our field sales territory planning hasn't been updated in years and it shows

We just did a complete territory audit across the Southeast and honestly, it was painful to watch. Some of my reps are sitting in overgrown accounts they inherited back in 2019, while others are driving past qualified prospects every single day on windshield time because the territory lines haven't been redrawn since before COVID.

The math doesn't work anymore. Population shifts, new office parks, client consolidations - none of that's reflected in how we've carved up the map. One rep in Charlotte's got a territory that's literally 40 miles across at its widest point. Another one in Atlanta could handle 30% more door knocks if we just reallocated some dead weight accounts sitting in her backyard.

What kills me is this isn't a secret problem. We knew it. But every time we'd think about doing a real replan, someone would say "but we don't want to disrupt quota attainment" or "let's do it next quarter." Well, next quarter's gone. So have the last four years.

Now we're trying to figure out if we rebuild from scratch using actual data (zip codes, account density, drive times, pipeline concentration) or if we do a lighter touch realignment. The problem is our current CRM doesn't even map territories cleanly, so getting clean data out of it is like pulling teeth. Half the deals are geo-tagged wrong anyway because reps just type whatever.

I'm leaning toward a full reset. Not all at once, but territory by territory over the next six months, starting with the worst offenders. Ramp time on new territories is real, and I'd rather ease people into better aligned accounts than keep letting sub-par assignments drag down quota attainment.

Anyone else dealing with legacy territory problems? How'd you handle the rollout without torching morale?