node, LeanData will reference your Territory Segment and assign the record to the Owner or via the Round Robin Pool specified in your CSV for that Segment.

Re-open your Territory Node and click Advanced Settings near the bottom to configure any next actions you may wish to take, and also to account for any fallback scenarios. 

• Record Already Assigned to Active Pool Member: By default, LeanData reassigns the records entering the Round Robin to available Pool Members. To retain ownership of an incoming record already owned by a Pool Member, change the edge target from <Disabled> to a destination. 
• Capping Conditions Unmet: Use this edge to configure the next action when capping conditions have not been met for members in the Round Robin pool. 
• Territory Not Assigned: Use this edge to dictate the next node you would want LeanData to reference if a record does not meet the criteria for any of the Territories in your CSV. If you don’t want LeanData to take any further action, select “End of Flow”
• Invalid/Inactive User: Use this edge to let us know the next node to look at if the User we attempt to assign to is inactive or invalid.
• Out of User Schedule: This edge will only appear if you enabled the Respect User Schedule Option in the node. This will determine the next steps if the intended user is not available due to their schedule at the time of assignment.
• Invalid Group: Use this edge to let us know the next node in case the Round Robin Pool we attempt to assign to is no longer available.
• No Round Robin Members Available: Use this edge to configure the next node in case none of the members of the Round Robin Pool are available (inactive, on vacation, reached their cap, etc).
• Record Already Assigned to Owner: Use this edge if you would like LeanData to do something different if the Record is already owned by the intended user. This option is disabled by default.
• Variable not Found: This edge will determine what LeanData should do if the assignment references a variable that does not exist, whether it be from the routed record or matched or related record.
• Next Node: If you want to take any additional actions after the Territory assignment, you can connect it to the next node. Otherwise leave the Target as End of Flow.

Additional Options in the Territory Node

There are some additional actions you can take within the Territory Node.

1. Alternate Field Assignment - use this option if you would like to update a different User field on your record instead of the Owner.
2. Territory Field Tagging - Use this option if you want to stamp the name of your Territory on the record. Select the field you would like us to update. You may have to create a new field to receive this value. You can also elect to stamp the Territory name in addition to assigning the record, or only stamp the Territory name, without assigning the record to the User.
3. Email Notifications - Use this option if you would like to send an email notification in addition to any other actions you are taking in this node. Select the Email Template you would like to use. You can send either a success notification or a failure notification to the record owner or any other recipients you specify.

Maintaining Your Territories

LeanData gives you tools to be able to maintain your Territories moving forward. For example, if you need to search for reps across all Territory Segments or within a Territory Segment.  You can search for users from the Territory Management page. Enter the User name in the Search user box and the territory segments displayed will automatically filter for segments that include the desired user.

After organizational shifts, search for Reps and re-assign their Territories to other Reps efficiently.

If you are simply switching an existing Territory to another User, you easily do so by clicking into your Segment, then clicking on the Territory Assignments Tab, then selecting a new User for that Territory.

If switching all of one User’s Territories to a replacement User, you can quickly do so by clicking into your Segment, then clicking on the Owner Assignments Tab, and selecting a new User to take over all of that existing User’s Territories.

If you need to make a minor modification to a Territory, you can make one-off edits in the interface. Within a Territory Segment, click the Edit Segment button.

On the next page you can edit any of your Territories or add Territories. This interface is useful for making small quick edits.

However, if you are redefining more than one Territory, it may be better to Export the Territory Segment to a CSV, make your changes on your CSV file, and re-upload to Replace your Segment. On the main Territory Management page, hover your mouse over the Segment you wish to modify, click the Actions dropdown, and click “Export” to download a CSV file with the Territories in that Segment. After making your edits, you can select the “Replace” option to upload your modified CSV.

FAQs

Do I have to list out different variations of Country or State Names?

• No. LeanData will automatically account for different variations in Country or State/Province names.

Can one Territory have more than one Owner?

• No, each Territory can only have one listed owner. Depending on how you plan to distribute leads between these owners, you may want to set up a Round Robin Pool, and assign leads to the Pool, where they will be distributed according to your Round Robin settings. Otherwise, you should create separate territories for each user.

How do I handle ranges of Zip/Postal Codes?

• You can either include a separate row for each Postal Code, or you can use an asterisk as a wildcard. For example if you want to include all postal codes from 94000 to 94999, you can either list out 1000 different rows or use one row with a value of 94*

Is there a limit to how many territories I can create at once in Territory Management?

• Yes, we recommend not uploading more than 60,000 territories at a time to avoid timeouts or complications with the upload. However, if you’d like to upload more than 60,000 total, it is recommended to split the upload out into several smaller uploads.

Can I Use Round Robin features like Capping and Respecting Schedules in Territory Management.

• Yes, Round Robin features like Capping and Respecting Schedules, as well as all Round Robin fallback edges are available when using Territory management.

Best Practices

• You can always set up routing to your territories through the standard node-and-branch system in your LeanData Flow Builder interface without using Territory Management. Territory Management becomes useful if you need to consolidate your Territory branches and assignments into a smaller number of nodes, or manage your Territories in a spreadsheet format.
• You can use the Custom Field feature to incorporate another field into your territory criteria. (i.e. Lead Industry, Lead Tier, Lead Title, etc). This can help you to consolidate even more territories into one Territory Segment. Please note that if you use the Custom Field column, you will have to ensure that a value Custom Field is populated on all Territories in that segment.
• Don’t forget to set fallback conditions in your Territory Node. There may always be a situation where a record does not fit any of the Territory criteria in your Territory Segment, and you should account for those.
• If you are using Territory Management to Route for different Objects and referencing Round Robin Pools, please ensure you use a separate CSV for each object so that you can reference the correct Round Robin Pools for that object. (e.g. referencing Contact Round Robin Pools if using Territory Management in Contact Router) 
• If you’d like to evaluate a potential territory change, you can use a Scheduled Routing Job to tag the new territories onto a secondary custom territory field on all your records, without actually assigning the record. Once the secondary territory values are set, you can evaluate the difference between the values in this field and your primary territory field. This allows you to quickly test the validity of your new territory mappings, without having to wait until new records come in to evaluate the distribution.