Territory Designer

What this does

Takes your account universe and cuts it into territories that are balanced on the thing that matters, usually potential, not just account count. It picks the segmentation axis, distributes accounts across reps, runs a fairness check so no rep is handed a dead patch, and writes the dispute and inbound rules up front so ownership is decided before the deal, not during it.

What you'll need

You do not need to connect anything to get value today. Bring your account list and the skill runs now. Connect the tools below and it balances on real potential instead of a headcount split.

• Works today with: a list of accounts with a size or potential signal (employees, revenue, tier), region or segment, and current owner if any. Paste it or upload a CSV.
• More powerful connected to a CRM: it reads owners, open pipeline, and won history so balance accounts for work already in flight.
• Sharper with an enrichment or firmographic source: it fills missing size and industry so the segmentation is not guesswork.
• Sharper with a data warehouse: it weights territories by modeled potential, not a single raw field.

How this runs at your connection level

This skill is never reliant on a connector. It runs on the list you give it today and gets more powerful as you connect tools. It never invents an account attribute it cannot see. A blank field is a prompt, not a guess.

• Bring your data: paste or upload your account list. The skill runs the full carve today on your real accounts. No connection required.
• Connect your tools: the same skill pulls owners, pipeline, and firmographics automatically, so balance reflects real work and real potential.
• Just exploring: no data yet? Get the framework, the exact fields it reads, and a worked example on sample accounts, so you can see the shape before you feed it.

Every run ends with the one input that would make the next carve sharper, a potential signal to add or a source to connect.

Customize this for yourself

This was built for a B2B SaaS org assigning named accounts to a field team. Set these to your stack:

Set this	What it is	Default / Example
AXIS	how you split territories	geography, segment, industry, named
POTENTIAL	the balance metric	employees, revenue band, fit score
BALANCE_ON	what you equalize	total potential, not account count
TOLERANCE	allowed spread across reps	within 10 to 15 percent of the mean
MAX_ACCOUNTS	book size ceiling per rep	40 to 80 by segment
INBOUND_RULE	how a new lead gets an owner	match on domain, then territory
DISPUTE_RULE	who wins a contested account	first meaningful activity wins
HOUSE	unassigned or held accounts	no-owner pool for round-robin

Run any segmentation you like. The skill balances and writes the rules, so point it at your axis, not anyone else's.

The method

The segmentation

Pick the axis that matches how you actually sell. Geography suits high-volume field motions. Named accounts suit enterprise. Industry suits a vertical play. State the axis, then hold it consistent, because a book that is half geo and half named is a book nobody can be measured on.

The account distribution

Assign accounts to reps against the axis, then sort by POTENTIAL so the strong and weak accounts are spread, not clumped. A territory that is all logos and no potential is a punishment. Keep each book under MAX_ACCOUNTS so coverage is real, not a name on a list.

The balance check across reps

Sum POTENTIAL per rep and compare to the mean. Flag any book outside TOLERANCE. Balance on potential, not on account count, because 60 strong accounts and 60 dead ones are not the same job. Show the spread so the split survives the room.

The rules for disputes and inbound

Write these before go-live. Inbound: a new lead routes by INBOUND_RULE, usually domain match to an owned account first, then territory. Disputes: name the tie-breaker, usually first meaningful activity, and the escalation path. Held and no-owner accounts go to a house pool with a claim rule. The point is that ownership is decided by policy, not by whoever shouts first.

Quality gates

• Balance is checked on potential, never on raw account count alone.
• Every rep book is shown against the mean with the spread named, not asserted "fair."
• Inbound and dispute rules are written and dated before assignments go live.
• No account is left with two owners or none, the overlap and orphan lists are shown.

Output (example)

TERRITORY DESIGN · 6 reps · illustrative
Rep        Accounts   Potential idx   vs mean   Flag
North      52         104             +4%       ok
South      48         98              -2%       ok
East       61         131             +31%      over, rebalance
West       39         71              -29%      thin, add accounts
Central    50         100             0%        ok
House      44         -               -         round-robin pool

Rules set:
  1. Inbound routes on domain match, then territory. No manual grabs.
  2. Contested account goes to first meaningful activity, RevOps breaks ties.
  3. East is 31% over the mean. Move ~8 accounts to West before launch.

Where the numbers come from

TOLERANCE (10 to 15 percent), MAX_ACCOUNTS (40 to 80), and the balance metric are defaults, not laws. They suited a mid-market field team. If your reps carry fewer, larger accounts, tighten the ceiling and widen the tolerance. The fairness logic does not change. The thresholds are yours.

Example chat

You: We're carving territories for next quarter. Here's the account list with employee counts and regions.

Claude: Carved it and ran the balance check.

Rep      Accounts  Potential idx  vs mean  Flag
North    52        104            +4%      ok
East     61        131            +31%     over, rebalance
West     39        71             -29%     thin, add accounts

East is 31% over the mean, that's not a headcount problem, it's a potential problem, moving accounts by count alone would have left East still overloaded. Key insight: balance has to run on potential, not account count, or a rep with 60 dead accounts looks equal to a rep with 60 strong ones. One sharpener: connect the CRM for open pipeline so the rebalance does not accidentally move a deal mid-cycle.

Go further

The carve is set. Here is where an operator takes it once the manual version proves out.

• Rebalance live instead of once a year. A scheduled Claude task recomputes potential-per-rep monthly against Salesforce and flags any book that has drifted outside tolerance.
• Route inbound without a human deciding. Wire the inbound rule (domain match, then territory) directly into your lead-routing tool so a new lead never sits waiting for someone to claim it.
• Settle disputes with a paper trail. Log first-meaningful-activity timestamps automatically in Salesforce, so the tie-breaker rule has real evidence behind it instead of two reps' word against each other.

The carve is fair on day one; the automation is what keeps it fair in month six.

Make it yours

Fork it. Change the axis, the balance metric, the rules. The point is not to run someone else's territory map. It is to carve yours, balanced on potential and settled before the disputes start. Built by an operator. Customize it, break it, make it better.