30-60-90 day plan for territory managers
On this page
- What makes a territory manager's first 90 days different?
- How is a territory manager different from a sales rep or account manager?
- Which rules shape a territory manager's job?
- What does the 30-60-90 day plan look like?
- How do you tier and route a territory?
- Which numbers should a new territory manager baseline?
- How should the hiring manager use the plan in the final interview?
- What should each check-in cover?
- A filled example
- What does the company owe the new territory manager?
- Common mistakes
- How do you adapt the plan?
- Questions people ask
A 30-60-90 day plan for a new territory manager should spend the first month on the road: visiting the top accounts with the manager or the outgoing rep, meeting every distributor or dealer in the territory, tiering the whole account list and building a route that fits the week. The second month runs that cadence alone and opens new accounts, and by day 90 the territory manager owns a forecast by account and a territory plan the manager has agreed. Three rules shape the job as of November 2026: the federal outside sales exemption depends on selling away from a fixed office, the IRS standard mileage rate many employers use for reimbursement rose to 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026, and in medical device, drug and beverage alcohol territories, federal rules limit what a rep may give customers.
This plan is for the regional or district sales manager hiring a field territory manager: hospitals and clinics for a device company, prescribers for a drug company, stores for a consumer goods or beverage supplier, or dealers and contractors for an equipment or building products maker. For a rep working assigned leads, the 30-60-90 day plan for sales reps fits better; for opening a market with no accounts yet, see the 30-60-90 day plan for business development managers.
What makes a territory manager's first 90 days different?
A territory manager's scarcest resource is time in front of customers. A territory can hold hundreds of accounts spread over hours of driving, and they are not worth the same. A new hire who visits whoever is closest or friendliest can be busy every day and still lose the accounts that matter, so the plan starts with tiering and routing, not product pitches.
Two more things set the role apart. Many territory managers sell through distributors, dealers or wholesalers, whose staff talk to the territory's customers more often than the territory manager does, so they belong in the plan from week one. And the manager is rarely there: a territory manager usually works alone, often from home, so the CRM, the weekly route and the ride-alongs are the manager's only view of the work.
How is a territory manager different from a sales rep or account manager?
| Area | Sales rep | Account manager | Territory manager |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covers | Assigned leads or a segment | A book of named customers | Every account and prospect in a geographic area |
| Time | Calls, demos, email | Relationship meetings, renewals | In-person visits on a route, planned by tier |
| Partners | Sales development, sales engineers | Customer success | Distributors, dealers, wholesalers and their staff |
| Numbers | Quota, pipeline, win rate | Retention, expansion | Quota by product line, coverage by tier, placements, distributor sell-through |
Which rules shape a territory manager's job?
Which apply depends on the industry. These are federal and state examples as they read in November 2026, checked on the agencies' own pages; the company's compliance policy is usually stricter and comes first. This is not legal advice.
| Item | What applies | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime exemption | Outside sales needs a primary duty of making sales and work customarily and regularly away from the employer's place of business; no salary test; phone, mail and internet sales count only as a supplement to personal calls; a home office used as a headquarters is a place of business | DOL Fact Sheet 17F (revised August 2024); 29 CFR 541.500 |
| Mileage | IRS business rate for 2026: 72.5 cents a mile for January 1 to June 30, 76 cents for July 1 to December 31 (IR-2026-29); many employers reimburse at it, and some states require expense reimbursement | IRS standard mileage rates |
| Commission terms | Some states require written commission agreements; New York requires them signed by both sides, kept three years, with the calculation and any draw described and commissions paid at least monthly | N.Y. Labor Law 191(1)(c) |
| Device and drug territories: payments to clinicians | Manufacturers report payments and transfers of value, such as meals, to physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, nurse-midwives and teaching hospitals; CMS publishes them each year by June 30 | CMS Open Payments; 42 CFR 403.904 |
| Device and drug territories: kickbacks | A crime to knowingly and willfully pay anything of value, including meals, to induce or reward business paid for by federal health care programs; company policies build on the AdvaMed Code (updates effective November 1, 2025) and the PhRMA Code (effective January 1, 2022) | HHS-OIG; AdvaMed; PhRMA |
| Drug samples | A rep delivers a sample only against the practitioner's signed written request, gets a signed receipt, and the company inventories and reconciles each rep's samples at least yearly | 21 CFR 203.31 |
| Beverage alcohol territories | Producers, importers and wholesalers may not induce a retailer to buy their products to the exclusion of others' by giving things of value or paying for advertising or display, except as the rules list; product displays, for example, are capped at $300 per brand at a time in one retail establishment; states add limits | 27 CFR 6.21; 6.83 |
The 30-60-90 day plan for sales directors covers what moving field reps into inside roles does to the outside sales exemption.
What does the 30-60-90 day plan look like?
30-60-90 day plan — [Name], Territory Manager, [territory]
Reports to: [regional / district sales manager] Start: [date]
Territory: [states / counties] Accounts: [N] active, [N] prospects
Channel: [direct / distributors / dealers] Quota: [by product line]
CRM: [system] Vehicle: [company car / allowance / mileage]
DAYS 1-30 — Learn the territory from the road
Goals:
- Product and industry compliance training (gifts, meals,
samples, displays: whichever apply); CRM and expense setup
- Ride with the manager or outgoing rep on [N] days; visit the
top [20] accounts by sales in person
- Meet every distributor or dealer branch: staff, stock, programs
- Tier every account (A, B, C, prospect) with a visit frequency
- Build a route by area and day; work out weekly visit capacity
- Hospital or clinic accounts: vendor credentialing first
Deliverables by day 30:
- Tiered list in the CRM; 12-month baseline by account and product;
list of accounts that stopped ordering
- Route plan and a four-week visit calendar
Check-in: day 30, ride-along with the manager
DAYS 31-60 — Run the cadence; open accounts
Goals:
- Run the route alone; log every visit the same day
- Hold A and B frequency; contact every lapsed account
- Open [N] new accounts or placements
- Joint calls with each top distributor; agree a 90-day program
Deliverables by day 60:
- Opportunity list with next step and date per account
- Written program with each top distributor or dealer
Check-in: day 60
DAYS 61-90 — Own the number and the plan
Goals:
- Forecast the month and quarter by account; explain every gap
- Present a territory plan: targets by tier, coverage,
distributor programs, events, travel and budget
Deliverables by day 90:
- Territory plan agreed with the manager
- Four straight weeks of A and B coverage at plan
Check-in: day 90 — full reviewHow do you tier and route a territory?
Tier first, then route: the tiers decide how often each account is seen, and the route decides whether that is possible. The definitions and frequencies below are examples to adapt.
| Tier | Example definition (example only) | Example frequency (example only) | What the visit is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Most current sales or potential | Every two weeks | Planning with the buyer or clinician, new products, problems solved in person |
| B | Steady, with room to grow | Monthly | Placements, programs, training the account's staff |
| C | Small or occasional buyers | Quarterly, phone between | Keep the relationship; serve through the distributor |
| Prospect | Buying from a competitor | Set in the prospect plan | Discovery, a trial or a first order |
Then do the arithmetic. Example only: with about six hours of selling time a day, 45-minute visits and 30 minutes of driving between stops, a territory manager fits four to five visits a day, roughly 22 a week. Twenty A accounts every two weeks need 10 visits a week, 50 B accounts monthly need about 11.5, and 130 C accounts quarterly need about 10. That is about 31.5 visits against 22, so the C accounts move to phone, email and the distributor's staff, and the plan fits. A new hire who has done this sum can explain every route decision.
Which numbers should a new territory manager baseline?
The standards are examples only. Use the territory's own history, including any vacancy, before judging the new hire against them.
| Measure | Why it matters | Example standard (example only) |
|---|---|---|
| Sales against quota by product line | Where the number really comes from | Baseline by account by day 30 |
| Planned versus completed visits by tier | The leading indicator the territory manager controls | A and B visits on plan from day 45 |
| Accounts that stopped ordering | Vacant territories lose accounts quietly | Each one contacted by day 60 |
| Distributor sell-through and stock | A sale into the distributor is not a sale to the customer | Reviewed monthly with each top distributor |
| Miles and expense per completed visit | Shows whether the route works | Falling from month one to month three |
| Visits logged the same day | The manager's only view of a field week | Every visit, every day |
How should the hiring manager use the plan in the final interview?
Give every finalist the same brief: a territory map, account counts by tier with names removed, last year's sales by product line, the distributors, and one known problem such as a long vacancy. Score the plan with how to evaluate a 30-60-90 day plan in an interview and the interview scorecard for sales roles. A strong plan tiers before it routes, puts top accounts and distributors in month one, and names the industry rules on gifts, samples or displays unprompted. Questions that test it:
- "You have 300 accounts and room for about 22 visits a week. How do you decide where to go in month one?"
- "A key buyer asks for dinner and event tickets for their team before the annual order. What do you do?" In health care, listen for the kickback and Open Payments questions.
- "The largest distributor's outside rep is pushing a competitor's line. How do you change that?"
- "The previous rep pulled orders forward before leaving and you are behind in month two. How do you explain it?"
What should each check-in cover?
| Checkpoint | Ask | On track | Worth a direct conversation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 30 | "Which 20 accounts matter most, and when did you last see each?" | List tiered; top accounts and every distributor visited; route built | Visits clustered near home; CRM nearly empty |
| Day 60 | "Walk me through last week's route." | Coverage holding; first new accounts; joint distributor calls | Coverage below plan with no cause; unapproved pricing promised |
| Day 90 | "Where will next quarter's number come from?" | Forecast by account; plan with targets by tier | Forecast is last year plus a percentage |
A filled example
Territory manager: Kelsey Moran (invented), hired by a heating and cooling equipment maker to cover three distributor branches and about 250 contractor accounts in eastern Tennessee, a territory vacant for five months.
Day 30: Rode two days with the regional manager and visited the 25 biggest contractors. Four had moved to a competitor during the vacancy, and one branch carried no stock of the newest heat pump. She tiered the list and rebuilt the route around the three branches, with C accounts handled by phone.
Day 60: Ran the route four days a week, kept Fridays for calls and the CRM, agreed a stocking order at the branch with no heat pumps, and ran a contractor training evening with the distributor.
Day 90: Won back two of the four lost contractors and opened three from the training evening. Her plan set targets by tier and a quarterly training event per branch.
What does the company owe the new territory manager?
- The territory's history: sales by account for at least a year, open quotes, lost accounts and the previous rep's notes.
- The vehicle, mileage and expense policy in writing, including home-office days.
- Compliance training before the first customer visit, with the written policy on gifts, meals, samples and displays.
- A first-quarter quota that reflects the territory, including any vacancy the new hire inherits.
Common mistakes
- Visiting the friendly accounts. The accounts that welcome a new rep are rarely the ones at risk.
- Driving in circles. Without a route by area and day, windshield time eats the week.
- Selling into the distributor, not through it. Stock that never reaches customers can come back as returns or a lost program.
- Treating compliance paperwork as admin. Sample receipts, meal records that feed Open Payments and display limits start with the first visit.
- Logging visits on Friday afternoon. Notes written days later lose what the next visit needs.
How do you adapt the plan?
- Medical devices: add vendor credentialing at each facility, case coverage with a senior rep or clinical specialist, and the hospital's product approval committee to days 1-30.
- Pharmaceuticals: prescribers and their staff are the accounts; sample requests and receipts follow 21 CFR 203.31 from the first delivery, and local formulary status goes in the baseline.
- Consumer goods and beverages: weight the baseline toward distribution, shelf, displays and price; in beverage alcohol, check every display or promotion against the tied-house exceptions and state rules first.
- Equipment, building products and agriculture: dealers and contractors replace clinics and stores; training events, seasons and dealer stocking orders drive the plan.
The 30-60-90 day plan for account managers covers renewals when a territory manager also owns contracts, and the sales manager phone screen questions help when you hire the manager above the territory.
Questions people ask
What should a territory manager do in the first 30 days?
Ride with the manager or the outgoing rep, visit the top accounts in person, meet every distributor or dealer branch in the territory, and tier the whole account list by current sales and potential. By day 30 the territory manager should have a tiered list in the CRM, a 12-month sales baseline by account and product, and a route plan that fits the number of visits a week the territory can really hold.
How many accounts should a territory manager visit each week?
There is no standard number, because it depends on drive time, visit length and how many accounts sit in each tier. Work it out as arithmetic: selling hours per day divided by the time per visit plus driving gives daily capacity, and the visit frequency for each tier gives demand. If demand is larger than capacity, move the smallest accounts to phone, email or the distributor's staff rather than spreading visits thin.
Are territory managers exempt from overtime?
Often, under the federal outside sales exemption, but only if their primary duty is making sales and they customarily and regularly work away from the employer's place of business. As of November 2026 the Department of Labor's Fact Sheet 17F says there is no salary test for this exemption, sales by phone, mail or internet do not count unless they supplement in-person calls, and a home office used as a headquarters counts as the employer's place of business. A territory manager who mostly sells by phone from home may not qualify. This is not legal advice.
How is a territory manager's 30-60-90 day plan different from a sales rep's?
A sales rep plan is built around ramp quota and pipeline from assigned leads or a segment. A territory manager owns every account in a geographic area, so the plan adds tiering, routing and visit frequency, distributor or dealer relationships, product placement at accounts, and the industry rules on what a field rep may give customers, such as Open Payments reporting in medical devices or federal tied-house rules in beverage alcohol.
Can a medical device or pharmaceutical territory manager buy meals for doctors?
Only within the company's compliance policy, which is built on federal law and industry codes. As of November 2026, the Anti-Kickback Statute makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully offer anything of value, including meals, to induce or reward business paid for by federal health care programs, and manufacturers report payments and transfers of value to physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and other covered recipients to CMS Open Payments, which publishes the data each year. The AdvaMed and PhRMA codes add industry limits. This is not legal advice.