Revenue performance management (RPM) depends on an effective go-to-market (GTM) plan. You can’t build effective territories or motivating quotas if you don’t know your market and account potential. Territory and quota (T&Q) planning should be a growth accelerator. Done well, it aligns reps to the right opportunities, sets realistic targets, and helps GTM teams scale efficiently. But too often, these plans fall flat — because they’re built on guesswork.
One of the biggest culprits? Haphazard or flawed account segmentation and scoring.
Before you can assign accounts to territories or set quotas, you need to understand the potential of the accounts you’re going after. What segments are you targeting to hit your number? Which accounts align with your strategy? Where is the highest propensity to buy — and for what products or services?
Without this foundation, GTM planning will potentially create imbalances in your operations. Some reps inherit high-value books they can’t fully cover. Others are left chasing low-potential accounts. Your best territories are underutilized, and your teams spend more time compensating for misalignment than selling.
Why segmentation keeps slipping through the cracks
Even mature revenue organizations underinvest in both market and wallet sizing, and account segmentation and scoring — not because they don’t know it's important, but because execution is messy. Planning cycles are short, data is scattered across systems, and the pressure to finalize targets can push teams to skip steps or fall back on old territory models that result in poor GTM investments.
In many cases, account segmentation and account scoring is treated like a static input or a one-time task, rather than a dynamic, collaborative process. The marketing team owns one view, sales ops another, and the rest of the org is left in the dark. And your segmentation and scoring remain static, even as customer demand and intent shift throughout the year. That disconnect becomes a problem when those decisions drive territory design, quota setting, and ultimately, sales behavior.
What happens when you skip segmentation
Segmenting and scoring your accounts is how you define priority. They tell you which accounts align to each GTM motion, where the biggest wallet potential lies, and what the growth path could look like across different regions, products, and sales strategies.
Without this clarity:
- Territories become uneven, leading to productivity gaps and pay inequity.
- Top reps are overloaded; others are under-assigned.
- High-value opportunities are missed without coverage.
- Rep churn increases as frustration sets in over misaligned books.
Even worse? You can’t fix it once the fiscal year is in motion. Teams are stuck with unbalanced coverage, and revenue is left on the table.
Quotas fall apart without segmentation
Top-down quota setting isn’t enough. If your sales targets aren’t rooted in understanding what each account or territory is worth, they become arbitrary.
The result? Unrealistic expectations, demotivated reps, and missed numbers.
Segmentation gives you the data to plan from the bottom up. With clear visibility into historical and predictive account potential, you can set targets that are challenging, achievable, and tied to real opportunity. That builds trust, focus, and performance.
Why segmentation matters more now than ever
As today’s customer journey and GTM motions grow more complex — with product-led growth, consumption pricing, expansion into new markets, and multi-product strategies — it’s no longer viable to treat all accounts equally. You need to know which accounts fit which motions, and how to prioritize accordingly.
Most companies are doing segmentation today. They’re just buried in disconnected spreadsheets, hidden in CRM fields, or lost in data lakes. That makes it nearly impossible to connect segmentation to T&Q planning in a scalable, strategic way.
What goes into modern account segmentation?
To accurately assess account potential and assign balanced territories that reflect real opportunity, you need a mix of internal signals and external market data. Here’s a breakdown of the types of signals to incorporate — and how they help shape better decision-making:
| Internal signals | External signals | How it’s used |
| Historical spend | Firmographics (industry, size, location) | Prioritize strategic accounts |
| Product usage/adoption | Market trends | Identify opportunities for expansion |
| Engagement data (e.g., sales activity) | Buying intent and customer signals | Align sales coverage and territory design |
| Support history or ticket volume | Competitive presence or displacement risk | Tailor GTM motions (upsell, renewals, new logo) |
| Contract value and lifecycle stage | Technology adoption signals | Inform quota setting and territory assignments |
This view turns segmentation into a dynamic driver of planning, not just a static input.
Anaplan: Connecting segmentation to execution
Anaplan takes segmentation out of spreadsheets and into the heart of T&Q planning. With out-of-the-box segmentation and scoring solutions built directly into workflows, you get:
- Balanced territories that reflect true market opportunity
- Quotas that reps believe in and can achieve
- Aligned GTM teams working toward shared strategy
- Faster planning cycles, fewer revisions, and better outcomes
If you’re building T&Q without segmentation, you’re planning blind. Start with the data that defines your growth potential — and watch the rest fall into place.
