Rethinking Territories: From Reorganization to Continuous Optimization

Charles Darwin explained it's not necessarily the strongest or most intelligent that survive, but rather those best adapt to their environment, in regards to the evolution of species. There’s a clear analogy between this and Business Territorial (Re)Organization. This article explains why most companies tend to neglect the real business value of a sound adaptation of their territories (their ‘body’) to their dynamic environment, and how this crucial business function can be optimized.

Over the years at Mapidea and before, me and my colleagueshad the privilege of supporting territorial reorganization exercises across many industries - retail, pharma, telecommunications, utilities, and more. But if there’s one area where the stakes are highest, it’s sales territories. 

Sales territories are the front lines of business performance: the framework that determines coverage, workload balance, customer relationships, and revenue potential. I’ve seen reorganizations make or break sales teams, disrupt years of client trust, and - when done right - unlock growth faster than any new product launch. 

And yet, the way most organizations handle sales territory reorganization is not only outdated, but unnecessarily painful. 

The Old Ritual 

Every so often - typically every two or three years - many companies embark on a grand exercise: the Territorial Reorganization. 

The script rarely changes. 

An external consulting firm is brought in. They set up camp inside the organization for weeks or months. Project plans and Gantt charts sprout like weeds. Countless meetings are held behind closed doors. PowerPoint decks multiply. And somewhere - hidden from most eyes - a “future” version of the company’s territory map emerges. 

And the price tag? 

I’ve seen projects where the cost of the reorganization was comparable to the annual revenue of one of the territories being reorganized. Add the lost productivity from internal teams being diverted from their day jobs, plus the weeks or months of uncertainty for field teams, and the true cost balloons. 

The human cost is just as high: sales teams anxious about losing key accounts, service teams worried about new routes, managers fearing they’ll inherit underperforming areas. And for what? 

Often, for a static, one-off “new map” that begins ageing the moment it’s implemented.

When Fear Dictates the Method 

I’ve witnessed situations where organizations didn’t even consider trying a different approach, no matter how logical it seemed - because “this is too risky to do in-house.” The fear was palpable: What if something goes wrong? 

In some cases, the fear was so entrenched that the only acceptable route was to hire the biggest, most expensive consultancy they could find. The assumption was that complexity equals safety. 

But here’s the thing: complexity doesn’t guarantee quality. I’ve seen territory reorganizations where the models looked perfect on paper… and failed in practice because no one in the field had been consulted during the design phase. 

The Real Problem with the Old Model 

The traditional approach is episodic. Every few years, you stop the train, take it apart, reassemble it, and then send it off again, hoping it will run better until the next scheduled overhaul. 

But business doesn’t change in big-bang moments. It evolves daily: 

• Competitors shift tactics 

• Customers relocate 

• Markets grow, shrink, or fragment  

• Teams change size and skills 

• Logistics and accessibility evolve 

Static territorial models are outdated the moment they’re signed off. 

The Shift: Continuous Territorial Performance Optimization (CTPO) 

Instead of a massive, resource-heavy project every few years, Continuous Territorial Performance Optimization treats territories like a living system - constantly monitored, adjusted, and improved. 

CTPO is not about chaos. It’s about controlled agility. 

It means: 

• Iterative, not episodic: small, regular adjustments instead of once-in-a-decade overhauls. 

• Interactive and human-driven: algorithms assist, but business users are directly involved, building and assessing scenarios themselves. The machine helps the human, does not tell him what to do blindly.

• Collaborative scenario testing: decision-makers, analysts, and field teams sit together, testing options on live maps, adjusting parameters, and seeing immediate impacts. 

• Geographically intelligent: Excel alone won’t show you that a river, a mountain range, or a traffic bottleneck can make or break a territory. The business happens in the territory, no in lines and columns in a spreadsheet.

• Data-rich: combining internal KPIs with external market data (IQVIA, NielsenIQ / GfK data, Census, purchasing power indices) for a truly multidimensional view. 

The Engine Behind ‘Continuous’ 

The “continuous” in CTPO isn’t just about making changes more often—it’s about the ability to continuously monitor the performance of your territorial organization geographically and promote its informed optimisation in smaller time units than every 2 or 3 years.

This means: 

• Seeing sales, services, deliveries, or any essential KPIs mapped against the territories in the right time, in the right format. 

• Assessing the impact of territorial changes on the business - both positive and negative - without waiting months for reports.

• Creating and assessing territorial scenarios in a easy and flexible way, using timely data and in a collaborative way.

• Identifying trends early, so small adjustments can be made before problems grow or opportunities fade into the hands of competitors.

To make this possible, organizations need a Geospatial Intelligence system fully integrated with their business systems and data repositories—continuously available to business users, and, very important, easy to use. 

When decision-makers can log in, see the latest performance data on a map, and explore “what-if” scenarios instantly, CTPO stops being theory and becomes daily practice. 

Beyond Sales 

While sales territories are often the main battleground, the same principles apply to: 

• Pharmaceutical Field and Commercial Teams 

• Customer Service Coverage 

• External Service Providers 

• Distribution and Logistics Planning 

• And many others (in the end almost everything in a business is geographical)

A Better Process

Here’s what a modern territorial optimization process looks like: 

• Define clear objectives: know what you’re trying to improve (coverage, balance, cost reduction, growth potential), but allow flexibility as you explore scenarios. 

• Bring business users into the driver’s seat: let sales managers, operations leaders, field reps (and maybe external experts also) interact directly with the data. 

• Build and test multiple scenarios quickly: in hours or days, not weeks. Adjust parameters on the fly, see the changes instantly on a map, and get feedback from the people who know the territory best. 

• Blend internal and external data: KPIs, revenue, workload, plus market data, demographics, competitive intelligence or any other dataset that can bring better insights into the process

• Consider the visible and invisible geography: besides linear distance, also factor in drivetimes and walktimes, accessibility, transportation and physical barriers.

• Monitor continuously: with a geospatial intelligence system, track results in real time, measure the impact of changes, monitor performance and market opportunities continuously, and adjust territories again whenever needed based on iterative territorial scenarios.

The Bottom Line 

Territories are not static lines on a map. They are living frameworks that should evolve as fast as your market does. 

The next time you hear “we’ll reorganize territories in two years,” ask yourself: Can we afford to wait that long? And can we afford the cost of doing it the old way? 

Because the real cost of territorial reorganization isn’t just the consulting bill—it’s the opportunities you miss while waiting for the next big “event.”