I read this line from an sales employment ad this morning:
Reps are NOT restricted by territory.
The unrestricted territory seems innocuous enough…maybe even valuable. It usually isn’t. As a salesperson, I would read this ad with some skepticism in that the company may be trying to add salespeople without a cogent management plan.
Back in my early years I took a job with a company that had no territories. There were approximately 15 salespeople in there serving the local market. What I learned is that the “old-timers” had effectively squatted on all of the accounts, whether they had an active relationship or not. Since there were no defined territories (geographic, market, size, etc.) and weak sales management (completely hands-off), I was left to scavenging like a meerkat to find any lead.
The aforementioned line from the ad may seem like a benefit, but I would suggest that most savvy sales candidates will drill down on that topic for absolute clarity.