Why Create Visualizations for Market Coverage and Competitor Analysis?
Firstly you might want to know why you should consider this option. Understanding your market coverage and your competitive landscape is essential to effectively manage a sales strategy. It has been shown that combining sales data with its location during analysis directly improves sales strategy, consequently improving revenues of the company 1.
Trying to comprehend the issues of market coverage and competitor analysis by staring at excel data is simply too difficult. Visualization helps analysts achieve more insight into the nature of a problem and develop a new understanding of issues such as customer churn 2.
3 Features You Can Use With Mapping Software
There are a variety of ways in which modern mapping software can help you understand the market coverage of your business and your competitors.
1) Radius Mapping
Radius maps take two sets of data and let you focus on their spatial relationship. Your company may want to investigate issues such as:
- How many customers are within 5 miles of your business?
- Are there any significant coverage gaps in your network?
- Who is the nearest rep/technician/etc. to each account?
- Which areas are most lucrative for expansion?
- What significant trends or patterns can we capitalize on?
- How can I minimize transport and distribution costs?
This feature can be used to gain an accurate perspective of market coverage by visualizing density of clients and customers. In turn, this lets you devise a more organized sales strategy and run a more effective sales team.
2) Heat Mapping
You can identify gaps in the market by using heat maps. Heat maps use color schemes to allow you to not only identify high performing zones, but also potential also those lucrative untapped markets. You can upload your data and set conditions according to a specified color scheme. This visualization allows you gain crucial sales insights, and provides guidance on how you can adjust your sales approach and strategy.
3) Territory Mapping
Rapidly divide a large target area into more manageable regions in order to analyze competitors and current performance, allowing for better planning and faster decision-making. This enables you to allocate sales teams more effectively, leading to higher profits and greater efficiency.
Find out more about how to make mapping software work for you
2 Retrieved from Sviokla, J (2009) “Swimming in Data? Three Benefits of Visualization”. Harvard Business Review.