When most people hear “territory,” they picture a map—lines drawn, regions carved, reps assigned. But as Hayes Davis wrote in Taking the Terror out of Territories, geography isn’t destiny anymore. For modern B2B teams, territory planning isn’t about where you sell, it’s about how you distribute opportunity.
And that’s where the biggest shift in sales operations is happening: from static to dynamic territories.
Static models served their purpose in a world of field sales and predictable markets. But in a fast-moving SaaS environment, where customers, reps, and data change daily, static designs are too rigid. Dynamic territories, powered by automation and real-time data, are quickly becoming the smarter, fairer way to run a sales organization.
Static territories: The old standard
Static (or named-account) territories are the traditional approach. You carve the world once, hand out account lists, and hope nothing changes too much.
They work best when:
- Deals are complex and relationship-driven.
- You sell to a small, stable group of high-value accounts.
- Customer continuity outweighs speed.
But that world is shrinking fast.
Static downsides:
- Annual re-carves waste time and kill momentum.
- Even small org changes create huge imbalances.
- Reps inherit luck, not logic, some get goldmines, others deserts.
Static territories optimize for control, not performance. They give everyone a patch, but not necessarily a fair shot.
Dynamic territories: The modern way
Dynamic territories, or dynamic books, ditch the fixed carve. Instead, accounts are automatically assigned in real time based on rep capacity, account quality, and business rules. When one rep closes an account or bandwidth shifts, new accounts flow where they’re needed most.
Dynamic territories work best when:
- You run a high-velocity or commercial sales motion.
- You have a large, fluid pool of similar prospects.
- Your market moves faster than your annual plan.
Why teams love them:
- Continuous balance: Every rep gets an equal opportunity pipeline.
- Agility: Add reps, shift strategy, or enter a new region without a full rebuild.
- Fairness: Allocation is based on data, not politics.
Tools like Carve make this model possible. Carve automates the allocation logic, using your ICP rules, rep capacity, and performance metrics to assign accounts dynamically. You get the flexibility of real-time redistribution without the chaos of manual spreadsheets.
Manager and rep view
Dynamic territories only work if everyone trusts the system. Transparency is what keeps fairness intact.
- Manager view: Pipeline creation analytics in Carve show how territories perform as accounts flow. Managers can spot imbalances instantly, no waiting until Q2 to realize one rep got overloaded.
- Rep view: Reps see why each account was assigned to them. Instead of questioning the carve, they can focus on pipeline creation and closing.
When both sides see the same logic, accountability replaces guesswork.
Choosing dynamic:
Ask yourself:
- Do we re-carve every year because territories drift out of balance?
- Do we waste weeks in spreadsheets trying to “fix” fairness?
- Are we adding reps or segments faster than our planning process can keep up?
If you answered yes to even one, static territories are holding you back. Dynamic allocation gives RevOps the control to balance workloads automatically and the agility to respond to change instantly.
You don’t have to rebuild your GTM model overnight, many teams start hybrid, using static territories for enterprise accounts and dynamic books for mid-market or commercial segments. The key is embracing movement as normal, not as a crisis.
The takeaway
Static territories were built for a slower world. Dynamic territories are built for the one we actually work in fast, data-rich, and constantly evolving. With the right system, fairness isn’t something you carve once a year, it’s something you maintain every day.
Dynamic territories keep your teams balanced, your data honest, and your pipeline flowing.
