Over 83% of organizations still rely on spreadsheets for territory design, but managing territories this way is an uphill battle. Territories constantly change as reps come and go, and restructuring becomes a hassle. However, sales territories are a crucial aspect of your sales strategy that cannot be overlooked. For successful sales growth, fair and efficient territory design is essential; otherwise, your bottom line suffers. 

Managing sales territories is undoubtedly challenging, but the real challenge lies in lead routing based on zip codes. While territory automation has proven to reduce planning time by 75%, bringing it down from weeks to days, many companies still rely on manual methods.

Are you still manually handling lead routing? It’s time to realize how it might be affecting your territory performance, overall sales, and your bottom line. In today’s blog, we’ll explore some common challenges companies face with zip code-based lead routing. But that’s not all! We’ll also discuss the benefits of automating. 

Challenges of Zip Code based Lead Routing

Operational Challenges in Configuring Zip Codes Frequently with Changing GTM Strategies

As organizations adapt their go-to-market strategies, territories often undergo frequent restructuring. Redistributing the territories and associated opportunities among sales reps every time is challenging, especially if it’s done manually. Manually updating and configuring all the zip codes across multiple systems is an extremely time-consuming process. This, in turn, delays the swift implementation of go-to-market motions, hampering overall efficiency.

Frequently Changing Sales Team’s Structure

With sales reps, regional managers, and other team members coming and going, reassigning territories accordingly becomes a recurring hassle. Studies even show that the annual sales rep turnover rate is around 35%, adding to the complexity.

Each time a sales force member leaves or joins, manual updates to zip codes and territory assignments are required, taking up valuable time and effort. These repetitive tasks can divert your team from more crucial activities, impacting overall productivity and efficiency.

Territory Overlaps and Sales Team Conflicts

Territories are naturally prone to overlapping and lack uniformity. This overlap often leads to conflicts between two or more sales teams, resulting in constant internal struggles. The frequent occurrences of these conflicts can take a toll on your team’s productivity, dampen team morale, and ultimately lead to reduced sales.

Moreover, constantly dealing with territorial disputes consumes valuable time and resources, diverting focus from revenue-generating activities. This waste of time not only hampers growth but also impacts overall efficiency and the ability to seize new opportunities.

Multi-tier Territory Management

Companies often go the extra mile to customize territories based on industry, company size, revenue potential, and more. However, even this primary segmentation can be challenging due to the complexities of zip codes.

Taking it further by delving into more detailed segmentation and management becomes an even bigger hassle. This laborious manual effort eats up valuable time, diverting focus from other crucial tasks.

Routing Leads to the Right Zip Codes

In today’s fast-paced demand generation landscape, reaching potential customers from various channels is crucial. However, capturing leads from multiple directions and manually routing them to the right zip codes can be an overwhelming challenge. The sheer volume and complexity make it nearly impossible to handle accurately.

Manual lead routing is prone to errors, leading to discrepancies in assigning leads to the correct territories. This, in turn, can result in poor customer experiences, which can have a detrimental impact on your brand reputation and sales performance.

Frequent territory changes due to evolving go-to-market strategies lead to time-consuming updates and delays in implementation. The revolving door of sales team members demands constant reassignment, diverting focus from critical tasks and reducing productivity.

Territorial overlaps often spark conflicts among sales teams, hindering collaboration and dampening team morale. Moreover, in-depth territory segmentation becomes burdensome, consuming valuable time and resources.

With PowerRouter, you can automate lead routing based on zip codes effortlessly. Just set it up once with a simple drag and drop interface, and let it handle the rest! No more time-consuming configurations or constant monitoring.