With so much data today contained in CRMs and other data solutions software, you might ask, why mapping data matters at all?
As discussed in a previous post, data is growing at a faster pace more than ever. Not long ago, before the abundance of CRMs and analytics software, finding quality data that you needed was difficult, as it was hard to gather. Now with the advancement of technology, it is much easier for organizations to obtain vast amounts of data quickly. However, finding that quality data can still be as much of a problem today. Instead of the lack of data being the problem, it is now too much data.
Data Visualization can be a huge asset in filtering through the noise in your data. But there can be many forms of Data Visualization tools from videos, info-graphs, to mapping. From a sales point of view, mapping data visually is one of the most powerful forms of Data Visualization that can be used by sales teams and sales managers. Mapping data is sometimes overlooked today. After all, businesses have all their data stored in the cloud, databases, CRMs, or spreadsheets and many visualize this data already through charts and graphs. However, most sales data today contains location information within it, whether that is a customer’s address or a territory that a sales person is responsible for. This makes it the perfect type of data to be suited for a map.
Mapping Sales Territories
A Territory itself is defined as an area in which one has certain rights or for which one has responsibility with regard to a particular type of activity. You cannot get the sense of scale or area of a territory by viewing it through text or even graphs, so it makes sense to map a sales territory visually, there’s no better way to view a territory than on a map.
Nearly all Sales teams work within territories. A visualized territory map of your sales data provides you with a variety of data at a glance. For example, check out the territory map created below, you can quickly see the high performing territories at a glance. Using the legend, you can quickly switch between Q1 and Q2, highlight the locations of leads and prospects, the nearest airports to each, and even the density of accounts. Try giving it a go below:
View a larger version of Territory Performance 2015 created with eSpatial mapping software.
Identify Gaps and Respond Quickly
Mapping your sales data isn’t just making your data look good, but also about making you and your team’s job easier and faster. Seeing your data on a map isn’t enough. You need to know where customers, leads, and prospects are based, is there a pattern? How can you get there, is there a way to find a cost effective way for field teams to reach them?
Applications of mapping software include using a radius map, which takes two sets of data and lets you focus on their spatial relationship. They are particularly suited to showing gaps in the market or where there is an over-supply (Find out more about Radius Maps here).
With a list of customers on a map, field sales teams can quickly see their closest customers and plan the most cost effective and fastest route between them (find out more about Route Optimization here). Data Visualization through these types of maps can be extremely revealing and point out relationships and connections that would not have been possible from spreadsheets.
These are just some of the reasons why mapping your data matters, not only is the visualization of data a benefit to your organization in finding, understanding, and sharing quality data, but the applications are proven to save time, money and improve the performance of your business.
Data Visualization in Minutes
Of course, these maps containing all your spreadsheet data can be set up in minutes. Meaning that these dynamic images can be created quickly form your Excel data (find out how to turn your Excel spreadsheet into a map here) and be used in meetings with sales teams and stakeholders, or even for client presentations. It’s much easier to share a map via a link than emailing around multiple versions of spreadsheets.
For more tips on data visualization and why mapping matters in today’s business world, download our eBook “Drowning in Data: Bring Insights to the surface with Data Visualization”