The RevOps Territory Planning Checklist: A Quarterly Review Framework

Territory planning is a cadence, not an event

Most companies design territories once a year, usually in Q4 during annual planning, and then don't touch them for 12 months. Markets shift, reps leave, accounts churn, and the territory plan that looked balanced in December is lopsided by March.

The best revenue operations teams treat territory planning as a quarterly cadence. Not a full redesign every quarter — that would be disruptive — but a structured review that catches drift, identifies imbalances, and makes targeted adjustments before small problems become revenue problems.

This checklist is the framework for that quarterly review. Use it alongside your territory design methodology and capacity planning model to keep territories optimized as conditions change.

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Pre-review: data preparation (Week 1)

Before the review meeting, pull and prepare this data. Having it ready is the difference between a productive review and an opinion-driven argument.

Performance data

• Revenue by territory (current quarter vs. prior quarter vs. same quarter last year)
• Quota attainment by territory (actual vs. quota, expressed as percentage)
• Pipeline by territory (value, stage distribution, velocity)
• Win rate by territory
• Average deal size by territory
• Activity metrics by territory (meetings, calls, demos, site visits)

Balance data

• Workload index by territory (recalculated with current account data)
• Account count by territory (total, active customers, prospects)
• Revenue potential by territory (updated TAM estimate)
• Territory potential vs. quota ratio (is each territory's quota achievable relative to its potential?)

Operational data

• Unmatched or misrouted leads from the quarter (leads that didn't match any territory rule)
• Account ownership disputes logged during the quarter
• Rep tenure by territory (new hires still ramping vs. experienced reps)
• Territory changes made during the quarter (ad hoc adjustments, account transfers)
• Reps who left or joined during the quarter

Market data

• New accounts added to CRM by territory
• Churned accounts by territory
• Competitive wins and losses by territory
• Changes in market conditions (new competitor entry, industry regulation changes, economic shifts)

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The quarterly review checklist

1. Territory performance variance

Question: How wide is the performance spread across territories?

What to check:

• Calculate standard deviation of quota attainment across all territories
• Identify territories below 70% attainment and above 130% attainment
• Determine whether variance is widening or narrowing compared to prior quarter

What it tells you:

• Widening variance = territories are becoming more imbalanced
• Narrowing variance = your territory design is working
• Consistently low territories = potential territory design problem (not just a rep problem)
• Consistently high territories = quota may be too low relative to potential

Action triggers:

• If variance exceeds +/- 25% from median, flag for rebalancing
• If a territory has been below 70% attainment for two consecutive quarters, investigate territory design vs. rep performance
• If a territory consistently over-attains, review quota-to-potential ratio

2. Workload balance

Question: Are territories balanced by effort, not just account count?

What to check:

• Recalculate workload index for each territory with updated account data
• Compare current workload distribution to the target tolerance band (+/- 15-20% from average)
• Identify territories that have drifted outside the band

What it tells you:

• Account additions (new customers, new prospects) can silently overload a territory
• Account churn can hollow out a territory's workload
• Rep departures redistribute workload unevenly

Action triggers:

• Territories >20% above average workload: evaluate splitting or redistributing accounts
• Territories >20% below average workload: absorb accounts from overloaded adjacent territories
• If multiple territories have drifted outside the band, schedule a mid-cycle rebalance

3. Coverage and whitespace

Question: Are reps covering their territories effectively?

What to check:

• Customer coverage ratio: of total addressable accounts in each territory, what % has the rep engaged?
• Whitespace analysis: how many ICP-matching accounts in each territory have zero engagement?
• Geographic coverage: for field territories, are there areas within the territory the rep hasn't visited?

What it tells you:

• Low coverage + high workload = territory is too large for one rep
• Low coverage + low workload = rep may not be prospecting effectively (performance issue, not territory issue)
• Concentrated whitespace in specific territory regions = potential for territory boundary adjustment

Action triggers:

• Coverage below 40% in any territory → investigate whether it's a territory size or rep performance issue
• Whitespace concentrated near another territory's boundary → consider boundary adjustment
• Systematic low coverage across many territories → may need more reps (capacity planning review)

4. Routing accuracy

Question: Are leads getting to the right territory rep?

What to check:

• Volume of leads that didn't match any territory rule (unmatched leads)
• Volume of leads that were manually reassigned after initial routing
• Account ownership disputes logged during the quarter
• Time to route: average time from lead creation to territory assignment

What it tells you:

• High unmatched rate = territory rules have gaps (new market segments, new geographies, edge cases not covered)
• High reassignment rate = territory rules are wrong or data quality is poor
• Ownership disputes = overlapping territory definitions or unclear priority rules

Action triggers:

• Unmatched rate above 5% → update territory routing rules
• Reassignment rate above 10% → investigate root cause (data quality vs. rule logic)
• Recurring disputes between same territories → clarify boundary definitions

5. Headcount and transitions

Question: Has the team composition changed in ways that affect territory design?

What to check:

• Reps who left during the quarter: how were their territories handled?
• New reps who joined: are their territories properly sized for ramp?
• Reps who are underperforming: is it a territory issue or a coaching issue?
• Upcoming departures or hiring plans for next quarter

What it tells you:

• Vacant territories create coverage gaps that adjacent reps informally absorb (creating overload)
• New reps on inherited territories may have different capacity than the prior rep
• Systematic underperformance in specific territories (across multiple reps over time) signals territory design issues

Action triggers:

• Any vacant territory → assign interim coverage and plan redistribution within 2 weeks
• New rep ramping → ensure territory workload aligns with ramp capacity (reduce workload during ramp)
• Territory has churned 2+ reps in 12 months → investigate territory viability

6. Market and competitive changes

Question: Has anything changed in the market that should affect territory design?

What to check:

• New competitors entering specific markets or verticals
• Competitor exits creating market opportunity
• Industry regulation changes affecting specific territories
• Economic conditions affecting territory-specific industries
• Product launches or changes that affect territory relevance

What it tells you:

• Market changes can shift territory potential up or down
• Competitive changes may require reweighting territory potential and adjusting quotas
• New product launches may require new territory dimensions (product-based territories)

Action triggers:

• Significant market shift → recalculate territory potential and validate quota alignment
• New product launch → evaluate whether existing territory model supports the new GTM motion
• Competitor exit → flag territories with increased opportunity for proactive investment

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Post-review: action planning

After the review, document decisions in three categories:

Immediate adjustments (implement this week)

• Routing rule updates to fix misroutes
• Account transfers to rebalance overloaded territories
• Interim coverage assignments for vacant territories
• Data cleanup to improve routing accuracy

Planned changes (implement next quarter)

• Territory boundary adjustments
• Quota adjustments based on updated potential
• New territory creation (tied to hiring plan)
• Territory model changes (geographic → hybrid, etc.)

Strategic recommendations (for annual planning)

• Headcount changes based on capacity analysis
• Territory model redesign recommendations
• Comp plan adjustments needed to align with territory changes
• Technology investments (routing tools, mapping software, territory design platforms)

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Review cadence and participants

Timing: Schedule the review in the third week of the final month of each quarter. This gives you enough current-quarter data to analyze while leaving time to implement changes before the new quarter starts.

Duration: 90 minutes for the review. 30 minutes for action planning. If your review consistently runs longer, you're either not preparing data in advance or you're trying to solve too many problems in one session.

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The bottom line

Territory planning is a discipline, not a project. The companies that optimize territories quarterly outperform those that set-and-forget by a measurable margin. Research shows a 30% gap in objective attainment between effective and ineffective territory planners.

This checklist turns territory review from an ad hoc exercise into a repeatable cadence. Use it quarterly. Update it as your business evolves. And treat every review as an opportunity to find revenue that's hiding in territory imbalance.

At RevenueTools, we're building tools that make this quarterly review effortless: automated workload calculation, territory performance dashboards, and rebalancing recommendations built into the workflow. See what launches March 10th.