Build and Assign Activity Plan Targets
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Distinguish among three activity plan types and the strategy each one fits.
- Explain how review thresholds on the activity plan limit mid-cycle target changes.
- Describe how account goals, weighted measures, and product links build a single account's target.
- Explain how the target pattern repeats to run one strategy across an entire field.
Turn Measurement Rules into Targets
In the previous unit, you built the measure types that define which field activities count. Those rules classify the activities, but they don't yet name an account or set an expectation.
A target turns a measure type into something a rep works toward. It names the accounts a rep covers, how many interactions each account needs, which channels carry that work, and which product it supports. For Cumulus, that means turning the Immunexis launch strategy into records a rep can act on each day and a manager can track in real time.
In this unit, you choose a plan type, create an activity plan, connect it to a territory, and break account goals into weighted, product-specific measures.
Choose the Right Goal Structure
Before you create any records, you choose a plan type. The type decides what a target counts and how the system measures success across territories. Activity plans support three plan types.
Plan type |
How it counts |
When to use it |
|---|---|---|
Account Goal |
A fixed number of activities per account, such as 10 visits. |
Coverage is uniform and volume-based. |
Weighted Territory Goal |
Different interaction types are worth different point values. |
You want higher-value channels to count for more. |
Account Goal Shared |
Activity for one account across several territories counts toward a single target. |
One account is managed by more than one regional team. |
For the Immunexis launch, Cumulus chooses Weighted Territory Goals. A face-to-face clinical detail takes more effort and carries more impact than a quick text message, so the plan values channels differently.
Create the Plan Context
The Activity Plan record is the primary container for the cycle. It sets the operational frame without naming a single account or product.
When you create the plan, you set its Usage Type to Provider Plan Cycle and link a Time Period record, which fixes the start and end dates for valid field activity. You select Calculation Enabled so the platform runs the progress math for you. You can enter the plan's working days manually, but the Calculate Working Days batch job does it more precisely. It reads the territory's configuration, holidays, and Time Off Territory records, then rounds the available field days to the nearest half day.
Here's the activity plan record for the Cumulus launch.
The record holds no account assignments yet. It does hold the Review Details, where you set three thresholds that cap how far the field can change targets once review begins.
-
Activity Change Review Threshold Percentage caps how far a user can move a single account's goal.
-
Total Activity Change Review Threshold Percentage caps the combined change across all accounts in the plan.
-
Total Account Change Review Threshold Percentage caps how many accounts a user can add or remove.
The next unit shows what happens when a proposed change crosses one of these limits.
Connect the Plan to Territory Coverage
A plan can do little until it reaches the teams that run it. You connect it to a territory by creating an Activity Plan Territory record. Cumulus links the launch plan to the San Francisco North territory, which sets the field boundary before any account targets exist.
Here's the activity plan territory record for the launch.
With the territory connected, the right field team owns the plan. Now you build targets for the accounts inside it.
Assign Goals to Priority Accounts
Inside the territory, you set a target for each account with a Provider Activity Goal record. It holds the total engagement that an HCP or HCO needs during the cycle. Cumulus creates a goal for a high-priority specialist in San Francisco North, which establishes the account's baseline expectation.
Here's the specialist's Provider Activity Goal.
The overall goal defines how much engagement the account needs. The next step splits that number into the channels that make it up.
Break Goals into Activity Measures
An overall goal sets how many interactions an account needs, but it doesn't shape the channel mix. To do that, you break the goal into Provider Activity Goal Measures, one per channel. Each measure links to a measure type from the previous unit. In a weighted plan you assign an Activity Weight Value to the measure. This value defines how much each completed interaction counts toward the overall score.
For its priority specialist, Cumulus weighs deeper work more heavily. The administrator sets three measures: three in-person details at a weight of 2.0, four WhatsApp follow-ups at 1.0, and two SMS reminders at 0.5. That's nine planned interactions worth 11 weighted points. So a rep who logs plenty of texts but skips the in-person details still falls short on the score.
Here's the WhatsApp goal measure, with an overall goal of four and a weight of 1.0.
Without the weight, every channel would count the same. The weight makes an in-person detail worth more than a text and tells a manager where the priority sits.
Associate Measures with Products
The last layer ties each measure to the product it supports. You add a Provider Activity Goal Measure Product record to link a goal measure to a product, chosen from either the Product2 or Life Sciences Marketable Product object. A single goal measure can carry up to ten products, so one tracked activity can report on more than one brand.
In a weighted plan, each product link also takes a Product Weightage. The Activity Weight Value on the goal measure sets how much each interaction counts by channel. The Product Weightage sets how much each product counts within the plan. So a team can prioritize both the channel and the brand.
The product link builds on the product-based setting you turned on earlier: the plan already counts qualifying activity and already holds the targets, and the link is what reads the progress by product instead of by raw volume.
For Cumulus, the launch centers on one product, so each of the specialist's goal measures links to Immunexis alone. Here's one of them.
With the product link in place, the plan reports Immunexis attainment instead of counting every qualifying visit as generic account activity. The account's target is now complete: a cycle, a territory, an account, weighted channel targets, and product attribution.
Scale the Target Pattern
You can build these records by hand for a small pilot, but commercial teams usually roll out at scale with Salesforce Data Import. Administrators import the plans, goals, measures, and product links in bulk from their targeting and segmentation systems. For more information, see Salesforce Data Import.
The pattern holds at any size. Each account gets a Provider Activity Goal, which breaks into weighted goal measures, which tie to product records. One corporate strategy runs across the whole field, with the volume, weights, and channel mix tuned to each account's market tier.
What’s Next?
You've chosen a plan type, built the activity plan, connected it to a territory, and broken account goals into weighted, product-specific measures. Your strategy is now captured in a set of clearly defined records.
In the next unit, you take these structures live. You move the plan through its review stages, schedule the background jobs that update progress, and place the charts where reps and managers see them each day.