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Maintaining Company Standards Over a Large Territory

Consumers want to buy from a brand they can trust; here’s how to earn it.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed as a business expands over more territory, but focusing on the desired company standards will help to stay on the right path.

Company standards are born from its values; putting standards into practice will ensure that the company’s mission and morals are being upheld.

As a business expands, staying on top of a standard is important for customer retention, because customers are going to be looking for familiarity.

According to a 2022 study published by Salsify, 46% of consumers buy a product because they trust the brand. Upholding what customers know and want is a key part of that.

We’ll discuss how company standards can be upheld across business territories, but first, let’s talk about why and how territories are established.

Territory Management

Territory management describes the process of organizing a business into separate divisions.

Doing it well makes a big difference. When done right, it can maximize a business’s efficiency.

Territories can be divided in several ways, but it’s most often by one of the following: geographic location, sales, or the needs or type of client being served.

Location-based is the most commonly used method, as it works well for businesses that offer one type of service and generally see the same level of sales across the board. Dividing by geographic location is helpful as a brand expands across the map and it becomes more difficult to manage from a single location.

Dividing by sales is sometimes preferred to ensure that all clients are receiving equal attention.

Dividing by the needs of the clients being served allows for each territory to better specialize in the service that they’re providing.

When creating territories, it’s best to choose a method that will avoid outliers so that the division can be run most efficiently.

If done wrong, though, it can lead to more harm than good. For example, dividing into too many territories without ensuring that there are adequate resources to do so can place a strain on the staff.

It’s important to establish goals for each territory. One group won’t necessarily make the same number of sales or bring in the same revenue as another; setting appropriate goals for individual territories encourages improvement and success.

Applying Company Standards Across Territories

While separate divisions can allow for a business to run more smoothly, they still need to be unified.

When customers travel across the country, they’re going to choose a hotel name that they recognize and trust because they know what to expect.

It’s common logic in the mind of the consumer. But for the manager, it means that keeping up the company’s appearance is vital, even when that means following the same procedures as a site that’s a thousand miles away.

Company standards need to be handed all the way down through the chain of command. Managers need to be supplied with the tools to keep their department in check. Entry level employees need to be trained in the company’s mission.

A simple yet effective example of how to ensure that the same standards are being followed across the board is with checklists that everyone in each territory can go through. For a more specific example, consider a cleaning checklist that provides clear standards for maintaining a hygienic appearance.

What Middle Managers Can Do

When overseeing the entirety of a large company, it can be difficult to keep track of small but pertinent details pertaining to the individual business locations. That’s why middle managers are crucial to the operation.

Middle managers are responsible for passing along the company’s values to their employees.

They can also look at what their neighboring locations are doing to be successful and learn from that. Managers can learn from each others’ experiences and apply them to their own department.

Everyone in the company has a role in carrying out its mission.

While dividing into territories is an important step for an expanding business, it’s vital that the company not lose sight of the values that it’s rooted in.

When customers have a good experience at one location within a company, they’ll patronize another location with the hope and expectation of replicating that good experience. Delivering on that will build brand loyalty and keep business growing and not busting.