The territory fight: It’s the bane of every publisher and sales manager’s existence. All managers in the publishing industry have to deal with it, but there aren’t many who like to, and for good reason! The best sales reps are notoriously competitive, testing even the best manager’s patience, which is why having good account management rules is important.

The challenge is that if your rules are too strict, you won’t get the level of competition necessary to maximize your sales revenue, and if your rules are too relaxed, it turns into a free-for-all where sales reps are often pitted against each other. Then, frequent disputes arise, which wear thin on managers and impact your sales team’s morale. As any publisher knows, it’s not a small issue.

In this blog, I’m going to share my two cents on account management based on my 25 years of publishing…