What Is Salesforce Territory Management

Salesforce’s original territory management feature was replaced with a feature called “Enterprise Territory Management” (AKA “Territory Management 2.0”) in 2021.

Salesforce Enterprise Territory Management is a standard feature that allows companies to organize their accounts and opportunities by geographic territories. In this article we’ll discuss how to use Territory Management as well as some of the limitations of this feature.

Limitation of Territory Management

Like many standard features, Territory Management isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Here are some of the limitations you may face:

• No Leads, Contacts, or custom Salesforce objects. Territory Management is only available for accounts and opportunities. It’s not possible to manage leads, cases, and other records using these features.
• Dealing with permissions. Many features of Territory Management require Salesforce admin permissions, which can be a serious stumbling block for organizations that want to delegate this responsibility to non-admins.
• Limits on territories, assignment rules, and territory models. Salesforce limits the number of active territories, models, and rules you can have at one time. These limits differ based on your Salesforce edition. Details can be found here.
• Working with Apex code. Certain operations—like assigning territories to opportunities based on multiple filters—require customizing or writing Apex code, something not everyone is familiar or comfortable with.

How to Enable Territory Management

Are you ready to start using Territory Management? The first step is to activate the feature. We recommend first activating this feature in a sandbox before deploying to production.

Follow these steps to activate Territory Management:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Use the Quick Find search bar to search for “Territory Settings” and click the link.
3. Click Enable Enterprise Territory Management.

How to Create Territories

Once you have activated the feature, you can begin creating and managing territories. We have broken down this process into five steps.

Step 1. Create (or clone) a territory model

Follow these steps to create a new territory model:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Models” in the Quick Find and click on the link.
3. Click the New Territory Model button.
4. Give your model a label.
5. Click Save.

To Clone an Existing Territory Model:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Models” in the Quick Find and click on the link.
3. Click on the label of the model you want to clone.
4. Click the Clone button.
5. Update the Label and Territory Model Name fields.
6. Click Save.

Step 2. Define your territories

Salesforce has a limit of 1,000 territories per territory model for the Developer and Enterprise editions. If using the Performance or Unlimited editions, you may request up to an additional 20,000 territories from Salesforce Customer Support.

Once you have your Territory Model in place, you’re ready to add new territories. Territories are where you will assign users and accounts. You will be able to see all territories under your Territory Model Hierarchy.

You’ll need to create at least one territory type before you can create a territory:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Types” in the Quick Find and click on the link.
3. Click New Territory Type and enter a Label, Territory Type Name, and Priority.
4. Click Save.

Follow these steps to create a new territory:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Models” in the Quick Find and click on the link.
3. Click the View Hierarchy link next to the territory model you created.
4. Use the dropdown menu in the top right corner to change the view to Tree View. This will display the model’s full territory hierarchy, including existing and child territories.
5. Click Create Territory next to the territory model name to create the first territory.
6. Fill out the Territory Label, Territory Name, Territory Type, and Parent Territory
7. Configure the desired access labels.
8. Click Save.
9. After you’ve created at least one top-level territory, it will show up in your territory model hierarchy. Then you can add new child territories by clicking Create Territory next to the existing territory name and following the same process.

Step 3. Assign users to each territory

The next step will be to assign users to each territory. Assigning a user to a territory grants them the permissions defined in the Territory Access Levels.

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Models” in the Quick Find and click on the link.
3. Click View Hierarchy next to the territory model name.
4. Click on the name of the territory you’d like to add members to.
5. Scroll down to the Assigned Users related list and click the Manage Users button.
6. Select the users you’d like to add from the Available Users table and click Add.
7. Save.

Step 4. Create account assignment rules

Assigning accounts is similar to assigning users. You’ll start by navigating to the desired territory, but instead of using the Assigned Users section, you’ll look for the Assignment Rules Assigned to This Territory section.

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Models” in the Quick Find and click on the link.
3. Click the View Rules link next to the territory model name.
4. Click New Rule.
5. Enter a Name and Unique Name (i.e. API name) for your rule.
6. Define your selection criteria. This is what determines which accounts are assigned to your territory.
7. Check the Active checkbox if you want the rule to run automatically when a user creates or updates an account.
8. Click Save.

You can run assignment rules for existing accounts by following these steps:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Models” in the Quick Find and click on the link.
3. Click View Hierarchy next to the territory model name.

4. Click the Run Assignment Rules button at the top of the page. Note: you can also click Run Rules next to a particular territory to run rules for only that territory instead.
5. In the modal, select to either “Include all accounts” or “Include a subset of accounts”.
6. Click Run Rules.

Step 5. Activate your territory model

Salesforce only allows you to have one active territory model at a time.

Once you’re satisfied with your territory model and user and account assignments, you’re ready to activate it:

1. Navigate to Setup.
2. Search for “Territory Models” in the Quick Find and click on the link
3. Click View Hierarchy next to the territory model name.
4. Click the Activate button.
5. In the modal, click Activate.

That’s it! Now, Salesforce will display “Activating” while it processes your request. This may take some time, depending on the size and complexity of your model. Watch for an email from Salesforce that confirms your model’s activation.

Territory Management FAQs

What is a territory type?

Territory types are used to group territories together for organizational purposes. For example, you might create a “Pacific Northwest” territory type and use it to group the Oregon, Washington, and Idaho territories. You can set up territory types based on account type, region, or any other criteria important to your company.

What is a territory model?

A territory model is a representation of your territory management system. It includes all territories, accounts, and users in your organization and shows how they relate to each other. This structure can be best understood and edited by looking at the territory model hierarchy.

Why do I need to prioritize my territories?

Territories themselves are not prioritized—but there is a hierarchy that controls how Salesforce evaluates them. For example, you might have separate territories for Ontario and Canada. You would want to make the Ontario territory a child territory of Canada since you may have assignment rules specific to Ontario that don’t apply to all of Canada.

To make this work, Salesforce uses the territory model hierarchy. Child territories are always evaluated before parents to enable greater specificity. In addition, when creating account assignment rules, you can select an “Apply to Child Territories” checkbox. This allows you to apply general rules to Canada and its child territories like Ontario.

Also, you can prioritize territory types—but this is merely for organizational purposes and does not affect how the territories operate in your model.

How do I reassign a territory (and associated records) to a new owner?

If you need to reassign a territory to a new owner, simply add them as a new user. After adding them, you will see them in the Assigned Users section. Then, run the assignment rules again to assign accounts and records to the new owner.

Looking For a Better Solution?

You may find in the setup process that Salesforce Territory Management doesn’t align with your company’s needs. Luckily, there are better solutions. Kubaru provides all of the features of territory management with none of the limitations.

Contact us to schedule a demo of Kubaru.