I’m sometimes asked how to best manage remote areas of a geographic territory. This applies to whether it is an ‘airplane’ territory or just a seldom visited area of a local territory.

I am going to make an assumption here that we are talking about a part of your territory that either is very expensive to visit, you’ve got more to say grace over locally than you can handle, or the area just doesn’t have very many ‘ quality targets’ in it so you don’t go there very often. There are several parts to this ‘Best Practice’.

1. When you do call into that area trying to set appointments, and you get a no, always ask them if you can check back the next time you’re in the area to see if they might have some interest and availability. It is amazing how often people will say yes to this even though they’ve said no to the request for an appointment immediately. It is because they don’t think you’ll really call back, so they figure, “What’s the harm?” The point is though that when you do call back and tell them they said it was okay to do so, the psychological battle shifts and you’re more likely to get the appointment.
2. When you do get an appointment in a remote area, make sure to set it out far enough to give you time to fill out your calendar either there, or on the way there or back.
3. Remember, things come up and people legitimately cancel at the last minute even though they know you’ve driven four hours or taken a plane ride to get there. My rule of thumb when a sales manager was to require my team have at least three appointments when they were going to take a day to get somewhere and back. That way if one cancels, it is still a productive day.
4. Make sure you use a system that allows you to search by geography to keep up with those ‘area’ calls as well as record those that say it’s okay to call when you’re back in the area. We recommend Klpz for appointment makers anyway, and it is superb at this.
5. When you do call, make sure you tell them that you’re going to be in the area on that date and then use the remainder of your normal script. The more remote the area, the more likely people will grant you the meeting. People will grant you those appointments more often for some reason. I’m not sure why, but our clients consistently report back that this technique works.
6. …Which means you can use that technique to create a trip to a remote area. Just don’t abuse the approach.