Territory map maker

1. Aligning your sales territories

The market is always changing. That can make it difficult to manage your territories. But with sales territory mapping, you can balance the workload to ensure every member of your sales team has an equal footing.

This fair division is crucial for maintaining productivity. When your sales reps aren't overworked (or underworked), they're able to make the most of their leads and clients. But a sales rep with too much on their plate can't make the most of their opportunities or give enough attention to each client.

This can also lead to a situation where you're rewarding the territory, not the salesperson: If a rep's assignment is packed full of opportunity, they'll easily meet or beat quota. Nearly any rep in that situation would do well. That person will receive bonuses and accolades due to luck rather than skill, while another rep could be working harder in a territory with less opportunity and struggling despite their best effort.

By keeping territories up to date, you can improve morale and reduce turnover. It also frees salespeople to focus on closing more deals.

2. Ending coverage overlap

A sales territory map can show areas of overlap. When boundaries aren’t clear, it may lead to conflict within teams and frustration among customers.

It’s off-putting for new leads when multiple people from the same company reach out to them. Your prospect’s time is valuable, and you’re wasting it. Meanwhile, team members may start arguing over who owns which lead. If left unchecked, reps might start jockeying for position more than they’re selling.

When best practices aren’t shared freely, the business loses. And when prospects are confused about who they should be talking to, it compounds the problem. In today’s market, customer experience is a major differentiating factor. If your sales reps can’t provide good service, customers will leave and find someone who can.

Fixing territory overlap with the help of sales mapping software prevents sales reps from having the same customer. It also lets your team optimize time in the field and provide the best service.

3. Addressing coverage gaps

On the flip side, you may end up finding gaps in your coverage that must be addressed. You may also start to see areas where your company has no presence at all, or customers without designated reps. Mapping software can help you investigate these areas to see whether they’re ripe for business expansion and devise a sales territory plan that makes sense for the organization.

4. Locating hot spots that need extra attention

When you're dealing with territories that range widely in geographical size, they can be difficult to assess. All things being equal, it doesn't seem fair for one sales rep to be covering several counties while another has a small section of New York City. But you need to think beyond geographical size when designing territories.

To move away from this kind of judgment call, where territories are designed based on size alone, many companies look at the number of accounts or a combination of historic and predicted revenue. Some territory map makers give you the ability to manually balance or automatically optimize based on these metrics. This allows you to focus on workload, not just size. The small slice of New York City might have 20 accounts. In upstate New York, the same number of accounts are spread over several counties.

5. Providing an interactive snapshot of your data

When sales data is spread across spreadsheets and CRM systems, it can be hard to see the big picture. Sales territory mapping software brings this data to life through visualization and empowers you to make the best decisions. Armed with vivid maps and charts, you can share accurate and engaging reports with every member of your team.

Interactive mapping software also lets you collaborate with your team. Multiple people can create maps or work on one together. If you've already mapped your data, others can take in the larger picture or dig into the details by zooming and selecting pins.

6. Supporting sales personnel in the field

In most companies, sales reps only spend about a third of their time selling. Administration is part of the challenge, but planning also takes time. Reps aren’t always sure who to target and they may end up winging it.

A territory map maker gives your reps the tools to plan more effectively. With a filtering feature, you can target accounts by industry and value to help ensure your sales team’s activity aligns with business goals.

For example, say you’re running an end of quarter push. You have a limited amount of time to make it over your targets. You can filter out low-value leads and laser focus on the ones that will allow you to get to your goal.

Once you’ve filtered and have a map of your ideal targets, that map can be shared with the field sales reps. From there, they can use route optimization to create a plan that allows them to see the most leads possible, giving your team the best chance at hitting quarterly targets. Also, if one of your reps scores a new lead outside of their territory, they can connect that person with the right teammate.

Advanced territory management

Territory management is an essential for salesforce planning, resource allocation, reporting and more. With eSpatial's Territory Manager, you can bring your management tasks into the digital age. Design and optimize territories in just a few clicks, saving days of manual fiddling. After you've created your territories, use the built-in comparison tool to check ongoing performance against past sales metrics.

Route optimization

Reduce travel time and improve customer experience by using route optimization. With eSpatial, your sales reps can plan out their entire day, create an effective travel route and spend more time engaging with customers.

No matter what industry you're in, territory map makers can help you focus on revenue growth and cost reductions. But to get the most out of your mapping software, it's crucial to select a platform that offers the features you need to make sense of your business data.

Full on-boarding and support

You're focused on getting insights and results as quickly as possible. You know that getting your team on-boarded and trained means greater return on your investment and time. Our mapping experts offer one-on-one training when you sign up for an eSpatial account. As you work on your project, your Customer Success Manager will be available to answer any of your questions. You’ll also have a range of helpful guides, blogs and videos at your disposal on our website to help you get the most out of eSpatial.