Territory Categories

You use the Territory Categories module to create a hierarchy for organizing territories. This enables you to reduce the time it takes to assign leads to a large number of territories by adding criteria to each territory category. Leads must first qualify for the territory category before they can be assigned to the territories in the territory category.

Note:
This feature is available in Aprimo Marketing Studio 9.1 only.

Tip:
You should maintain a single lead process for distributing leads. The only time multiple lead process are required is if the territory categories and territories are radically different from another lead process. This type of information is also used for reporting purposes to determine which territories are assigned to which territory categories.

A territory category record includes this information:

The criteria for determining whether a lead qualifies for the territory category.
The priority of the territory category in relation to the other territory categories in the lead process. A territory category inherits the priority from territories assigned to the territory category.

A territory category is specific to a lead process. A lead process contains 2 lists of territory categories: draft and production. The draft list is used when you test an interaction that assigns or reassigns leads to territories. After you have finalized your territory categories in the draft list you can promote them to production. The production list is used when you run an interaction that assigns or reassigns leads to territories.

Territory Category Example

You want to design a lead process for your direct sales force to route leads throughout the United States and Canada for your 3 product lines. You have salespeople in each state and for each product line. You want to assign the leads from a given state to the appropriate salesperson in that state.

This graphic shows some of the territory categories and territories for this lead process.

Design Considerations

You are not required to create territory categories. If you do use territory categories, the hierarchy you create is specific to the current lead process.

Each lead process represents a complete lead distribution process for a sales channel. For each lead process, you must create all the territory categories to be used by that sales channel.

Before you build a hierarchy of territory categories, define your strategy for managing leads. If your strategy requires numerous territories, you can build a hierarchy of territory categories to help organize your strategy. If your strategy requires only a few territories, using a hierarchy might not be beneficial.

Details

Field	Description
Priority	This field indicates the territory category's priority compared to the other territory categories in the lead process. Territory categories inherit the highest priority value from the territories to which they are assigned. If a territory category does not have any assigned territories, this field is blank.
Parent	Select whether the category has a parent territory category. Use this field to establish a hierarchical relationship between the territory categories. Tip: You can view the hierarchy on the View Lead Process - Territory Categories page.

Field

Description

Priority

This field indicates the territory category's priority compared to the other territory categories in the lead process.

Territory categories inherit the highest priority value from the territories to which they are assigned. If a territory category does not have any assigned territories, this field is blank.

Parent

Select whether the category has a parent territory category. Use this field to establish a hierarchical relationship between the territory categories.

Tip:
You can view the hierarchy on the View Lead Process - Territory Categories page.

Prioritizing Territory Categories

You cannot manually prioritize territory categories. Territory categories inherit the highest priority value from their assigned territories. The inherited priority determines the sequence in which the territories and territory categories are evaluated during the lead assignment.

Example:
This graphic shows how territory categories inherit the priority value from associated territories.

Expression

Field	Description
Expression	Type an expression to define the parameters by which leads are evaluated for inclusion in the territory category. First, you add criteria for the territory category. The criteria define the characteristics a lead must have to qualify for the territory category. When you add criteria, you specify this information: Attribute This is a field on which you are basing the criteria. Operator This defines the relationship between the attribute and the value. Value This is the selected attribute's specific content.
Parent Expression	This field appears if the territory category is associated with a parent territory category. It displays an expression compiled from the expressions of the territory categories associated with the territory category. Example: You have a territory category called Midwest, which is associated with the territory category called United States. The United States category has the expression of Country is equal to United States. The parent expression for the Midwest territory category displays: Country is equal to United States.

Field

Description

Expression

Type an expression to define the parameters by which leads are evaluated for inclusion in the territory category.

First, you add criteria for the territory category. The criteria define the characteristics a lead must have to qualify for the territory category. When you add criteria, you specify this information:

Attribute
This is a field on which you are basing the criteria.
Operator
This defines the relationship between the attribute and the value.
Value
This is the selected attribute's specific content.

Parent Expression

This field appears if the territory category is associated with a parent territory category.

It displays an expression compiled from the expressions of the territory categories associated with the territory category.

Example:
You have a territory category called Midwest, which is associated with the territory category called United States. The United States category has the expression of Country is equal to United States.

The parent expression for the Midwest territory category displays: Country is equal to United States.

This table describes the criteria types you can create for a draft territory category. After you define the criteria for a territory category, you build an expression.

Criteria Type	Criteria is Based On	Example
Audience Member	A standard attribute or extended attribute for audience members.	This criteria example is based on standard audience member attributes: State is equal to California. Company Name is equal to Acme Enterprises. This criteria example is based on possible extended attributes: Industry is equal to Pharmaceuticals. Revenue is greater than or equal to $100,000,000.
Company	A standard attribute or an extended attribute for companies.	This criteria example is based on a possible company extended attribute: Revenue is greater than or equal to $100,000,000.
Contact History	A field in a contact history record.	This criteria example is based on contact history records: Inbound Form Title is equal to Product Information Request. Completed Date is after or on May 15, 2010.
Response History	A field in a response history record.	This criteria example is based on response history records: Product Line is equal to Passenger Cars. Expected Purchase Date is after or on March 2010.
Product History	A field in a product or product history record.	This criteria example is based on product history records: Product Number is equal to 1235XYC. Category is equal to Financial Software. Date Purchased is after or on January 1, 2010.

You use these items to build an expression:

The criteria you created for the territory category.
The AND, OR, and NOT operators.
The opening and closing parentheses, to combine statements in the expression and control the order in which the statements are processed.

Notes:

You can build an expression only for a draft territory category.
You build an expression even if you have only one criteria for the territory category.

You want leads in Maryland or Virginia to be distributed to the territories in the Mid-Atlantic territory category. On this category's Expression tab, in the audience member criteria section, you create criteria for each state:

State is equal to Maryland
State is equal to Virginia

To ensure any leads from these states are assigned to the territories in this category, you create this expression:

State is equal to Maryland OR State is equal to Virgina