Territory
In Salesforce Territory Management (Enterprise Territory Management), a defined geographic or logical area used to organize accounts and assign sales reps, determining account access and forecast rollup structures.
Definition
In Salesforce Territory Management (Enterprise Territory Management), a defined geographic or logical area used to organize accounts and assign sales reps, determining account access and forecast rollup structures.
In plain English
“A Territory in Salesforce Territory Management is a defined geographic or logical area used to organize accounts and assign sales reps. Territories determine account access, reporting roll-ups, and how your sales team is structured geographically or by segment.”
Worked example
Edgemere Realty's residential brokerage uses Enterprise Territory Management to organize 800 accounts across 12 metro areas. Each Territory is defined by ZIP-code ranges and assigned to specific agents; an Account in San Francisco's Mission District is assigned to the SF Mission Territory, which is staffed by three agents. Sharing rules ensure those three agents can see every Account in their Territory; reports roll up by Territory for sales-leadership forecasts. When a high-value account moves between Territories (a regional reorg), the platform reassigns the Account-Territory link and access updates automatically. Territories are the unit of organization for everything below the company level.
Why Territory matters
In Salesforce Territory Management (Enterprise Territory Management), a Territory is a defined geographic or logical area used to organize accounts and assign sales reps, determining account access, reporting structures, and forecasting hierarchy. Territories can be geographic (Northeast, West Coast) or logical (Enterprise, Mid-Market, SMB).
Territory management is foundational to sales operations at scale because it determines who works which accounts. Well-designed territories balance workload and opportunity across reps. Mature sales operations use Enterprise Territory Management for structured territory definitions with rule-based account assignment, territory hierarchies for rollup, and territory-based forecasting.
How to create Territory
Territories are the building blocks of Territory Management 2.0 — geographic / industry / segment groupings of Accounts that drive who sees what in the sales hierarchy. Each Territory has assigned Users, assigned Accounts, and parent / child relationships forming a Territory Model.
- Confirm Territory Management 2.0 is enabled
Setup → Territory Settings → Enable Enterprise Territory Management. Once enabled, Territory hierarchies replace Roles for opportunity sharing.
- Open Setup → Territory Models → click into a Model
Territories live inside Territory Models. Most orgs have a single Active model; you build new models for major restructures.
- Click Add Territory under a parent (or at top level)
Right-click a node in the territory tree → Create Territory.
- Set Territory Name, Description, Territory Type
Type categorizes for reports — Geographic / Industry / Segment / etc.
- Set Account Access Level and Opportunity Access Level
Read Only / Read/Write / Read/Write/Transfer. Drives what assigned users can do on Accounts and Opps in this territory.
- Save
Territory is created. Now assign users and accounts.
- Assign Users
Users related list → Add Users. Each user can belong to multiple territories with different access levels.
- Assign Accounts
Either manually (Manage Accounts on the territory) or via Assignment Rules (Setup → Assignment Rules).
- Activate the Territory Model
Once the model is built, click Activate. This is the model users see in production.
Required.
Required by association. Territories live inside a Model.
Required.
- Only one Territory Model can be Active at a time. To restructure, build a new model in Planning state, populate it, then Activate — which deactivates the old one.
- Territory hierarchy doesn't auto-sync with Role hierarchy. Many orgs maintain both; some replace Roles entirely with Territories.
- Account and Opportunity sharing changes when you activate a new Territory Model. Recalculation runs in the background — can take hours on large orgs.
How organizations use Territory
Uses Enterprise Territory Management for geographic territory definitions with rule-based account assignment.
Designs territories balancing workload and opportunity across their sales team.
Reviews territory assignments quarterly for workload balance.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Territory.
- Enable Enterprise Territory ManagementSalesforce Help
- Territory Management 2.0 Data ModelSalesforce Help
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Territory?
Q2. Can territories be non-geographic?
Q3. Why review territories periodically?
Discussion
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