Marketing in 2016, where content is king is a challenge. What’s a business-to-business executive to do? That’s actually a key question. Whether you are struggling to concoct your latest clever 140-character Twitter quip, carefully crafted to push your follower list over the top, or writing a 750-word blog post complete with critical yet so readable SEO links, it’s a struggle to determine what to do next. Makes you want to run for the shelter of mother’s little helper.
So you Google it, right? I recently Googled what makes a decent eBook. It’s a valid question, especially when you are about to spend the next two weeks trying to write one for the first time. One ex-HubSpot fella said the critical element was to show how your product saves time or money for your customer. Well that makes good sense, I thought. So I asked myself, how does Map Business Online line save our customers time and money?
Time Waits for No One
Time is easy and basic, so I’ll start there. Map Business Online is either, the easiest business mapping software available (there’s that cute SEO link) or one of the top two easiest. And when something is easy to learn, it saves you time. It saves you time to learn the software and it saves you time when you begin creating map analysis, territory maps, or whatever location-based map analysis you require. With Map Business Online you save time learning the software, and the next person to have to learn the tool saves time as well.
Complicated GIS programs can be overkill for plain old business users like you and me. Mapping processes in Map Business Online provide advanced map views and market analysis while avoiding complicated set-up requirements. Most of the “map” set-up required for typical online map software has been preset and is ready to rock and roll.
Sales territory alignment in Map Business Online is a breeze. Set-up of USA wide complex territories can take significant hours of data grooming, data importing, and territory adjustments to get your sales dollars allotted appropriately, your territories color shaded to your liking, and appended data accurately attached. Map Business Online makes this process as automatic as possible and enables quick editing tools that get the job done in record time with maximum accuracy. That’s less time building and less time adjusting.
I know, because I get hired to build these business mapping projects. (Ring us for map consulting.) No one wants to spend weeks and months futzing around with territory tweaks. I want the same thing my customers want – a complete project, on-time and under budget. That’s what leads to more business. Time is on my side.
Just Give Me Money
There are many reasons why business location mapping software can lower costs for a business or non-profit. They fall into two general categories – process improvements and improved investment returns. Please keep in mind the basic cost of this software for a full year of the USA coverage area is $299.95 per year. So there’s your additional investment. We encourage prospective buyers to compare prices amongst business mapping competitors.
Process improvements from the best mapping software for business are often found in marketing. Business maps are used to import customers and prospects and view them on the map, an easy and fast way to visualize your marketing targets and begin to segment those lists for campaigns, sales routes, or donor lists. Customer or prospect segmentation can take place based on geographic shapes that you draw or administrative districts like groups of zip 3 and zip 5 codes, counties, or Census tracts. That initial view of your customers against your business coverage area generally points to obvious segmentation approaches. Customer density views can also tell you a lot. Here’s where our customers are, here’s where they are not. Mapping business locations, a basic import process that adds huge value.
By extending that analysis to look at Census demographics (included in Map Business Online at no additional fee) in the same area, you’ve immediately enhanced the value of your analysis. Expand on your demographic maps by importing data that includes competitors, or perhaps retail stores that are favorites for your target audience. Your market analysis just became the basis for company expansion plans.
So maybe you don’t hire that fancy Madison Avenue marketing firm quite yet. Let’s see how far a business map view can inform your decision-making supporting market expansion in 2016. Cha-ching! Start me up.
You Don’t Always Get What You Want
Sometimes the companies we work for invest in new systems. Think CRM, sales order processing, and accounting systems. I can hear the groans, they sound like Jagger. At times these system implementations go very smoothly but sometimes they get stuck, don’t they? There are many reasons for this – culture, investment restrictions, and misunderstandings around specifications. In many cases a business mapping software can help leverage or even rescue that investment. Like a knight in shining armor coming to your emotional rescue.
A CRM system will manage your customer database. In some case that system might actually assign or have the capability to assign a territory by zip code. But these systems usually do not provide business mapping services. You can’t visualize that territory against a map. That visual/geographic view of your CRM assigned territories brings the sales accountability to your CRM investment. Imagine the meeting where all stakeholders can clearly view Kevin’s account projections on the wall map, through web share meetings, or via overhead projector while Kevin explains the logic behind his monthly sales projections. He better be using his CRM to update his projections based on the latest customer information because that data is now included in totals in the territory map that everyone is sharing. Perhaps Kevin has a reputation for over stating potential revenues? Everyone likes to be a hero. And every other sales person in that room is going to want to be more accurate than Kevin. Shared territory maps drive accountability. Kevin may be shattered, but business mapping tools will help pull him into line.
Business maps drive accountability and accountability drives sales. Further, accurate sales projections can be literally taken to the bank. “Mr. Banker, here’s the last ten year’s projections versus actuals from our sales group. Look at the relative accuracy of their projections – up and down. And here’s our current Sales projection coverage map that highlights all territories with projections and supporting data.”
Get Some Satisfaction
One reason maps drive accountability is because they clearly and quickly communicate. Leveraging map communication across disparate teams can lead to faster and integrated problem-solving within your organization. A business mapping project can be easily created that displays major sales accounts across a coverage area. Each account can be displayed with relevant critical sales data at the ready – year to date sales, month to date sales, accounts receivable balances, links to online news items.
With collaborative map editing and view only rights established for team members, these shared maps can then be used as the communication platform for team problem solving. I love the idea of a busy sales team, working with manufacturing and accounts receivable to balance the risks and rewards associated with lucrative accounts that pay slowly. Business mapping can be a leveling agents that helps departments understand how collaborative solutions benefit the company overall. I’ve worked in businesses were receivables over-controlled sales growth and another where accounting brow beat manufacturing into customer service nightmares. I’ve also seen sales departments drive businesses into bankruptcy. Look for tools that balance decision-making and controls. This is as true for Ruby Tuesday’s as it is for brown sugar companies.
And this is why we find that once a user starts working with Map Business Online, Wild Horses couldn’t drag them away. It saves time, money, and encourages big-picture thinking.
As for this blog – It’s all over now.
Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035, (207) 939-6866
MapPoint users – please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.
Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or at Crowd Reviews.
