Too many OEMs send their territory managers to sales training, even though the TM role is far broader than selling. This edition explains why TMs need training in dealer development, market coverage, coaching, and network strategy—not closing techniques. When OEMs equip TMs with the right curriculum, dealer performance improves across the entire channel.
Sales Training Programs Are Great… If You Have Salespeople (But What If You Have Territory Managers?)
Too many OEMs treat their territory managers like salespeople—and then wonder why dealer networks do not grow, underperforming dealers linger, and product knowledge becomes the main metric of performance.
Sales training programs are helpful, but only if sales is the job. A true territory manager is not just trying to close business; they are building and managing a productive, aligned, and motivated network of dealers. That requires a broader skill set—and a completely different kind of training.
A great TM needs to know how to:
- Identify and recruit dealers that match your Ideal Dealer Persona (IDP)
- Launch new partnerships with the right onboarding, tools, and expectations
- Coach underperforming dealers back into alignment—or manage them out
- Build trust and accountability with dealer principals, not just their salespeople
- Collaborate across departments (sales, parts, service, finance, rental) to solve problems
- Read the market and adjust the territory’s coverage strategy accordingly
If your training program does not cover these things, you are not building a territory management team. You are building a group of regional sales reps with incomplete responsibility and no clear playbook.
At Connect, we help OEMs build strong, long-term partnerships with their dealers. A critical part of that success is making sure territory managers are equipped to do more than just sell. They must know how to manage the business, support their dealers, and drive growth across the entire network.
That is why we built a complete training track just for territory managers—starting with TM101 (Basic Territory Management), followed by TM201 and TM301—to teach the full scope of best practices across dealer development, network strategy, and operational excellence. We also offer a dedicated track for sales leaders who oversee these teams and want to build a world-class dealer network from the top down.
Want to learn more or get your team into the next session? Send me an email and I will get you the course overviews, pricing, and upcoming dates.
