A territory is a named group of customers — grouped by region, industry, or any rule you pick — that one rep or team owns. How to group your accounts (companies you sell to), leads (potential new customers), and reps (salespeople on your team) into territories, so two reps never chase the same customer and nothing gets missed.
⏱ ~7 min to complete80 pts available🏅 Badge: Territory Strategist
"Two reps called the same account this week because nobody could point to a single place that says who owns the West region. I need that written down once, not argued about every time."
Without clear boundaries, this happens all the time. Two reps chase the same account. Some regions have no owner at all. Every new hire has to learn the rules by word of mouth, instead of checking one place.
What this means for you
One shared answer to "who covers what" — by region, industry, or any rule you choose. Sales ops (the team that manages how sales is run) and reps can both check the same place instead of guessing.
Let's look at what makes up a territory. Every Territory has a Name (like "West Region") and an optional Description. It can also have a Parent Territory — a bigger territory it sits inside, like "West Coast" inside "North America." This lets you nest territories, the same way a folder can sit inside another folder. Each territory also has a list of Assigned Reps (the salespeople who own it) and, if you want, Assignment Criteria (rules that decide which records belong here).
Assignment CriteriaThese are simple if-this-then-that rules, like "country equals USA" or "industry contains Healthcare." You can require every condition to match ("All conditions / AND"), or just one of them ("Any condition / OR").
What criteria are forCriteria give your team one written answer for which records belong in this territory. Sales ops uses that answer when deciding who owns an account, lead, or opportunity (a potential sale you're working on).
Assigned RepsJust check off which reps belong to this territory, right from your list of users. No separate spreadsheet to keep updated.
Territories can nest
Think of it like nesting boxes. A big region like "North America" can contain smaller territories like "West" and "East" inside it. That way you can zoom out to a company-wide view, or zoom in to one rep's own patch of customers.
Create the territoryGo to Territory Management (the screen where territories live) and click "New Territory." Name it "West Region." If you like, pick a Parent Territory like "North America" to nest it underneath.
Add matching criteriaAdd a rule: field "country", operator "equals", value "USA." Then choose whether every condition must match ("AND") or just one is enough ("OR").
Assign reps and saveIn Assigned Reps, check the box next to each rep who covers this territory. Then click Save.