The RPOS Model: Allocating Accounts and Sales Calls in B2B Field Sales

Many customer-classification systems conflate a customer's economic size with the firm's share of that customer's purchases: they judge an account by what it buys from the firm rather than from the whole market, and they reward call volume rather than the quality of the accounts visited. This paper presents the RPOS model, which gives each account a two-dimensional code: a fixed number from 1 to 5 expressing the customer's real potential in the category (Real Potential), and a variable letter (A, B or C) expressing the firm's position against competitors inside the account (Our Share), assessed separately for each business unit. Each cell of the resulting matrix is linked to a sales task (protect, expand or penetrate), a coverage channel, a call frequency and conditions for managerial intervention. The paper proposes a six-stage decision engine, an account card and new performance indicators, positions the model within research on customer prioritization, key account management, account portfolio analysis and sales-call allocation, and states what the model adds and what remains unproven.