Territory-mapping is a method of allocating territory to an organization or person. It is very useful for two main purposes: sales-territory mapping and franchise-territory mapping.

Franchise-territory mapping consists of assigning a trade area to a franchisee. It is sometimes specified in the franchise agreement as an exclusive territory where nobody else (i.e. no other franchisee or retailer distributing the same product from the same brand) can carry out sales or marketing activities.Franchise territories can be set out using several criteria, such as potential customers (demographics) and potential revenues. In order to be as fair as possible and avoid network-management issues, each franchisee needs to have comparable territories. The franchisor can do a zoning study to have a better idea which trade area the brand should be located in.

The first thing you should know is what method you want to use to draw your area. Should your territory represent official boundaries (city, state, zip code, etc.)? Or do you prefer to use isochrones? Isochrones are the most common way of drawing trade areas, as they give a better sense of how the terrain impacts on the attractiveness of your business (e.g. mountains, rivers or difficult roads, any of which could prevent prospects from reaching your store). You can also use an as-the-crow-flies isodistance (radius from your point of sale). Depending on the targets or customers you’ve been mapping, you could also draw one manually, so that each area can be comparable.There are lots of useful tools that can help you to map territories very easily. smappen offers you the ability to do this free of charge. Start creating a territory map