Each morning I peruse the sales employment ads to see who is hiring and what ads they are placing. I came across a local company I have never heard of and was impressed by a bullet point in their ad:
Accountable for achieving sales goals within an assigned territory which has key accounts.
The emphasis was theirs. This approach may seem trivial, but it is important in putting the right bait out their to find the right salesperson.
Companies often have glorified visions of a single salesperson with minimal marketing help being able to take a zero revenue territory and grow it into a highly profitable territory. This can happen – I’ve personally done it. But I had much help from the marketing department and a strong brand to sell.
Yet finding a salesperson to grow the dormant territory usually takes much money and a long time frame. If you have existing accounts in a territory, do not be afraid to give them to the new salesperson once they are ramped up to full speed. Give them the rewards of the commission for those accounts even though they inherited them. A taste of that sugar will keep them motivated. The commission structure also teaches them to earn as opposed to receiving a handout in the form of a guaranteed commission for a set time period (unless you have no existing accounts in the territory in which to earn commission).
One other point, if your commission plan pays the same rate for a dollar of existing customer business vs. a dollar of new customer business, you need to revisit your commission plan.