How to split a city fairly between your sales reps

A fair split gives every rep about the same number of accounts, keeps each rep's accounts close together so nobody spends the day driving, and draws lines the reps can understand. Start from the real list of businesses rather than from district names, share the list into compact groups of equal size, then plan each rep's day inside their own group.

This guide is for sales managers with field reps or merchandisers who visit businesses: distributors, medical reps, equipment suppliers, merchant acquirers. It explains why splitting by district rarely works, how the Split by territory block shares a list, when equal counts are not equal work, and how to go from territories to each rep's route.

Why districts and postcodes make poor territories

Districts were drawn for elections and post, not for your customers. In most cities the business density changes enormously from the centre to the edge, so a split by district gives one rep a few dense streets packed with prospects and another a wide suburb where the next shop is a twenty-minute drive away. Both reps are told they have one district each; only one of them can hit the target.

Here is a made-up illustration. A stationery distributor in Manila gives four reps one district each. The rep with the business district can walk between forty offices a day; the rep with the outer district manages ten by van. A month later the first looks like a star and the second like a problem, and neither result says anything about how good they are.

How Split by territory shares a list

The Split by territory block takes the items that reach it, such as the businesses a flow found, and shares them out by where they are. You choose either a number of reps, from 2 to 12, named Rep 1, Rep 2 and so on, or the people themselves, up to 20, by name or email.

• Each territory is compact: businesses close together end up with the same rep.
• Each territory holds at most its fair share. With 25 businesses and 3 reps, nobody gets more than 9.
• Every business gets three new fields: owner (the rep), territory (named by its direction from the middle, such as North or South-east) and territory_size.
• Businesses without a position go to the rep with the fewest, under the territory name No position, so nothing is silently dropped.
• It is worked out inside the flow, from this run's items.

Equal counts are not always equal work

The block balances the number of businesses. That is the right start, but two other things decide how fair a territory really is.

Big accounts and small ones

If one territory happens to hold the three hospitals and another holds thirty kiosks, equal counts hide very unequal work. Separate the two kinds before splitting. A Branch block can send chain branches or high-scoring accounts one way and the rest another, each into its own Split by territory, so every rep gets a fair share of both.

Only the accounts worth visiting

Splitting every business in the city spreads effort over places that will never buy. Score first, with xMap LLM, then Filter to keep the ones worth a visit, then split. The territories then share out real opportunity rather than raw addresses.

A flow from businesses to territories

1. Schedule: every quarter, or every month while you are trying it out.
2. Area of interest: the city.
3. Nearby places: the kinds of business you sell to.
4. xMap LLM and Filter: keep the ones worth visiting.
5. Split by territory: the reps by name or email.
6. Show on a map, coloured by territory, and an email to the team.

The map is what makes it stick. Reps argue less about lines they can see, and the manager can spot at once a territory that crosses a river or a motorway nobody wants to cross.

Fresh splits and fixed patches

Because the block works from the items of each run, a new run can move a few borders as businesses open and close. That keeps the split fair as the city changes, and it is ideal while new businesses arrive every week. It is not what you want once reps have built relationships in their patch. When territories should stay put, keep each rep's area in a table in My data and use Match with my table in your daily flows, so each new business lands with the rep whose patch it is in. Many teams use both: a quarterly split to review the borders, and fixed patches day to day.

From territory to the day's route

A territory is a list; a rep needs a day. The Route planner block reads the owner field that Split by territory adds and, set to One route for each rep, puts each rep's stops in the best order from a start point you pick, by car, on foot or by bike, with up to 50 stops in a route. Each stop gets its place in the order, the distance and time from the stop before, and a link that opens the route for directions.

To send each rep only their own list, add one Filter per rep on the owner field and an Email to that rep after each, or post every territory to a team channel in Slack. Each rep then starts the day with their stops, in order, without anyone copying rows between spreadsheets.

Mistakes in splitting a city

• Splitting every business in the city. Filter to the ones worth visiting first.
• Ignoring account size. Split large and small accounts separately.
• Re-splitting every week once patches are agreed. Fix them in a table instead.
• No map. A list of names and owners invites disputes; a coloured map settles them.
• Forgetting businesses without a position. Check the No position group and fix their addresses.