Sales Coverage Redesign: 39% Market Growth, 67% IRR
An industry-leading sports apparel manufacturer and distributor with more than 1,000 reps was seeking double-digit organic growth after years of growing primarily through acquisition. SalesGlobe established new roles and team design around tiered segments, executed territory optimization across the full sales force, and aligned incentive compensation to the new strategy. Growth in initial markets reached 39% (compared to 24% in cohort markets), the compensation structure delivered a 5-year IRR of 67% on new sales, and selling time increased 20%.
This case study covers a SalesGlobe engagement with an industry-leading sports apparel manufacturer and distributor. The work focused on new roles and team design, territory optimization, motivational incentive compensation, and sales operations redesign across a sales force of more than 1,000 reps. The summary that follows reflects what is documented in SalesGlobe’s case study materials for this engagement.
Quick Facts
Industry: Sports apparel manufacturing and distribution
Sales Force: More than 1,000 sales representatives
Pain Points: No formal sales strategy or coverage model; thousands of customers with no plan for deeper penetration or new account acquisition; double-digit growth out of reach with the existing structure
Engagement Scope: Role and team design, tiered segmentation, territory optimization, account planning, motivational incentive compensation, sales operations redesign
Background
An industry-leading sports apparel manufacturer and distributor was seeking double-digit growth and increased share of wallet. The company had historically grown primarily through acquisitions.
Two structural conditions were working against the growth goal:
- The organization had no formal sales strategy and no formal coverage model.
- Sales managed thousands of current customers, with little plan on how to penetrate existing accounts deeper or acquire new accounts.
SalesGlobe’s Approach
SalesGlobe’s work on this engagement covered four areas, each designed to reinforce the others. A sales force grown by acquisition is rarely a sales force designed on purpose. The areas below describe how that purpose was built.
New Roles and Team Design
Established new sales roles and team design organized around tiered customer segments. The redesigned roles were built to win greenfield accounts and penetrate target customers across product lines, replacing an undifferentiated coverage approach with role and segment definitions aligned to the growth strategy. When a single seller is asked to chase greenfield opportunities, penetrate priority accounts, and maintain a long tail of smaller customers in parallel, the urgent typically crowds out the important and new-logo work loses every time. Splitting those motions into purpose-built roles gives each one the focus it needs to actually move the number.
Territory Optimization
Executed a new territory optimization approach across the full sales force of more than 1,000 reps, supported by account planning. Territory design at this scale is an analytics problem, not a spreadsheet exercise. It requires understanding where opportunity actually sits, how rep capacity matches market potential, and where the current footprint over-serves some areas while under-serving others. Pairing optimized territories with structured account planning ensures each seller has a clear, named approach to the accounts they own, rather than a blank geography to figure out on their own.
Motivational Incentive Compensation
Designed motivational incentive compensation aligned to the new sales strategy. The plans were built to produce a targeted financial return for the company while increasing rep opportunity, so compensation reinforced exactly the behaviors and outcomes the redesigned roles and territories were designed to drive. Comp plans built without that strategic anchor often pay sellers for activities the company never asked them to prioritize. Comp plans built with it amplify the work, and reps feel the alignment in every paycheck.
Sales Operations Redesign
Redesigned sales operations to drive the key functions that support the new sales model, including compensation administration. A strategy shift of this size needs an operating infrastructure that matches it. Territory management, quota administration, performance reporting, and comp administration all have to work seamlessly for sellers to feel the change in the field. Without an operations redesign, the new model exists on paper but breaks down in execution; with it, the redesigned roles, territories, and plans actually run as designed.
Results
| Selling time | Shift and lift of non-core roles from sales to support increased sales time by 20%, with greater focus on sales, gross margin dollars, wins, and sustained revenue. |
| Market growth | Sales model, compensation design, and strategic account planning drove 39% growth in initial markets, compared to 24% growth in cohort markets. |
| Compensation ROI | The compensation structure provided a 5-year IRR of 67% on new sales. |
| Growth roadmap | Roadmap established to attain double-digit revenue growth over the next three years, with a hiring plan focused on the ten to twelve highest-opportunity markets rather than spreading coverage evenly across the country. |
Why this matters
A company grown by acquisition often inherits scale without inheriting structure. In this engagement, the work spanned role design, segmentation, territory optimization, compensation, and sales operations. The four moves reinforced one another, and the 15-point gap between the redesigned markets and the cohort markets is the cleanest read on the impact.
About SalesGlobe’s Approach to Engagements Like This
SalesGlobe works across the full Revenue Roadmap: Insight, Sales Strategy, Customer Coverage, and Enablement. When a company has grown by acquisition and now wants organic growth, the most effective work usually spans multiple layers, because acquisitive scale rarely arrives with a unified coverage model or a strategy-aligned incentive structure attached.
Related SalesGlobe Services
- Sales Strategy — Defining what to sell, to whom, and why it matters
- Sales Organization & Talent — Role design and team structure for growth
- Sales Capacity Improvement — Territory optimization, account planning, and selling-time recovery
- Sales Compensation & Quotas — Pay plans and quotas aligned to strategy and role
- Strategic Account Planning — Turning account lists into named opportunities
- Revenue Roadmap Assessment — A four-layer diagnostic across Insight, Strategy, Coverage, and Enablement
Facing a Similar Challenge?
Talk with a senior SalesGlobe consultant about organic growth, coverage model design, territory optimization, or incentive plan design.
Source: This case study is summarized from SalesGlobe’s case study materials for this engagement. Client identity is withheld. Statistics, scope items, and approach descriptions reflect what is documented in those materials.
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