Business people use business mapping for a plethora of applications. Business mapping software is especially helpful for sales departments. The sales enterprise benefits tremendously from geographic views of sales activity, market composition, competitor placements, and prospect locations. Maps are the perfect medium for telling the sales story.
The Road Warrior
Most sales people who use Map Business Online will import their customer list using the Plot Data on Map wizard. Over seventy percent of Map Business Online users import their data for map visualizations. It is far and away the most used feature. From there a sales person might set up regular vehicles routes using the Data Window or apply Geographic Search Tools to query and segment customer locations in preparation for their next business trip. For many sales people, with customer lists in the hundreds, Map Business Online becomes a low-end CRM. We don’t recommend it for that purpose but more than once I’ve heard the tool described that way.
For a sales person, a view of your territory with customers and prospects overlaid, is like having a security blanket. You’ve got an overview of your work for next six months. It includes some fallback accounts and potential new markets. You can even import your favorite restaurants and hotels.
We often speak with sales people who color code or symbolize their imported data by customer type or visit status. Color coding customer locations helps define your sales territory’s status at a glance.
The Road Warrior’s Manager
Sales managers tend to use Map Business Online to visualize the company’s customer and prospect lists. So, they’ll use the Plot Data on Map wizard also. They will also design and create sales territories for their sales team. They may import a territory scheme or create one from scratch. They’ll also build regional and divisional hierarchies on top of territories depending on the size of the company and the scope of their business.
A sales manager establishes sales territories that reflect the way their particular company does business. Key elements of that business structure might be related to:
- Does the company sell direct?
- Does the company sell through manufacturing sales reps?
- Does the company allow sales coverage to overlap?
- Do sales reps earn sales commission?
- Are territories balanced by sales results or by population or some other factor?
Map Business Online can work with these elements to design and share sales territories that accurately reflect a business’s approach to selling.
Sales managers also use business mapping tools to share territory assignments across their internal sales network. After all – maps are for sharing. In some cases, a manager may encourage his people to collaborate on one or two maps to solve a particularly hairy problem. Map Business Online makes collaborative map editing possible through team sharing.
At some point, a sales manager will get called into a planning meeting to discuss forecasts, expansion plans, or, heaven forbid, a layoff. Business maps are perfect tools for describing these sales ‘situations.’ Sales territory maps can go a long way towards explaining shortfalls in the sales results, or for pointing out who deserves the biggest bonus this year.
And after the ‘situation’ is resolved, you’ll be sure to want to use Map Business Online to support the strategic plan for the coming year. Start with a map of current sales results. Overlay new potential customers, or markets. Add demographic data that supports your proposed plan for next year. Pull in the location data that supports your case.
Business maps are business intelligence. Leverage compelling displays of your business’s sales organization toward growth and new markets. No other medium shares intelligence and ideas more effectively. Win with maps.
Call Center Support
Speaking of sharing maps, call center reps often use business maps to look up coverage areas, and territory assignments. These look ups may be used to direct customers to the right solution. They could be used for dispatching sales reps, field technicians or clinicians.
Map Business Online MapShare capability is extremely affordable. Generally, call center associates do not require map editing capabilities. But the ability to search and export location records can be extremely helpful. Route sharing is also of interest when field staff are taken into consideration.
Map Business Online MapShare view only maps are powerful tools for sharing critical information with the entire sales team. And remember, an informed team is a happy and effective team.
Strategic Selling
There are many strategic methods of selling. We’re not here to discuss how you sell, but we are here to help you apply mapping tools toward a winning strategy. Smart selling involves the gathering of business intelligence. Business mapping software should be one of the business arrows in your business quiver.
The power of visualizing where your customers, competitors and new markets are can advance your sales strategies beyond anything you’ve experienced before. Years ago (1992) I attended an electrical wholesaler sales planning session for 1993. Each sales person stood in front of the room and committed to growing their territory by 15 or 20 percent. But for the most part, there was no actual plan. It was all on the come. Just a commitment. Business mapping would have transformed that meeting into a plan of attack, complete with back-up plans in the face of unplanned for obstacles.
Business maps: See it, plan it, share it, and live it. You’ll love it.
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Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com for their business mapping software and advanced sales territory mapping solution.
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com (800) 425-9035
MapPoint users please consider www.MapBusinessOnline.com as your MapPoint Replacement.
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