Isn't quota proportional to potential already fair?
It fixes one problem and leaves another. Calloway's territories all had quota matching their own potential exactly, and one still needed 64% more workload per quota dollar than another, a gap a potential-only quota build can't see.
What if we don't have clean workload data per account?
Start with whatever proxy exists: number of stakeholders, historical sales cycle length, or a simple complexity tag a rep or manager assigns. An imperfect workload weight applied consistently still catches a territory that's wildly out of line, which a quota built on potential alone cannot.
How wide should the balance band be?
The pack's worked example uses plus or minus 15% of the company average, wide enough to allow for real account-mix differences without letting a genuine imbalance pass. Tighten it if your book is homogeneous enough to support a stricter bar, or widen it slightly for a book with naturally more variance.
What happens if a flagged territory can't be fixed by moving accounts?
Say so directly rather than forcing a move that only shifts the imbalance onto a different territory. The Fairness Note names the alternative for that specific territory instead: added headcount, a workload-adjusted quota, or extra support resource, decided case by case.
Does the bottom-up quota total need to match the top-down company target?
It should, and stating whether it does is part of the build. When it doesn't, that gap is a real planning problem, more pipeline needed or a target that has to move, not something to close by inflating every rep's number until the total works on paper.
How is this different from a pipeline coverage or renewal forecast pack?
Those cover whether enough pipeline exists to hit an already-set number. This pack covers what happens earlier: setting the territories and quotas in the first place, before the year starts and before pipeline coverage becomes the question.
We're restructuring territories mid-year after a wave of churn. Does this still apply?
Yes, though a mid-year rebuild should account for accounts already lost. Run renewal and churn forecasting first to settle which accounts are actually still active, then score and balance-check the territories from that corrected list rather than the original one.
Territory Map