In this article, we’re handing you the ultimate arsenal of 10 battle-tested sales territory mapping tips. From creating laser-focused regions to empowering your sales dream team, we’ll reveal the blueprint for generating results that will leave your competitors in the dust.

Get ready to revolutionize your sales and marketing game, as we unlock the secrets to crafting efficient and effective sales territory management maps that will skyrocket your success.

Tip 1: Define Your Objectives

The first step in effective sales territory mapping is to define your objectives.

What do you hope to achieve by creating these sales territories? Are you trying to increase sales, improve customer service, or something else?

Once you know your objectives, you can start to develop a plan for how to achieve them.

Image: Selecting Maptive Version 5 AI Territory Map Variables (Coming Mid 2024)

Tip 2: Use the Right Tools

There are a number of different software tools that can be used for sales territory mapping.

Some of the most popular options include Maptive, SalesForce, and Insightly. When choosing a mapping tool, it is important to consider your specific needs and requirements.

Maptive stands out for its user-friendly interface that simplifies sales territory mapping, while its powerful data visualization capabilities allow seamless analysis of complex datasets. Real-time collaboration features foster teamwork, and cloud-based accessibility ensures data can be accessed anytime, anywhere.

Tip 3: Consider Geographic Factors

When creating sales territory maps, it is important to consider geographic factors–such as distance, travel time, and physical barriers–that can have a significant impact on the efficiency of your sales teams.

For example, if you have a large sales territory with a lot of travel time, you may want to consider creating smaller territories so that members of your sales teams can reach clients more efficiently without spending the majority of their day just getting from place to place.

Image: Maptive Version 5 Drive Time Polygons (Coming Mid 2024)

Tip 4: Balance Your Territories

A common challenge sales leaders face is striking a balance and making sure their sales teams get a fair share of the action.

It’s all about drawing and sorting those sales territories in a smart way. Consider the customer count in each area, the sales territory sizes, and the revenue potential they hold.

Once you’ve analyzed sales data and gone through the process of sales territory mapping, you can then assign reps to a specific sales territory and fine-tune your system to generate revenue. You can assign territories based on the strengths of your sales reps, their locations, and other factors that will optimize sales efficiency.

Image: Maptive Version 5 AI Territory Map (Coming Mid 2024)

Tip 5: Use Demographic Data

Making smart use of demographic data can prove to be a valuable asset when creating effective sales territories.

Among other things, this data empowers sales leaders to pinpoint areas with a significant concentration of their target customers. For instance, if your product appeals to young professionals, strategically focusing your sales efforts in regions with a sizable number of those specific customer segments can help overall sales territory mapping performance.

This data can become an important part of your sales strategy to maximize your chances of success in reaching the right audience in their respective territories.

Image: Maptive Version 5 Zip Code Map Boundaries – Map your Data or included US Census Data within Zip Codes, States, Counties & more.

Tip 6: Regularly Review and Adjust Your Territories

Your business and your target market are constantly changing, so it is important to regularly review and adjust your territories. This will ensure that your existing sales territories are still effective and efficient.

For example, let’s say your business expands its product line or enters a new market segment. In this case, reassessing and potentially realigning territories can help your sales teams better focus on new opportunities and target the right customers.

Additionally, market shifts, such as demographic changes or economic fluctuations, may alter customer preferences and buying behaviors. By staying vigilant and adjusting your sales territory mapping strategy, you can stay ahead of the game and maintain a competitive edge.

Keeping a finger on the pulse of your business and consistently fine-tuning your various sales processes and territories will undoubtedly lead to enhanced sales performance and overall success.

Tip 7: Involve Your Team

The people, aka your sales reps, who will be working with the sales territories should be involved in the mapping process as this will help ensure that your sales territory mapping plan is designed to meet the needs of the sales team members.

By gathering insights and input directly from the sales team, the territories can be structured to align with each salesperson’s strengths, preferences, and familiarity with certain areas. This involvement fosters a sense of ownership and accountability among the team, as they feel invested in the territories they helped create.

Another familiar scenario involves businesses introducing a new product line–in which case, including the sales team in the mapping process will mean they can share their expertise and understanding of customer preferences, which will lead to sales territories strategically designed to maximize the potential for selling the new products.

Ultimately, involving the team in the sales territory mapping process ensures that the new sales territories are thoughtfully crafted to cater to current customers and their needs and create a positive impact on sales performance.

Tip 8: Visualize Your Data

In general, transforming your data into a map visualization can unlock valuable insights that may not be apparent when presented in tabular form. That process becomes so much more powerful when the information you’re mapping is your sales data that is now displayed neatly across sales territories.

However, the advantages of mapping your sales data don’t end there. This spatial representation of sales data brings clarity to patterns and trends, empowering you and your sales reps to make informed decisions and strategize effectively for maximizing revenue potential.

Image: Maptive Version 5  – Marker Grouping with Double Grouping (Bubble Size Representing Numeric Values)

Tip 9: Use Heat Maps

A heat map is a data visualization technique used to display the density or intensity of data points on a map using color gradients.

Essentially, it is a graphical representation where areas with a higher concentration of data points are shown in warmer colors like red or orange, while areas with lower density are displayed in cooler colors like blue or green.

In the context of sales territory mapping, a heat map can be used to identify areas with higher sales performance, customer concentration, or other relevant metrics–which makes heat maps an invaluable tool for identifying high-performing hotspots and underperforming areas within your sales territories.

Image: Maptive Version 5 Heat Map (Coming Mid 2024)

Tip 10: Plan Routes Within Sales Territories

Route planning is a game-changer when it comes to boosting the efficiency of your sales reps.

Route planning software can help you optimize your teams’ daily schedules, cut down on travel time, and allow more face-to-face interactions and less time stuck in traffic.

This is especially true if a sales rep needs to visit multiple clients in different areas during the day. With route planning, they can prioritize appointments based on geographic proximity, minimizing travel distances and ensuring a smoother, more productive day. This not only saves time and reduces fuel costs but also leaves ample room for the sales team to focus on building stronger customer relationships and closing deals.

Image: Maptive Version 5 Sales Route Planning with Multiple Routes, Turn-by-Turn Instructions and Export Feature. (Coming Mid 2024)

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving world of business, crafting effective territory maps becomes a potent weapon to unleash the sales and marketing prowess of any sales leader.

Armed with the valuable tips from this article, you’re set to embark on a sales territory mapping adventure that’ll lead you to sales territory management greatness.

From smart data visualization to strategic route planning, these golden nuggets will help you carve out sales territories that are not only efficient but also exquisitely effective.

So, brace yourselves for sales triumphs as you chart the course to unparalleled success with your finely-tuned territory maps!

Sign up for a free trial of Maptive to start creating your own territory maps today!

FAQ

• How can mapping software help with sales territory mapping?
  • Visualizing your data on a map. This can help you to identify patterns and trends that are not apparent in tabular data.
  • Identifying high-performing and underperforming areas within your territories. This data can help you to focus your sales efforts in the areas that are most likely to generate results.
  • Planning routes within territories. This can help you to improve the efficiency of your sales team by identifying the most efficient routes between customers and by scheduling appointments in a way that minimizes travel time.
• What are the benefits of using mapping software for sales territory mapping?
  • Increased efficiency
  • Improved accuracy
  • Enhanced visibility
  • Saved time
  • Improved collaboration
• How can I use demographic data in sales territory mapping?
  • Demographic data can be used in sales territory mapping to identify areas with high concentrations of your target customers. This information can help you focus your sales efforts in those areas, which can then lead to increased sales and profits.
• How can I use route planning in sales territory mapping?
  • Route planning can be used to improve the efficiency of your sales team by identifying the most efficient routes between customers–which in turn can help reduce travel time and costs, and increase the number of appointments that your sales team can make in a day.
• How do I integrate mapping software with other sales and marketing technologies?
  • Integrating mapping software with other sales and marketing technologies opens up a world of possibilities for optimizing your business strategies. Leading sales territory mapping software solutions offer seamless integrations with CRM systems and marketing automation platforms, like the robust Maptive API.
  • By linking your mapping software with your CRM, you gain the power to track your sales team’s activities with precision. This valuable data can then be utilized to fine-tune your sales territory maps, ensuring your sales force is laser-focused on the right customers for maximum impact.

The post Unlock the Power of Territory Mapping: 10 Expert Tips for Sales Teams appeared first on Maptive.

Sound familiar? Objections are a part of every salesperson’s life, and they can be a major roadblock to closing deals. But here’s the thing: objections don’t have to be a sales killer. In fact, they can be an opportunity to learn more about your prospect’s needs, address their concerns, and ultimately, close the deal.

In this article, we’re going to show you how to handle objections like a pro. We’ll cover the BANT and LAER frameworks, plus some effective strategies for overcoming common sales objections.

Whether you’re a seasoned sales pro or new to the game, this blog will give you the tools you need to tackle typical sales objections head-on and close more deals. So let’s get started!

Understanding Sales Objections in Calls

Simply put, “sales objections” are the reasons why a prospect may be hesitant to move forward with a purchase or may outright reject a sales pitch.

They can be anything from concerns about the product or service being offered, to questions about pricing, to doubts about the credibility of the salesperson.

Regardless of the nature of the sales objection, it’s your job to address it and provide the prospect with the information and reassurance they need to make their purchase.

The BANT Criteria: A Tool for Identifying Sales Objections

The BANT framework was originally developed by IBM and is still widely used today as a way to qualify leads and gather information about prospects before a sales call.

• Budget refers to the prospect’s ability to pay for a product or service. You need to have a clear understanding of your prospect’s budget so you can present solutions that are within their financial means. In fact, according to a study by Gong.io, top-performing sales reps spend more time discussing pricing and budget than their average-performing counterparts.
• Authority refers to the prospect’s ability to make purchasing decisions. You need to know who the decision-makers are within their organization and make sure you’re addressing their needs and concerns.
• Need refers to the prospect’s actual need for your product or service. You need to understand the prospect’s pain points and demonstrate how your product can address those issues.
• Timing refers to the prospect’s timeline for making a purchase. You need to understand the prospect’s buying cycle and work with them to ensure that your product or service is being considered at the right time.

The Importance of Handling a Sales Objection

Learning to handle objections effectively can pay off in big ways for both the sales reps and the prospects.

When objections are handled proactively and professionally, it shows the prospect that the salesperson is listening to their concerns and is genuinely interested in finding solutions that meet their needs. This builds trust, and can ultimately lead to a stronger customer relationship.

For the prospect, successful objection handling means that they get the information and reassurance they need to make an informed purchasing decision. When objections are left unaddressed, people experience uncertainty, which can lead to a lost sale.

Closing More Deals

Sales objections signal that a prospect is interested but may need more information or reassurance before making a purchase.

• By taking the time to understand their concerns and provide thoughtful responses, you can build trust and alleviate any doubts or hesitations the prospect may have.
• By addressing objections head-on, salespeople can increase the likelihood of prospects moving forward in the buying process and ultimately lead to a higher closing rate.
• By providing clear and concise responses to sales objections, the conversation moves forward and the prospect stays engaged. This can ultimately lead to a higher closing rate and a more successful sales outcome.

Building Stronger Customer Relationships

Building a strong relationship with the customer is key to overcoming objections and closing deals.

• By taking the time to empathize with your clients’ concerns and demonstrating a genuine interest in helping them find solutions, you can establish trust and build long-lasting relationships.
• By demonstrating a willingness to listen and address objections, salespeople can create a sense of partnership with their clients, which can help to build trust and foster loyalty over time.
• By providing thoughtful responses to sales objections and offering creative solutions to unique challenges, you can establish yourself as an expert in the field.

Improving Sales Efficiency

When sales professionals overcome sales objections the right way they can also streamline the sales process overall, making it more efficient.

• By anticipating and addressing objections early on in the sales cycle, sales reps can reduce the amount of time spent on low-potential leads and focus on high-value prospects.
• By addressing objections proactively, salespeople can eliminate roadblocks that might prevent a prospect from moving forward in the buying process.
• By prioritizing your efforts and focusing on the most promising leads, you can determine whether a prospect is a good fit for their product or service, weed out low-potential leads, and focus your efforts on high-value prospects that are more likely to convert.

Enhancing Personal and Team Development

This may not be an obvious perk, but handling sales objections can also contribute to personal and team development.

• By refining their objection-handling skills, salespeople can enhance their communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills.
• By learning to anticipate objections and address them proactively, salespeople can improve their communication skills and become better listeners.
• By thinking creatively and offering unique solutions to complex challenges, salespeople can develop better problem-solving skills.
• By sharing their experiences and collaborating on strategies for addressing objections, sales teams can improve their collective objection-handling skills and support each other in the sales process.

The LAER Method for Objection Handling

You can overcome sales objections by following the LAER framework. Developed by the Technology & Services Industry Association, the LAER framework helps sales professionals effectively address and anticipate sales objections and move prospects through the buying process.

Listen

This step involves actively listening to the prospect’s concern and asking clarifying questions to gain a deeper understanding of their concerns. For example, you might say, “I hear that you’re concerned about the cost. Can you tell me more about what specific concerns you have about the pricing?”

Acknowledge

Once the prospect has shared their concerns, it’s important to acknowledge them and empathize with their situation. This step involves demonstrating that you understand their objections and that you are committed to finding a solution that meets their needs. For example, you might say, “I understand that cost is a concern for you. We have several pricing options available, and I’m confident that we can find a solution that fits your budget.”

Explore

After acknowledging the prospect’s concerns, it’s important to explore the objection in greater detail. This step involves asking questions to gain a deeper understanding of the prospect’s needs. For example, you might say, “Can you tell me more about your current process and how our solution can help improve it? What features are most important to you?”

Respond

This step involves presenting the prospect with a solution that addresses their concerns and meets their needs. For example, you might say, “Based on our conversation, I think our solution can help address your concerns about cost while also providing the features you’re looking for. Let me show you how it works and answer any additional questions you may have.”

Common Sales Objections and How to Overcome Them

Price Objections

Addressing price concerns is one of the most common sales objections that you’ll face, and it’s important to have specific techniques for handling it.

1. Demonstrate Value: This can be done by highlighting the unique features and benefits that the prospect will receive by investing in the product or service. For example, you might say, “While our product may be more expensive than [some of our competitors], it has several unique features that provide greater value and efficiency in the long run.”
2. Offer Payment Plans: This approach can make the investment seem more affordable to the prospect. For example, you might say, “We offer several payment plans that can fit your budget and help you get the solution you need.”
3. Show the ROI: Quantify the benefits the prospect will receive in return for their investment. For example, you might say, “Our product has been shown to increase productivity by 30%, which at [other client you can showcase as a success story] led to [$$$] in cost savings and increased revenue.”
4. Highlight Long-Term Benefits: This can include benefits such as increased efficiency, improved quality, or reduced maintenance costs. For example, you might say, “While the initial cost may be higher, our product is designed to last longer and require less maintenance, which can lead to significant cost savings over time.”

Budget Objections

Helping prospects see the long-term value and ROI of your product or service is an important part of objection handling.

1. Provide Data: Use data to support your claims about the value and ROI of your product or service. Include case studies, testimonials, or industry research as needed. For example, if you are selling a software solution, you might provide data on how it has improved productivity and efficiency for other companies.
2. Focus on Business Impact: Help prospects understand how your offering can positively impact their business in both the short and long term. For example, if you are selling a marketing automation platform, you might focus on how it can help generate more leads and improve customer engagement.
3. Address Budget Constraints: Acknowledge the prospect’s budget constraints, but emphasize how your offering can provide long-term value and ROI. For example, if you are selling a cybersecurity solution, you might emphasize how it can help the prospect avoid costly data breaches and associated legal fees.
4. Offer Customized Solutions: Work with the prospect to develop a customized solution that fits their budget, offer different pricing options, bundle services together, or provide a phased implementation plan. For example, if you are selling a project management tool, you might offer a scaled-down version of the software that fits the prospect’s budget while still providing essential features.

Competitor Objections

Every business has competitors, and prospects might hesitate to buy your product if they think there’s a better, cheaper, or simpler alternative.

1. Understand Your Unique Value Proposition: Set your product or service apart from the competition by focusing on the benefits that you offer that others do not, and make sure you can clearly communicate these benefits to prospects.
2. Highlight Your USPs: Unique Selling Propositions are the specific features or benefits that make your offering stand out. Emphasize these points in your marketing materials, sales presentations, and conversations with prospects.
3. Provide Case Studies and Testimonials: Case studies and testimonials are powerful tools for demonstrating how your offering has helped other companies achieve their goals.
4. Position Your Offering as the Best Choice: Emphasize the unique benefits you offer, and how they are more valuable than those of your competitors. Make sure you are focusing on the needs of the prospect, and how your offering can help them achieve their goals.
5. Leverage Social Proof: Social proof is a powerful way to demonstrate the value of your offering. Use customer reviews to prove the unique benefits of your offering and show prospects that others have found it valuable.

Timing Objections

When it comes to a prospective buyer making a purchasing decision, timing is everything. So when prospects tell you it’s just not the right time for them to invest in what you’re selling, try these techniques:

1. Urgency: Maybe there’s a new market trend or a critical event happening soon that makes it vital for the prospect to act quickly. Highlighting the urgency of the situation will give prospects a sense of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and encourage them to make a decision.
2. Flexible Solutions: Try to offer creative solutions that cater to their needs such as a phased implementation approach that allows them to start small and grow their usage over time.
3. Discuss the Risks of Delaying: Highlighting the opportunity cost of inaction or the potential for competitors to gain an advantage can help prospects understand the importance of making a decision now. By providing clear examples and explanations, you can help prospects understand that time is of the essence.

Anticipating and Preparing for Sales Objections

One of the keys to overcoming sales objections successfully is anticipating them, which can be easily done by identifying the most common sales objections from within your industry. As a bonus, when you’re well-prepared, you’ll feel more confident during calls.

1. Stay Up-to-Date: With market trends, competitor offerings, and client feedback. Ask your existing customers what objections they had when they were first considering your product or service, and use that information to develop tailored responses. Look for patterns in the objections you receive and focus on addressing the most common ones.
2. Separate Good & Bad Prospects: Not every lead is a good fit for your product or service, and it’s crucial to focus on high-potential prospects who are most likely to convert into customers. When you identify that a prospect is not a good fit, part ways gracefully and focus your energy on higher-potential leads.
3. Develop Tailored Responses: Do your homework and you’ll be better equipped to handle objections, build trust with prospects, and close more deals.

Building Trust with Prospects

Building trust is essential in overcoming sales objections and closing deals. Prospects are more likely to buy from salespeople they trust, and building trust takes time and effort.

1. Be transparent and authentic in all communications. This includes being honest about the limitations of your product or service.
2. Demonstrate a deep understanding of your prospect’s needs and goals & show them you are invested in their success.
3. Be a reliable source of information and support.
4. Never make promises that you can’t keep.
5. Always follow through on your commitments.

Companies can also cultivate trust by establishing a strong brand identity and reputation. In fact, establishing a positive brand image online is just as crucial as delivering high-quality products because the first thing prospects will do is search you on Google and social media.

Setting a Follow-up Plan

When objections cannot be resolved during the initial sales call, it’s important to schedule a follow-up conversation to continue the conversation and work toward a resolution.

1. Demonstrate a commitment to resolving the prospect’s concerns.
2. Set clear expectations for the follow-up conversation.
3. Be proactive in scheduling the meeting, but be flexible and accommodating, offering to reschedule the meeting if necessary.
4. During the follow-up conversation, listen actively to the prospect’s concerns and demonstrate a willingness to work with them to find a solution.

By maintaining open lines of communication and showing a commitment to resolving their concerns, you can build trust and demonstrate your value as a partner. Ultimately, this can help you close more deals and build stronger relationships with your prospects.

Continuously Improving Objection Handling Skills

Successfully resolving sales objections is a continuous learning process. Even the most experienced sales reps can benefit from ongoing skill development and learning from past experiences.

To do this you need to first track your performance in addressing sales objections, so you can identify areas for improvement.

1. Review past sales conversations and identify common objections that arise.
   1. Take note of which objections you successfully handled and which ones proved more challenging.
   2. Reflect on what worked and what didn’t, and look for patterns or trends in your approach.
2. Learn from your peers.
   1. Share best practices within your sales team.
   2. Seek feedback from colleagues who have successfully navigated objections in the past.
3. Be open to new techniques and approaches.
   1. Attend training sessions, read industry publications, and seek out mentorship opportunities to continue learning.
   2. By continually refining your skills and staying up to date on the latest trends and best practices, you can become an even more effective sales rep.

How to Apply These Methods in Your Next Sales Call (Examples)

Before the Sales Call

Preparing for a sales call is critical to success. Use the BANT criteria to research the company and the prospect in advance, and prepare tailored responses to common objections you are anticipating.

• Identify the decision-makers and stakeholders involved in the buying process.
• Research the company’s history, industry, and competitors.
• Review the prospect’s online presence and any social media activity.
• Prepare a list of questions to ask during the call that will help you understand the prospect’s needs and concerns.

During the Sales Call

Use the LAER framework:

• Listen: Pay attention to the prospect’s concerns and ask clarifying questions.
• Acknowledge: Empathize with the prospect’s concerns and acknowledge their perspective. Use phrases like “I understand why you feel that way” or “That’s a valid point.”
• Explore: Ask open-ended questions to explore the root cause of the prospect’s objections. For example, “Can you tell me more about why that is a concern for you?”
• Respond: Provide a tailored response that addresses the prospect’s concerns and showcases the unique value proposition of your product or service. Use language that focuses on the benefits the prospect will receive, such as “Our product can save you time and increase your efficiency.”

Overcoming Common Objections

Responding to sales objections effectively requires a tailored response that addresses the prospect’s concerns.

• Price: Emphasize the value of the product or service and demonstrate how it can positively impact the prospect’s business. Provide payment plan options to make it more affordable.
• Budget: Help the prospect see the long-term ROI of the product or service and how it can positively impact their business. Offer flexible solutions that fit within their budget.
• Competitors: Showcase your USPs and provide case studies or testimonials from satisfied customers.
• Timing: Emphasize the urgency of the prospect’s need and the potential risks of delaying their decision. Provide a clear timeline for implementation.

Closing the Deal

After successfully handling objections, it’s time to close the deal. Here are some strategies to consider:

• Confirm the prospect’s decision and ensure they feel confident in their choice.
• Schedule a follow-up conversation to address any remaining concerns or questions.
• Set expectations for next steps and provide a clear timeline for implementation.

After the Sales Call

Reflecting on the sales call can help identify areas for improvement and refine your skills for responding to sales objections in the future.

• Track your performance and identify areas for improvement.
• Seek feedback from colleagues or managers to gain different perspectives.
• Continuously learn and improve your skills through ongoing training and practice.

Additional Resources and Tools for Objection Handling

Books

• “Objections: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering The Art and Science of Getting Past No” by Jeb Blount.
• “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” by Chris Voss.
• “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others” by Daniel H. Pink.
• “SPIN Selling” by Neil Rackham.
• “The Psychology of Selling” by Brian Tracy.

Podcasts

• “Selling Made Simple And Salesman Podcast” – a podcast featuring interviews with top sales professionals and experts.
• “The Brutal Truth About Sales & Selling” – a podcast hosted by Brian Burns that features interviews with sales leaders and experts on a wide range of sales topics.

Online Platforms & Classes

• “Sales Gravy University” – an online platform offering courses and resources for sales professionals at all levels.
• “B2B Leads That Convert” – It’s a free program that teaches students the EXACT steps required to generate new business.
• “People Skills. How people tick & how to read them instantly!” – a Udemy class on the psychology behind human interactions.

Tools

• HubSpot CRM – a customer relationship management tool that includes a built-in sales pipeline and objection-tracking features.
• Gong – a conversation analytics platform that provides insights into sales objections performance and helps sales teams improve their skills.
• Salesforce – a popular CRM tool that includes objection tracking and management features.
• Chorus.ai – a conversation intelligence platform that records and transcribes sales calls, providing insights into objection handling and sales performance.
• Pipedrive – a CRM tool that offers sales objection tracking and management features, as well as customizable sales pipelines and reporting.
• Objection.co – an objection handling software that provides customized responses and insights into objection handling performance.

Conclusion

By mastering the art of resolving sales objections, you can streamline your sales process, shorten sales cycles, and focus more time on high-value prospects.

Throughout this article, we’ve explored a variety of effective techniques and strategies for handling objections, including the BANT and LAER frameworks, demonstrating value, building trust, and setting follow-up dates.

We’ve also discussed the importance of ongoing skill development and learning from past experiences to continuously refine your objection-handling abilities.

Remember, preparation and research before a sales call is crucial, as is the ability to actively listen, acknowledge, explore, and respond to objections during the call.

Remember to maintain a growth mindset and always strive for continuous improvement! If you invest time and effort in finessing your skills, no sales objection will stand a chance.

The post How to Handle Objections in Sales Calls appeared first on Maptive.

If you’re just getting started in sales, your focus should be on mastering a few crucial sales fundamentals that will set you up for success in your career.

In this article, we will explore 16 of the best sales tips and strategies for beginners to help you hit the ground running: from understanding the product or service to identifying the target audience and developing a unique selling proposition, these tips and tricks will give you the knowledge and skills you need to thrive in the competitive world of sales.

Introduction to Sales for Beginners

Are you ready to rock the world of sales and start your journey to success?

The first step is to understand what a career in Sales actually means. Sales is the process of identifying potential customers or clients, understanding their needs, and persuading them to purchase the product or service you and your company offer.

You can do that through various channels such as online (this includes e-commerce, social media, online marketplaces, and so forth), in-person, or over the phone.

Over the past couple of decades, online sales have skyrocketed, overtaking in-store retail experiences. In fact, according to statistics from Zippia, 21% of global retail sales are online as of 2022–so while in-store shopping is still very popular, online sales have grown an astounding 162.5% between 2012 and 2022.

Whether or not your business has embraced e-commerce and digital tools, your job as a Sales professional is to generate more revenue, and help businesses grow and succeed. As a beginner, building a strong foundation of technical skills is key, so let’s dive into the exciting world of sales and learn how to become a rockstar sales rep!

Understanding Sales Fundamentals

Tip 1: Know Your Product or Service Inside Out

Sales reps must know everything about the product or service they’re selling to be able to communicate the benefits of your offering, address any questions, and ultimately close more deals. After all, if you don’t understand what you’re selling, how will your customers wrap their heads around it?

To truly understand how your product or services work you need to dive deep into product manuals, attend demos, use the products yourself (if possible), and conduct call reviews and practice active listening to understand what the most frequent issues might be.

Tip 2: Identify Your Target Audience

Who are your customers and what are some of the traits they have in common? Are they from a specific age group, or live in a certain area, or share a unique interest?

Understanding your target audience, your prospect’s pain points, and how your product can positively impact their lives is essential for quality prospecting. This understanding will allow you to tailor your message and pitch to the unique needs of each prospect.

Tip 3: Develop Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Differentiate yourself from the competition by identifying what sets your product or service apart. This USP (Unique Selling Proposition) will help you create a compelling sales strategy that appeals to your target audience.

What problems do your customers have that can be solved by the products or services you are selling and not one of your competitors?

Essential Sales Skills for Success

Tip 4: Master Effective Communication

This is especially important for new Sales professionals: mastering effective communication is crucial as it allows you to build strong relationships with potential new customers, address their needs, and ultimately close more deals.

Here are some resources to help you enhance your communication abilities and ace your sales pitch:

Books:

• “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie: This classic book offers timeless advice on building rapport, understanding others, and becoming a persuasive communicator.
• “Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High” by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory: This book provides practical techniques for navigating high-stakes conversations and achieving the outcomes you want.
• “Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life” by Marshall B. Rosenberg: This book makes the point that our culture has instilled in us ways of thinking and speaking that can perpetuate conflict. It also introduces the concept of nonviolent communication, a powerful approach to resolving conflicts and building empathetic connections with others.
• “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath: This book offers insights into communicating ideas effectively and making them memorable, or “sticky”. This is a great resource for anyone who wants to communicate their ideas more effectively, whether in a personal or professional setting.

Online Resources:

• TED Talks: TED Talks on communication, such as Julian Treasure’s “How to speak so that people want to listen” and Celeste Headlee’s “10 ways to have a better conversation,” offer valuable insights and tips for improving your communication skills.
• Online Courses: Online learning platforms like Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Udacity, and Udemy offer both free and paid courses on communication skills, public speaking, and interpersonal communication.
• YouTube Channels: Channels like Charisma on Command, Science of People by Vanessa Van Edwards, and Brian Tracy provide videos and tips on effective communication, persuasion, and body language.
• Podcasts: Podcasts such as The Art of Charm, The Communication Guys, and The Public Speaker’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills offer practical advice and interviews with experts to help you become a better communicator.
• Toastmasters International: Joining a Toastmasters club is an excellent way to practice public speaking and improve your communication skills in a supportive environment. Nothing like practice to get the best sales tips!

By utilizing these resources and consistently practicing your communication skills, you can become a more effective salesperson and build stronger connections with your clients.

Tip 5: Develop a Strong Personal Brand

One of the best sales tips we can give you is that creating a strong personal brand as a sales rep can help differentiate you from the competition and establish credibility with your clients.

Here are some steps to help you develop your personal brand:

• Define your unique value proposition: Identify your strengths, expertise, and what sets you apart from other sales reps. Determine how your unique qualities can benefit your clients and contribute to their success.
• Establish a consistent online presence: Ensure that your online presence, including your social media profiles and personal website, reflects your personal brand and unique value proposition. Use a consistent tone, style, and visual elements to create a cohesive image.
• Engage with your target audience: Interact with your potential clients and industry peers through social media and online forums, and practice active listening. Share valuable insights, ask questions, and offer assistance to demonstrate your expertise.
• Share valuable content: Create and share content that showcases your knowledge and helps your target audience solve their problems. This could include blog posts, articles, videos, or podcasts that address the challenges and needs of your potential clients.
• Attend in-person or online events: Participate in industry events to expand your professional network and stay informed about trends and developments in your field. This can also help you identify potential clients and establish yourself as an expert in your industry.
• Gather testimonials and endorsements: Request endorsements or testimonials from satisfied clients to showcase your skills and expertise. Share these on your website, social media, or LinkedIn profile to demonstrate your credibility and the value you provide to clients.

By developing a strong personal brand, you can stand out from the competition, gain credibility with potential clients and prospects, and ultimately increase your chances and prospects of closing more deals.

Tip 6: Build Rapport and Trust

In a study conducted by the Dale Carnegie organization, 81% of respondents indicated that they would likely buy again from a company represented by a salesperson they trust.

Here are some tricks to help you establish strong connections and customer interaction with your customers and speed along the whole buying decision process:

• Listen actively: Demonstrate that you’re genuinely interested in what your clients have to say by asking open-ended questions and listening carefully to their responses. Avoid interrupting and give them your full attention.
• Mirror body language: Subtly mimic your clients’ body language, gestures, and posture to create a sense of familiarity and comfort. This technique, known as “mirroring,” can help establish rapport and make clients feel more at ease.
• Find common ground: Discover shared interests, experiences, or connections with your clients to create a sense of commonality. You can discuss hobbies, sports, travel, or other topics that might help you bond.
• Be empathetic: Show empathy by understanding your clients’ needs, concerns, and challenges. Validate their feelings and provide support, making them feel valued and understood.
• Maintain eye contact: Establishing eye contact during conversations can help you demonstrate confidence, trustworthiness, and sincerity.
• Use their name: This is so simple but incredibly valuable. Using your client’s name in conversation can create a personal connection and make them feel more comfortable with you.
• Be honest and transparent: Build trust by being open and honest about your products, services, and intentions. Avoid over-promising or exaggerating your claims, and always follow through on your commitments.
• Share stories and experiences: Sharing personal stories or experiences can help humanize you and create a deeper connection with your clients.
• Show appreciation: Express gratitude for your clients’ time, business, and trust. A simple “thank you” can go a long way in building rapport and maintaining a positive relationship.
• Be patient and respectful: Always treat your clients with respect and patience, even when faced with challenging situations or difficult questions. Demonstrating professionalism and courtesy can help you maintain trust and rapport in the long run.

By incorporating these advanced sales tips and tricks into your sales approach, you can effectively build rapport and trust with your clients, leading to more successful and long-lasting business relationships.

Tip 7: Handle Objections and Rejections Confidently

Effectively addressing objections and rejections is crucial for success. Here are some strategies to help you navigate these challenges:

• Stay calm and composed: When faced with an objection, maintain a calm and confident demeanor. Avoid reacting defensively or taking the objection personally.
• Listen carefully: Before addressing the objection, ensure you fully understand the client’s concern by actively listening and asking clarifying questions.
• Validate their concerns: Acknowledge and empathize with the client’s concerns, demonstrating that you understand their perspective and are genuinely interested in finding a solution.
• Be prepared with counterpoints: Familiarize yourself with common objections based on your product knowledge and develop well-reasoned counterpoints to address them. Use facts, statistics, or examples to support your argument.
• Offer solutions: Focus on finding a solution that addresses the client’s concerns and demonstrates the value of your product or service. This could involve providing additional information, offering alternative options, or sharing overall success stories from other clients.
• Use the “Feel, Felt, Found” technique: When responding to an objection, consider using this formula: “I understand how you feel. Others have felt the same way. However, what they found was…”. This approach validates the client’s concern, shows empathy, and provides a positive outcome based on other clients’ experiences.
• Know when to walk away: Sometimes, it may be best to accept that the client’s objection cannot be resolved, and it’s better to end the conversation gracefully. This approach can open doors for future opportunities while preserving your professional reputation.
• Learn from rejections: Use rejections as an opportunity to learn and improve your sales approach. Analyze the situation, identify areas for improvement, and adapt your strategy accordingly.

By mastering these techniques for handling objections and rejections, you can turn potential setbacks into opportunities and increase your chances of closing more deals.

Tip 8: Stay Organized and Leverage the Right Tools

Staying organized and using the right tools can significantly improve your sales efficiency and productivity. This is one of the most important sales tips: the tools you use will influence how successful you are, so choose them wisely.

Here are some tools and strategies to help you stay organized in sales:

• Maptive: Maptive is a mapping software that helps you plan sales routes and manage sales territories effectively. By using Maptive, you can optimize your routes, saving time and increasing your chances of closing more deals.
• Task and project management tools: Apps like Trello, Asana, and Todoist can help you stay on top of your tasks, appointments, and follow-ups. These tools allow you to create and organize your to-do lists, set reminders, and collaborate with your team.
• Calendar apps: Use calendar apps like Google Calendar or Outlook to schedule and manage your meetings, appointments, and follow-ups. Integrating your calendar with your task management tool can help you streamline your workflow and ensure you don’t miss important deadlines.
• Note-taking apps: Keep track of important client information, meeting notes, and ideas using note-taking apps like Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, or Google Keep. These apps make organizing and searching your notes easy, ensuring you have all the necessary information at your fingertips.
• Cloud storage and file-sharing services: Use cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox to store and share essential documents, sales materials, and client files. This allows you to access your files from anywhere and collaborate with your team more efficiently.
• Time tracking and productivity tools: Monitor your time usage and boost productivity with tools like RescueTime, Toggl, or Clockify. These apps help you analyze how you spend your time and identify areas for improvement.
• Email management tools: Streamline your email communication using tools like Boomerang, Mailtrack, or SaneBox. These apps can help you schedule emails, track opens and clicks, and manage your inbox more effectively.

By integrating these powerful tools into your sales process, along with Maptive for sales routes and territory planning, you’ll stay ultra-organized, save valuable time, and be able to focus on what really counts: closing more deals and smashing your sales goals.

Sales Strategies to Implement

Tip 9: Never Stop Prospecting and Generating Leads

Never stop prospecting. Quality prospecting, meaning the process of identifying potential customers or clients for a business’s products or services, ensures you know who your customers are and helps you build a reliable, stable, and consistent client base.

Tip 10: Deliver Impactful Sales Presentations and Pitches

Develop a sales pitch highlighting your USPs and addressing your target audience’s pain points. Use a repeatable and measurable process to monitor the effectiveness of your sales pitch with customers.

Tip 11: Utilize CRM Tools for Better Organization and Follow-up

Leverage the right technology, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, to stay organized and efficiently manage your sales leads and follow-ups. Some popular CRM tools that can help you improve your sales process include:

• Salesforce: Salesforce is a powerful and widely-used CRM that offers a range of features for managing contacts, leads, opportunities, and customer support. It also provides robust reporting and analytics tools to help you track your sales performance.
• HubSpot CRM: HubSpot CRM is a user-friendly platform offering essential features for managing contacts, tracking deals, and automating sales tasks. Its integration with HubSpot’s marketing and sales tools makes it a popular choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution.
• Zoho CRM: Zoho CRM is a comprehensive and customizable solution that provides tools for managing leads, contacts, deals, and sales pipelines. It also offers sales automation features, reporting, and integrations with other Zoho applications and third-party tools.
• Pipedrive: Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM that emphasizes simplicity and usability. Its visual sales pipeline interface allows you to easily track deals and manage your sales process, while its automation and reporting features help you optimize your sales efforts.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales offers advanced features for managing leads, opportunities, and customer relationships. Its integration with other Microsoft products makes it a powerful solution for businesses already using the Microsoft ecosystem.

By choosing the CRM that best fits your needs and workflow, you can streamline your sales process, stay organized, and increase your chances of closing more deals.

Tip 12: Implement a Repeatable Sales Process or Framework

Focus on having more quality customers rather than striving for quantity. While marketing departments are often tasked with developing wide-reaching campaigns, the leads who come to you have already shown high-intent and are interested in what you have to offer.

Use a consistent and repeatable sales process that can be measured to refine your approach and ensure success.

Tip 13: Continuously Learn and Improve

Sales is a continuous process that requires constant evolution to stay competitive. To improve your skills and stay ahead, consider exploring the following books and resources:

Books:

1. “The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson: This book introduces the “Challenger” sales rep concept and provides insights into how to take control of the sales process and deliver unique value to customers.
2. “SPIN Selling” by Neil Rackham: This classic sales book presents the SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-Payoff) technique for asking questions and uncovering customer needs during the sales process.
3. “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini: This book explores the science behind influence and persuasion, offering valuable insights for sales reps looking to improve their negotiation and persuasion skills.
4. “To Sell Is Human” by Daniel H. Pink: Both perceptive and practical, this book provides a fresh perspective on selling and offers practical tips on how to move others at work, at school, and at home.
5. “Fanatical Prospecting” by Jeb Blount: This book emphasizes the importance of effective and consistent prospecting and offers strategies for finding new leads and building a robust sales pipeline.

Online resources:

1. Sales blogs and websites: Websites like HubSpot Sales Blog, Sales Hacker, and Sandler Training provide valuable tips, articles, and resources to help you stay updated on the latest sales trends and techniques.
2. Podcasts: Sales podcasts, such as The Advanced Selling Podcast, The Salesman Podcast, and The Sales Evangelist, offer practical advice and interviews with sales experts to help you stay motivated and improve your skills.
3. Online courses and webinars: Like mentioned in Tip 4, there are many platforms, free or paid, where you can take classes or certificates that can help you stay up-to-date, including LinkedIn Learning, Coursera, Youtube, Udacity, and Udemy.
4. Sales conferences and networking events: Attending sales conferences and networking events, such as the Sales Innovation Expo or the AA-ISP Leadership Summit, can help you learn from industry leaders, gain new insights, and expand your professional network.
5. Sales coaching and mentorship: Seek out mentorship from experienced sales professionals or consider investing in sales coaching to receive personalized guidance and support to improve your skills.

By exploring these resources and continuously learning, you can enhance your sales skills, stay competitive, and achieve greater success in your career.

Tip 14: Maintain a Positive Attitude and Stay Resilient

Maintaining a positive attitude and developing resilience is crucial for overcoming the inevitable challenges and setbacks in sales. Here are some great salesperson’ tips to help you achieve this:

• Set realistic goals: Establish achievable, measurable, and time-bound goals for yourself. Setting realistic expectations can help you stay motivated and focused on your progress.
• Practice gratitude: Make a habit of acknowledging and appreciating the positive aspects of your life and work. This can help shift your mindset and maintain a more optimistic outlook.
• Surround yourself with positivity: Connect with positive people who support and encourage you. Limit your exposure to negative influences and focus on building a supportive network.
• Develop a growth mindset: Embrace challenges and view setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow. Believe in your ability to improve and adapt, and view failure as a temporary hurdle rather than a permanent setback.
• Focus on the process, not just the outcome: Celebrate small victories and milestones along the way. This can help you stay motivated and maintain a positive attitude, even when the end goal seems distant.
• Embrace self-reflection: Regularly evaluate your progress, identify areas for improvement, and seek feedback from others. Use this information to adjust your approach and develop resilience in the face of setbacks.
• Manage stress: Find healthy ways to manage stress, such as exercise, meditation, or engaging in hobbies. Maintaining a balance between work and personal life can help you stay positive.
• Learn from others: Seek out mentors or role models who have demonstrated resilience and a positive attitude in the face of adversity. Learn from their experiences and apply their strategies to your own journey.
• Practice positive self-talk: Replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations and remind yourself of your strengths, accomplishments, and progress.

By incorporating these strategies into your daily routine, you can develop the resilience and positive attitude necessary to overcome challenges, bounce back from setbacks, and achieve success in your sales career.

Tip 15: Seek Out Referrals to Expand Your Client Base

Referrals from existing customers are an important way to expand your client base and generate more sales. Here are some tips on how to get referrals from your existing customers:

1. Provide exceptional service: Going above and beyond to meet your customers’ needs will strengthen your relationship with them and make them more likely to recommend you to their network. Make sure you deliver on your promises and exceed their expectations.
2. Build strong relationships: Establish genuine connections with your customers and show that you care about their success. They will be more inclined to refer you to others by fostering trust and demonstrating your expertise.
3. Ask for referrals at the right time: Timing is crucial. The best time to ask is when your customers have experienced a recent success or positive outcome with your product or service. This is when they are most likely to be enthusiastic about recommending you.
4. Make it easy for customers to refer you: Provide them with a simple referral process or tools, such as referral forms or email templates, to make it easy for them to share your information with their network.
5. Offer referral incentives: Show appreciation for your customers’ efforts by providing incentives, such as discounts, freebies, or even commissions for successful referrals. This can motivate them to promote your business to their contacts actively.
6. Regularly follow up with your customers: Stay in touch and keep them updated on your products and services. By maintaining an ongoing relationship, you’ll stay top of mind, making it more likely that they’ll refer you when the opportunity arises.
7. Leverage social media and online reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews or testimonials on your social media or websites. This serves as a form of referral and helps build your online reputation.

By implementing these tips, you can increase the likelihood of receiving valuable referrals from satisfied and happy customers, leading to more sales and business growth.

Tip 16: Adapt and Stay Agile in Your Sales Approach

The sales landscape is always changing, and staying agile and adaptable is crucial. Keep up with industry trends, new sales techniques, and the best sales practices to ensure you remain competitive and can adjust your sales strategy as needed.

Conclusion

By implementing these 16 sales tips and strategies for beginners, you’ll be well on your way to boosting your sales success and building a rewarding career as a sales rep.

Embrace the sales mindset, and remember that perseverance and continuous improvement are crucial to achieving more deals and meeting your sales quota. Stay focused, learn from customer interactions, and always strive to improve your skills and techniques.

The post 16 Sales Tips & Strategies for Beginners: Boost Your Sales Success appeared first on Maptive.

A sales territory alignment software like Maptive can help you go beyond what Google Maps offers and help your team create sales territories that have the potential to reveal insights, help you stay ahead of trends, reduce costs, and optimize operations.

What Is Territory Alignment Software and How Does It Work?

Territory alignment software is a mapping tool that helps businesses divide and organize their sales or service areas into specific territories. These sales territories can be created based on various criteria such as zip codes, demographics, or even specific existing customer segments.

Sales territory alignment software typically allows users to create and edit territories on an interactive map, making it easy to visualize and understand the different areas. Once the territories are established, the software can then be used to assign sales managers to specific areas, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently.

What Are the Benefits of Using Territory Alignment Software?

Sales territory design has the potential to revolutionize your sales rep’s efforts, by allowing teams to work more efficiently and effectively. The process of planning territories can be complex, but the use of sales territory alignment software, such as Maptive, can make it easier to manage by providing a platform for tracking customer data and visualizing sales performance by territory. It’s a powerful tool to boost sales and team performance in an ever-changing economic landscape.

Improve Business Performance

Sales territory mapping can help businesses improve sales rep productivity and customer service and reduce costs by eliminating overlap and unnecessary travel. With the right software, you can define sales territories, identify any territory overlap, set sales territory boundaries, and create balanced territories. Additionally, sales territory management can also help businesses optimize their operations by analyzing business data of customer interactions, sales operations, service performance, and other key metrics within each territory.

Boost Flexibility

Sales territory mapping software can give your sales team or sales rep more options and increased flexibility in managing their existing territories.

Unlike traditional territory management methods, which can restrict teams to predefined geographic areas, online sales territories allow sales managers to create custom territory maps based on customer demographics, buying patterns, and competitor activity. This allows sales teams to focus their efforts more precisely and thus achieve better results.

Additionally, mapping software provides real-time insights into territory performance, enabling teams to detect and address issues promptly. This can become crucial, especially for teams that need to frequently adapt to market changes. With mapping software, you can make adjustments to territories quickly and easily and boost sales productivity.

Truly Understand Your Data

Sales territory mapping software is essential for any business that relies on defined territories to generate revenue. It allows businesses to dive deep into their proprietary customer data and create territories that visualize the information they already possess but that is usually trapped into disparate spreadsheets and documents.

Territory management software also makes it easy to track results and make adjustments over time. It provides a comprehensive analysis of sales data, allowing businesses to identify trends and improve their sales strategy overall.

In short, sales territory mapping software is a powerful tool for managing territories and can also be a game-changer for improving data-driven business decisions.

Increase Productivity

Sales territory mapping software can enhance sales operations and productivity for sales organizations by automating the process of creating and maintaining territories, thus allowing sales managers to focus more on selling and less on administrative tasks.

It also helps pinpoint new potential customers and monitor existing accounts, enabling sales teams to direct their efforts more efficiently and close more deals. In summary, sales territory mapping software can provide a significant boost to productivity for sales organizations.

What Companies Have Successfully Implemented Sales Territories?

• Coca-Cola: The company divides its territories based on geographic regions and assigns specific sales representatives to each region. This has allowed them to have “approximately 225 bottling partners across more than 200 countries and territories and sell our brands in more than 20 channels within approximately 30 million customer outlets globally.” Source
• Procter & Gamble: The consumer goods company uses territories to manage its distribution network and ensure its products are available in all retail outlets. Thanks to their strategies, they’ve been able to stay focused and “strengthened P&G’s portfolio in daily-use categories where product performance drives brand choice.” Source
• Dell: The computer manufacturer organizes its territories based on geographies and customer types, such as consumers or enterprises. Thanks to this and other tactics, Dell can “deliver differentiated and holistic information technology (“IT”) solutions to our customers, which has helped drive consistent revenue growth.” Source
• Avon: The direct-selling company uses territories to manage its network of independent representatives and ensure that all areas are covered. Avon’s parent company, Natura, implements a worldwide regional strategy, which they use to plan the expansion of their brands into new territories. In fact, they are planning “the further rollout of Avon’s new commercial model into an additional 12 markets.” Source
• McDonald’s: The fast food company uses territories for its franchisees, each territory is managed by a specific franchisee and has specific sales targets. Most recently, they have used a territory-focused strategy to roll out their loyalty program “three of our largest markets—the U.S., Germany, and Canada—all launched loyalty programs in 2021. With loyalty programs now in more than 40 markets, MyMcDonald’s Rewards has exceeded expectations in terms of enrollment and participation.” Source: 2021 Annual Report

Tips for Selecting and Implementing the Right Sales Territory Mapping Software

• Identify your needs: Before selecting a sales territory management software, you should identify what you want to achieve with it. Consider the kind of geographic data you need to map, the demographic data you want, the size of your territories, and the level of detail you need.
• Look for scalability: As your business grows, your sales mapping software should be able to scale with it. Choose a solution that can handle large amounts of data and be customized to your specific needs.
• Consider ease of use: The software should be easy to use and navigate, even for non-technical users. Look for a no-code solution with an intuitive user interface and clear instructions.
• Check for integrations: Ensure that the software can integrate with other systems you use in your business, such as CRM and marketing automation software, so your sales leadership can easily keep up.
• Test before buying: Before making a final decision, test the software to ensure it meets your needs and is easy to use. Maptive offers a 10-day free trial that you can use to get a feel for the platform and its functionalities.
• Training and support: Look for software that includes user training and support. This will help ensure a smooth transition and that sales reps can use the territory management solution effectively.
• Data security: Ensure that the software complies with data security regulations and that your data will be protected.

What is the future outlook for this technology?

The future outlook for sales territory mapping technology is positive, as it is expected to continue to evolve and significantly impact the sales industry.

As businesses continue to collect and analyze more data, the use of geospatial mapping technology will become increasingly important in making data-driven decisions.

The trend towards remote work and virtual selling also drives the demand for digital tools to manage and optimize territories. A trend report by Deloitte reveals that, after the pandemic, executives are ranking marketing and sales as the second-most critical function (63%), after digital technology (68%). Sales territory alignment software can allow your sales team to collaborate and make decisions remotely, even when they are not physically in the same location.

The Sales Management Association finds that substantial performance advantages accrue to sales organizations effective in territory design. Firms that design sales territories effectively enjoy rates of sales objective achievement that are 14% higher than other firms.

According to a study by CSO Insights, only 38% of sales organizations said they were very effective at executing their sales plans, while nearly 60% of respondents said they “somewhat agree” or “strongly agree” that their company’s sales planning process needs improvement. With the advancements in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, sales territory alignment software is expected to become even more sophisticated and able to provide more accurate and actionable insights.

Conclusion

In conclusion, sales territory alignment software is a powerful tool for businesses that rely on sales territories to generate revenue. Software like Maptive also makes it easy to track results over time so that businesses can fine-tune their territories and automate the creation of territories, saving sales reps time and effort, and allowing them to spend more time selling.

Businesses that are looking to maximize their sales efforts and stay competitive should consider implementing sales territory alignment software, and you can get started for free today with Maptive’s 10-day free trial.

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The post Maximizing Sales with Territory Alignment Software appeared first on Maptive.

If you think of your sales representatives as a tactical, on-the-ground team, sales territory planning is essentially your plan for attack. Defining and dividing by sales territory can help you and your sales team visualize every area that needs to be covered, and assign it efficiently based on their talents or bandwidth.

In our experience, every organization is unique and may choose to draw the boundaries of any given territory based on criteria that make sense for their specific business model. However, generally speaking, most sales teams choose one of the following methods for their sales territory management:

1. Based on Geography
2. Based on Demographics
3. Based on Industry
4. Based on Market Potential
5. Based on Revenue Potential

Let’s look at each method of sales territory planning in more depth.

Sales Territories Based on Geography

Geographic territories, defined by states, cities, and zip codes, are some of the most traditional ways to define your sales territory management strategy.

As with all tried-and-true methods, this is a relatively straightforward way of segmenting an addressable area that does not take a lot of effort on the strategy side, while also making it easy to assign territories to specific sales teams.

For example, as a sales territory manager at the national level, you may be dividing sales territories across the whole United States into 4 main regions that have different strategies and specific sales teams that are familiar with the unique needs of those areas. Or you may segment them by state, especially if you need to make sure that local legislation is addressed and respected.

However, this method has its limitations. Dividing and assigning territories based solely on geography may result in uneven or ineffective distribution of your salesforce–this would be the case if, for example, a more urban area may be more densely populated, or physically easier to reach, compared to more rural ones.

So while geographic boundaries can be helpful for an effective sales territory strategy, their effectiveness can be amplified by taking into consideration a wider array of factors, including your sales data, sales goals, and other sales strategies already at play.

Sales Territories Based on Demographics

One fundamental truth is that to sell effectively, you need to know the people who you are selling to. And basing your sales territory on the characteristics of certain demographics can certainly help to get to know your target audience and customer base.

Demographic segmentation may include factors such as age, gender, race, religion, income, education, and language spoken. Identifying those traits and matching the audience to the particular expertise of each sales rep may be a game changer.

That is clearly the case if you are trying to sell your services and products in English to first-generation immigrants who may be more comfortable negotiating in their mother tongue–if you are able to assign sales reps able to speak their language, or who are part of the same cultural community, they are more likely to open more accounts and close more deals.

Listing out the different demographics you want to target as a B2C sales department may help in defining that sales territory plan. If, however, your focus is B2B, you may want to avoid demographics entirely and focus on completely different criteria such as industry or business size–as we’ll discuss below.

Sales Territories Based on Industry

This is particularly relevant if your target audience or existing customers are not individual consumers, but rather other businesses and organizations.

Building out your sales territory plan based on industry allows your sales team to become really familiar with the needs and preferences of a specific niche–which in turn is likely to make them far more effective and successful.

Depending on your products or services, you might even be able to target specific departments, as might be the case if you are selling software aimed at a unique function, like accounting, cybersecurity, or HR to name a few.

In those cases, narrowing down the ideal size of the company you want to target within specific industries might give you a great track record and an easy point of reference, which will further empower your sales reps to deeply understand their unique target audience.

Sales Territories Based on Market Potential

As smart sales managers will tell you, one of your goals should be to empower your teams with all the information and tools they need to succeed throughout the sales process.

When you base your territories on the market potential you are making sure that all your reps have the same chances to hit their revenue goals based on the opportunities that are available in the area assigned to them.

In order to do that, sales territories based on market potential are drawn based on a variety of factors, like the size of the addressable market, competitors already present in the area, and how saturated the market already is.

When all the available data is taken into consideration, you may decide that a specific area is not worth your team’s precious time, or you might give a chance to your more senior reps to scope out what opportunities the competition is leaving on the table.

Sales Territories Based on Revenue Potential

Territories based on revenue potential are less reliant on geographical or physical boundaries and concentrate strictly on the amount of business that can be generated and who should be handling certain clients.

For example, if you’re running a sales team with long-time clients and established accounts, it might make sense to create sales territories that weigh the importance not just of future sales opportunities but also the size of existing deals.

If deal sizes increase, you might want to draw territories to redirect fewer, more senior sales professionals to manage bigger accounts, while a larger number of reps cover the remaining smaller opportunities

Ultimately, revenue potential needs to be determined by how you measure sales success and how revenue can be expanded by maximizing the talents of your sales teams.

Methodology Considerations

Clearly, there are many ways to divide sales territories. The methods listed above are all great ways to get you and your team started with mapping sales territories in whatever way makes the most sense for your specific business structure, what you offer, and your sales targets.

As you get more comfortable exploring the possibilities offered by visualizing & assigning sales territories, you can group different combinations of criteria to better suit your business needs and evolve your sales strategy.

For example, you may choose to first draw geographic boundaries by zip code, and then add a revenue potential lens to your sales territory to group some of those zip codes together or assign them out based on experience and seniority.

Likewise, some sales organizations may first decide to draw your sales territory based on the industries you are targeting, the company size, and then add a demographic component to match the sales professionals who can best relate to the organization you are hoping to reach.

Not all sales territories are created equal, so it is especially important to approach sales territory design with an open mind since you will need to run a sales territory analysis after a set period of time to ensure that you have achieved the balanced territories and the sales territory alignment you set out to create to properly target prospects.

How to Get Started

Sales territory mapping can become an incredibly tedious process without the right tools.

Sales territory mapping software like Maptive can help you get started with easy visualization that can leverage your own data together with publicly available, census-based demographic information–so you can map out and assign sales territories in just a few clicks.

Managing sales territories has been proven time and again to be an incredibly effective tool to improve sales performance, as it can help you:

• Understand the sales potential of each area
• Improve your team’s sales productivity
• Increase overall customer satisfaction

The sooner you get started with a sales territory plan, the sooner you can maximize both revenue growth and the overall performance of your sales rep team.

The post 5 Ways To Divide Sales Territories appeared first on Maptive.

What is Sales Territory Mapping?

Sales territory mapping divides a sales force’s potential customers among individual representatives or teams. This process allows for a more efficient allocation of resources and helps to ensure that no potential customers fall through the cracks. When creating a sales territory map, factors such as customer location, purchasing patterns, and competition may be taken into account. Sales managers may also consult with individual representatives to ensure that territories are fairly balanced in terms of workload and potential profitability. Through careful planning and regular review, sales territory mapping can greatly improve a company’s ability to meet its sales goals.

What is Sales Territory Design?

In business, a sales territory is an assigned area of geographic responsibility in which a salesperson or team is expected to generate revenue. Typically, businesses will use territory design to delineate areas for new salespeople or teams and realign territories following changes in demand or market conditions. The goal of territory design is to create efficient and effective coverage of a market while also maximizing opportunities for growth and profitability.

A number of different factors need to be considered when designing sales territories, including the size and characteristics of the target market, the relative mix of products and services being sold, the type of customers being served, and the competitive landscape. An experienced territory designer will also take into account the unique selling points of the company’s products and services, as well as the capabilities and limitations of the sales force. By considering all of these factors, businesses can ensure that their sales territories are optimally designed to achieve desired results.

How Sales Teams benefit from Sales Territory Mapping

Sales teams can benefit from sales territory mapping in a number of ways. First, it can help to identify areas that are ripe for development. By analyzing customer data, sales teams can pinpoint areas with growth potential. In addition, sales territory mapping can help to optimize routes and improve efficiency. By planning out territories in advance, sales teams can avoid wasting time on dead-end leads or customers that are out of their territory. Finally, sales territory mapping can help to increase motivation and productivity by providing clear goals and targets for sales reps. When sales reps clearly understand their territories, they can work together more effectively to achieve their targets. As a result, sales territory mapping can be a valuable tool for any sales team.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Google Maps for Sales Territory Mapping

While Google Maps may be a helpful tool for finding your way around town, it falls short when it comes to sales territory mapping. Unlike specialized mapping software like Maptive, Google Maps does not have the ability to show demographic data or create territories within geographic boundaries. It also has limited routing options. With vanilla Google Maps, you are limited on the number number of stops you can have in a route.  Another limitation with Google maps is on the number of map layers you can create. With Google Maps, you are limited to 10 layers. And forget about being able to filter data within territories to identify unbalanced sales territories – that functionality isn’t available on Google Maps. So while it may be helpful for casual navigation, it’s not a suitable solution for professional sales territory mapping. For those purposes, dedicated mapping software is the way to go.

What Features Should a Sales Territory Mapping Software Have?

One of the most important tools for sales territory mapping is the ability to create custom regions. This allows you to divide your sales territory in a way that makes sense for your business and makes it easy to track which areas are performing well and could use improvement. Google Maps does not offer this option, making it a less-than-ideal choice for sales territory mapping. In addition, sales territory mapping often requires the use of multiple layers, such as demographic data or customer data. Google Maps only offers a limited number of layers, which can make it difficult to get the information you need to make decisions about your sales territory. For these reasons, it is important to choose a mapping tool that offers more robust features for sales territory mapping.

Why Sales Territory Mapping Should be Part of your Sales Roadmap

Sales territory mapping is an essential part of any sales plan. By clearly defining territories, businesses can ensure that their sales reps are working effectively and efficiently. Territory mapping also allows businesses to identify potential areas of growth and develop strategies for expanding their sales operations into new markets. Additionally, by tracking sales data over time, businesses can identify trends and patterns that may be helpful in forecasting future sales. Ultimately, sales territory mapping is a valuable tool for any business that wants to maximize its sales potential. When used correctly, it can help businesses achieve their goals and reach new success levels.

How to Create a Sales Territory Map

Maptive is an online mapping tool designed for sales territory mapping. Maptive offers several methods to create territory maps: 1) By geographic boundary such as zip code, county, city, or state 2) using the map drawing tool or 3) using the automated territory generation tool, which uses a patented algorithm to generate fully balanced territories based on custom-weighted factors such as sales potential, territory size, drive time and more. Maptive is easy to use and does not require any programming or GIS knowledge. Maptive can be used to create maps of customers, prospects, competitors, and more. Maptive is a powerful tool that can help businesses improve their sales performance and increase their profitability.

For more details on designing a sales territory plan, see our complete guide to sales territory mapping.

All the benefits of Google Maps without the Limitations

Maptive is a powerful mapping tool that allows you to create custom maps easily. Maptive is built on google maps, so you can be sure that your maps are accurate and precise. But what sets Maptive apart from other mapping tools is its ability to take your business data to the next level. With Maptive, you can visualize your data in new and innovative ways, uncover patterns and trends that would otherwise be hidden, and make better decisions for your business. With Maptive, custom maps are easy to make and can help you take your business to the next level.

With Maptive you can:

• Map customer locations
• Map sales reps locations
• Generate drive time maps and distance radius circles
• Build territories within geographic boundaries such as zip codes, states, counties, and more.
• Overlay demographic data such as income, population, age, housing, education, and more.
• Filter and group markers based on sales numbers, salesperson, territory name, or other data variables
• Build heat maps to identify underserved markets

More than Just a Sales Territory Mapping Software

Maptive provides a suite of powerful tools for sales teams looking to optimize their efficiency. With Maptive, sales teams can quickly generate routes considering each customer’s needs. In addition, Maptive’s drive time radius tool allows sales teams to determine the best location for each salesperson in order to maximize the number of potential customers they can reach. As a result, Maptive provides powerful tools to help sales teams work more efficiently and effectively.

If you’re looking for a more sophisticated mapping tool that can help with sales territory mapping, Maptive is the right choice. With its ability to layer data on maps and create custom maps, Maptive offers unprecedented precision and accuracy. In addition, Maptive’s suite of features – such as route planning and drive time radius calculations – make it an essential tool for any business looking to optimize its sales team efficiency.

Ready to get started? Start a 10-day free trial of Maptive now!

The post Sales Territory Mapping (and Why Google Maps is Not the Best Choice) appeared first on Maptive.

It’s a simple, mutually beneficial relationship. But there’s a third party that disproportionately impacts a sales team’s success or failure. That third party is sales territories.

And it’s not easy to create and optimize them, making it hard to generate the consistent sales growth your business needs.

Many companies use a territory plan template to help them move into new areas and scale their reach. Technology plays an important role in the process.

To help you create effective sales territory plan templates, we will explore foundational information, best practices, and approaches you need to build a successful territory planning.

Important Factors for a Successful Sales Territory Plan Template

Before we jump into the different templates, what factors help create a successful sales territory plan? There are three simple things that you need to consider before starting the sales territory plan process:

1. Data: What data will you use to inform your sales territory planning? (See below for more information on this.)
2. Equity: How will your plan give each sales rep an equitable opportunity and equitable resources to maximize their earnings?
3. Balance: Does every territory in your plan offer sales coverage that matches the sales capacity?

These are your ultimate goals when working on sales territory plan templates: using the right data to create equity and balance. And a 30-60-90 plan is one of the best approaches to reaching those goals.

What is a 30-60-90 Day Sales Territory Plan?

Like all sales territory plan templates, a 30-60-90 day sales territory plan serves as a framework. It’s a blueprint for building out a highly profitable territory for the business. A 30-60-90 day sales territory plan covers the following three things:

1. Research: Spend the first 30 days defining the market, creating customer personas, evaluating from a SWOT perspective, getting to know the competition, and identifying top opportunities.
2. Launch: Before 60 days have expired, launch your territory plan by doing the following: setting sales goals, finding leads, optimizing routes, and setting monthly quotas.
3. Scale: The last portion is optimizing territories to scale for the future. This can include getting feedback from reps, conducting quantitative analyses of performance, talking to customers, etc. All companies want consistent sales growth, and this approach to sales territory plans helps you get there.

This is just a high-level overview of what it’s like to use a 30-60-90 day sales territory plan template. But you’ll want to consider your sales reps and your unique circumstances and needs when creating this type of plan for your business and sales team.

How to Create a 30-60-90 Day Territory Plan

How do you create a 30-60-90 day sales strategy for your target market? To use this approach to creating a sales territory plan, follow these steps to develop strategies that help build your sales pipeline:

1. Personas: Who is your perfect customer? Build out a persona that reflects all of the characteristics that you are looking for in a client, as well as the unique challenges and needs of that ideal customer.
2. SWOT analysis: Look at your team and business from a strengths and weaknesses perspective, and then evaluate the territory from an opportunities and threats standpoint. That’s the simplest way to conduct a SWOT analysis.
3. Competitive research: Who is the competition in the territory? What does your business offer that theirs does not? In other words, what is your competitive advantage?
4. Profitable accounts: Who are your top prospects? Find the accounts that can be most profitable and use them as a starting point in the territory.
5. Sales goals: Set specific goals for your team in the territory. What results will they be able to deliver? And by when?
6. KPIs: Create a dashboard that includes all of the metrics that really matter to your success in the territory — the key performance indicators.
7. Additional leads: Beyond the top prospects established in No. 4 above, what other leads look attractive?
8. Route optimization: Optimize routes for your salespeople so that they can spend more time selling and less time traveling.
9. Monthly quotas: Create monthly quotas for your representatives to hit. These quotes should derive from the information gathered in the previous steps.
10. Feedback: Get feedback from your reps on how things are going in the territory. They are on the ground in the area and should be one of your best sources of information.
11. Analytics: Look at the performance numbers. Where are you exceeding expectations? What areas need more attention?
12. Customer interviews: Talk to customers about their experience with your business and its salespeople. You can learn a lot from the people who have said “yes” to your pitch.

And then, it’s time to carry on into the future, continually optimizing and making adjustments as circumstances change. While there’s no end to the tweaks you’ll need to make to your sales territory plan, the 30-60-90 day approach accelerates your work and helps you build a viable territory as quickly as possible.

Other Sales Territory Plan Template Strategies

The 30-60-90 day approach to sales territory planning isn’t the only one available to you. You have other options you can use for your sales plan, which we explore below.

Biggest Potential

The simplest template for territory planning is looking at the biggest potential. This can include finding large metropolitan areas where prospects will be close in proximity. These areas are full of opportunity, and they allow your salespeople to maximize that opportunity by spending less time traveling and more time selling.

Internal Data

As an existing business, you likely have reams of data that can be used to create a territory plan template. Get geolocation data indicating where your existing customers are, where your latest opportunities are, and where your accounts sit in the pipeline.

The drawback to this approach is the echo-chamber effect. You’re working from your existing data, so there’s no opportunity to bring in third-party learnings that can positively impact your business.

Industry Data

Industry data can help you overcome the echo-chamber effect. Industry data that could be helpful include incorporation filings in various states, permit filings in various cities, as well as new developments in markets of interest.

The drawback to this approach is that it gives you information on areas that you’re already interested in. It cannot help you identify areas that you should be interested in.

Multiple Data Sources

There’s no shortage of data available to you. If you have time to get complex with your territory planning, you can combine your internal data and industry data with other information like census results, economic factors, consumer trends, etc.

This level of data can be incredibly insightful when planning territories, but it can also be unwieldy. You need a great deal of time and resources to properly use this approach to territory planning.

How to Use Maptive Mapping Software for Territory Planning

To properly use territory plan templates, you need technology that accelerates processes and gives you accurate data to make decisions.

At Maptive, we offer a platform that allows you to plan territories that are fully aligned with your sales goals. Our software offers a suite of tools that lets you take a data-driven approach to planning. Use Maptive in your sales process to:

• Use demographic and census data to drive decisions.
• Leverage heat mapping to identify opportunities.
• Create drive radius maps.
• Optimize multi-stop routes.
• Calculate distances.
• Put the right customers into fully optimized territories.

We’ll soon introduce a feature that allows you to automate territory creation and optimization.

Maximize your territory planning and gain more market share when you start a free Maptive trial.

The post Territory Plan Templates for Successful Sales Teams appeared first on Maptive.

Draw and assign territories to save time, drive sales, and improve productivity. Customize the look of your map with a wide range of tools, filter which data is shown, create boundaries between different sales territories, and use our route optimizer to plan your sales meetings.

• Hand your sales team a clear strategy.
• Easily share and export maps and directions.
• Upload your location data from Excel.
• Keep your sales data private with 256-bit SSL encryption.
• 100% Cloud-based.
• User-friendly.
• Fully integrated with Google Maps.

Try Maptive For FREE

What Is Sales Territory Mapping?

Smart sales managers use sales territory mapping to determine the best sales coverage for their team. If you think of your sales representatives as a tactical, on-the-ground team, sales territory mapping equals your master plan for target takeover.

Traditionally based on geographical areas, sales territory mapping can become an incredibly tedious process without the right tools. Thanks to Maptive, you can easily uncover insights buried deep in your data and map out and assign sales territories in just a few clicks.

To use Maptive’s Sales Territory Mapping Software, simply:

1. Become a Maptive user for FREE.
2. Upload your location data from Excel spreadsheets, Google Sheets, your own CRM, or copy-paste your data directly into Maptive.
3. Map out all your customer locations and split territories however it makes the most sense for your sales goals.
4. Optimize your sales territories with Maptive customization tools and share them directly with your team.

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Why Should You Use Sales Territory Mapping?

Territory management is key to improving sales performance. By defining existing territories and assigning them to your sales reps, you maximize both revenue growth and the overall performance of your sales rep team.

• Understand the sales potential of each geographic area: To create an effective sales territory map, sales managers must first make sense of the customer data they already have and combine it with market research and demographic data.With Maptive, you can easily visualize all your data in one simple tool, and then you can use the newly found insights to determine the sales potential of each territory. You can then optimize your sales team’s productivity by taking into account customer concentration, market potential, and travel considerations.
• Improve your team’s sales productivity: Once you’ve done all the work of figuring out the sales potential of each sales territory, you can more effectively allocate your sales team’s resources and create sales territories that are more likely to generate revenue.Plus, you take the guesswork out of your sales reps’ day, which will help improve how efficiently they move from client to client. It might also help curb any of the animosity and competitiveness that unclear territory definition often causes among sales teams.
• Increase overall customer satisfaction: Sales territory mapping can also help to improve customer satisfaction levels since each client will maintain a strong relationship with the specific sales rep assigned to their area.On the flip side of that coin, the right territory mapping strategy will also ensure that each sales representative has an equal opportunity to win over great clients and maintain a healthy relationship with them with long-term repeat sales.
• Reduce sales reps’ travel costs: When creating well-thought-out territories, sales leaders also need to consider how travel expenses will ultimately factor into their bottom line.Effective sales reps often have multiple meetings a day all across town, making it difficult to plan accordingly. Maptive’s route planning tool solves this by partnering with Google Maps to find the most efficient route between as many as 25 different locations.

One Mapping Tool to Align Your Sales Team’s Goals

If you feel like your manager-level goals are clashing with those of your sales team, Maptive’s sales territory mapping software can help realign your overall KPIs and ensure that customers and accounts are evenly and fairly allocated and that all your territories are properly serviced.

START MAPPING TODAY

What Are the Best Practices for Sales Territory Mapping?

Sales leaders who want to achieve sustainable, long-term results know that mapping sales territories can be an incredible tool to boost their effectiveness. Sales territory mapping software can help you compare past performance and discover trends, and should absolutely become part of your overall sales management process and planning.

Here are a few territory management best practices:

• Define the sales process: Sales managers can benefit from defining the process that will be used by their sales team before they do any territory planning. This will ensure that all sales representatives are following the same process and will make it easier to track and measure results.
• Analyze customer data: Proprietary data like lead concentration and demographic distribution is the key to understanding the sales potential of each geographical area. This information can be used to create sales territories that are more likely to generate revenue.
• Segment your market: Instead of trying to address the entirety of your market, break it down into segments you can go after more efficiently. While the geographical location is a big factor, you might also want to segment by industry or client size, depending on your unique service or product.
• Evaluate market potential: Sales leaders should evaluate the market potential of each territory to identify areas with high sales potential; by doing so, they can create territories that are more likely to generate high revenue.
• Regularly update the sales territory map: Sales data is constantly changing, so sales managers should regularly update their sales territory map to reflect any changes in the market.
• Find the right balance: Retaining loyal customers is just as important as generating new leads. Every sales team needs to balance growth opportunities with the satisfaction of their existing client accounts.

How Do You Choose the Best Sales Territory Mapping Software?

There is no doubt in our minds that Maptive’s sales territory mapping software is the best on the market. The tool you choose will ultimately depend on your specific business needs, but keep in mind that your choice of software will ultimately impact how effective your sales strategy will be.

As you evaluate different tools, ask yourself:

• Does it let me upload my own sales data quickly and easily?
• Does it integrate with Google Maps to help my sales reps with directions?
• Does it offer secure encryption for my sales data?
• Does it let my sales team and I access our maps from any device?
• Does it let me customize the appearance of my maps?

With Maptive you can do all of the above and more. Sign up for a free trial of Maptive today and discover how our mapping software can help you boost your sales and run your business more efficiently.

Start Your Free, No Risk, 10 Day Trial

No credit card required. No surprises. Just Results.

START MAPPING TODAY

The post Exceed Your Sales Goals with Sales Territory Mapping appeared first on Maptive.

When your current boundaries are no longer cutting it, it’s time to reevaluate the structure of your team and how to best serve your clients. The hard part, though, is knowing where to start.

That’s where sales territory mapping software like Maptive comes into play. Maptive can help you visualize and analyze data in new and fresh ways, which makes it easy to see how adjustments to territory structure can maximize your efforts and benefit your team.

Perhaps you know about sales territory optimization but have never had the chance to go through a territory planning exercise at a growing organization. Or perhaps the concept of sales territory optimization is new to you. Either way, here’s a deep dive into sales territory optimization and the five benefits optimization delivers for your team and your business.

What is Territory Optimization?

A lot goes into territory planning. Leaders must evaluate the opportunity present in any prospective territory. And then, they must also align that opportunity with the number of sales reps and individual workloads to create the best results and maximize sales productivity.

You have two options for territory management. First, you can attempt to create optimized sales territories by hand. The manual approach tends to be time-consuming, and it rarely leads to full optimization. Second, you can choose to create territories with assistance from an automated tool.

If you’re wondering how to optimize sales territories, which approach do you think is best? As you might imagine, most businesses choose a tool that can automate the sales territory optimization process. Using a tool is the fastest and most accurate way to create the needed alignment between opportunity, resources, and individual workloads. This approach to territory management also saves any organization time and money.

The 5 Benefits of Territory Optimization

Let’s touch on the specific benefits of effective sales territory optimization as empowered by an automated tool like Maptive. When you consider these five benefits, you’ll discover that the decision to use technology for optimization is one of the easiest a sales leader will face — one that can dramatically increase sales performance.

1. Increase Revenue

As you can imagine, the primary benefit of sales territory optimization is increased revenue. Research indicates that optimizing territory design without making any other changes can drive a 2% to 7% increase in sales. But what are the specific ways that optimization helps drive revenue growth?

First, effective territory design balances the workload among your representatives. When sales managers optimize territories, they eliminate coverage gaps and give sales reps enough time to look after their customers and prospects properly. When customers and prospects feel cared for, the organization closes more deals, enjoys more upsells, receives better reviews, increases referrals — and ultimately boosts revenue.

Optimized territories have other benefits, but revenue is the game’s name. Increased revenue alone should be enough to inspire sales leaders to explore optimization and the tools needed to do it accurately and effectively.

2. Reduce Costs

As you increase revenue due to optimized sales territories, wouldn’t it be nice to balance that growth by lowering costs? Sales resources are precious, and you always want to make the most of them. Effective territory optimization can help you do just that.

Markets are constantly changing for sales organizations, which can make it difficult to assign the right number of people to each territory. Things happen. For example, new competitors emerge, demand changes, customers churn, etc. Those things affect the number of reps you should have serving any given territory to maximize sales performance.

As mentioned above, you have two options for right-sizing your sales force in a territory management exercise. First, you can try to optimize by hand, keeping tabs on the changing landscape and guessing at how that should influence territory design. Or, you can use an automated tool to consistently and effectively tweak your territories and right-size your number of reps in each. When you right-size your sales force across territories, the cost of that sales force plummets.

3. Save Time

You know the saying, “time is money.” Well, it turns out that it’s true regarding sales organizations and their territories.

Territory management is always tough, but one of the biggest challenges sales managers face is creating geographically optimized and realistic territories in terms of travel time. If a territory is too large, it will take too long for a sales representative to get from one customer to the next. On the other hand, if a territory is too small, there won’t be enough potential customers to justify the time and expense of having a sales rep in that area.

The key is finding the right balance between these two factors. Fortunately, there are now sales territory mapping software options that can help with this task by creating geographically optimized and realistic territories in terms of travel time — programs like Maptive. These tools allow sales leaders to save time for any rep by optimizing the size of each territory.

4. Increase Job Satisfaction

As anyone who has ever worked in sales knows, the job can be grueling. Reps spend long days driving from client to client, prospect to prospect. The experience can lead to burnout across your sales force.

Turnover will always be a challenge facing sales organizations. But optimized sales territories can help mitigate your burnout rate.

How does it work? Start by placing the ideal amount of salespeople in a market. Then, evenly divide the market so that everyone is pursuing an equal opportunity. No one gets so overwhelmed that they can’t keep up, and no one is wasting away in a territory without a real opportunity to earn.

Some organizations choose a different approach, creating territories of uniform size regardless of the opportunity within each. These organizations that choose to not optimize their territories for opportunity experience 14% less quota attainment than those that do.

Fair sales territories help balance each rep’s workload while giving everyone the opportunity to excel.

5. Enhance Customer Service

As a sales manager, you know that one of the most important things you can do is to help your sales team build strong relationships with their customers. But, when you have a large sales territory and a lot on your plate, effective customer relationship management can be tough.

However, by combining your territory planning with your customer service goals, you can make it easier for your sales reps to provide a high level of customer service that will keep your customers coming back. Effective optimization means less time spent on administrative tasks in a territory that’s too large — and more time spent effectively serving existing clients and prospects alike.

How Maptive Helps

Are you ready to unlock the benefits of automated sales territory optimization? Maptive is here to help enhance your sales operations.

Maptive is a platform that can transform your data into an optimized Google Map in just minutes. Take advantage of tools like Maptive’s Territory Map Maker, allowing users to quickly map out client locations, create drive-time maps, generate optimized routes for salespeople, and more. Also, Maptive will soon launch an Automated Territory Optimization tool.

You can use Maptive’s rich feature set to build and optimize sales territories that will maximize your team’s efforts. And, as you need to re-evaluate your territories in the face of changing circumstances, you can return to Maptive again and again for real-time territory planning.

Start a free trial and begin creating an optimized sales territory plan. Your sales reps will thank you for it.

The post How Sales Territory Optimization Tools (Like Maptive) Benefit Your Business appeared first on Maptive.

With leads popping up by the moment, sales figures expanding and contracting across multiple territories, and quotas to be made, sales isn’t just one of the important aspects of your business; it’s also its most dynamic.

Data gives your sales team the proper direction it needs to predictably and consistently boost sales. And if you don’t use data? Your sales team is left rudderless and confused, making your territories vulnerable to your competition’s taking.

With stakes so high, it’s critical for your business to make the most informed, efficient, and high-yield decisions possible. High-quality, detailed data allows you to do so.

For example, data discovered this: territory design optimization is one of the simplest-to-implement, yet most effective, steps you can take to generate dramatically more revenue.

Harvard Business Review found that you can increase sales by up to 7% by optimizing your territory design, with, according to Alexander Group, a 10-20% increase in sales productivity.

In fact, research from Xactly found a 30% higher sales performance in companies that optimize their sales territory design.

The results are clear: in order to increase your revenue and outpace your competition, you must have detailed data and well-optimized territories: the ability to plan winning sales strategies and execute them efficiently.

 Enter sales territory mapping software.

What is Sales Territory Mapping Software?

Top-performing organizations trust sales mapping software to make more informed and more profitable sales decisions. Sales mapping software integrates your company’s sales data with geolocation, transforming massive spreadsheets, unwieldy data sets, and complicated CRMs into easy-to-read territory data visualizations.

Your sales reps can spend more time doing the work that matters most to your business — sales — and less time worrying about the administrative details of sales territories and sales territory management. When your organization leverages effective sales territory mapping software, the job becomes easier and work more streamlined.

How Can Sales Mapping Software Help My Company Grow?

While each software on the market provides the same core utility, the best sales mapping software helps your company grow by giving your sales reps access to performance-enhancing insights.

The best sales mapping software allows you to:

• Plot Location-Based Data
• Identify Key Trends
• Visualize Current Accounts
• Create Strategies
• Target Potential Customers
• Spot Hidden Sales Opportunities

The benefits are bountiful. For example, sales managers receive the exact information they need to better run their territories, support their reps, and discover competitive advantages.

Sales reps get a repeatable system to generate leads, deepen their relationships, and increase their commissions.

When you manage sales territories more effectively, your organization gains a potent asset for increasing revenue, productivity, and profitability.

What Features Should I Look Out For When Choosing Sales Mapping Software?

Not all sales territory mapping software is created equal.

Even though plenty of solutions offer to meet your basic needs — your sales data visualized on maps — many lack some or all of the features that mark the difference between a nice-to-have tool and a must-have asset. Must-have assets are what supercharge your sales team for maximum effectiveness.

The best sales mapping software understands its key purpose: to make it easy for you to generate as much revenue as possible, as easily as possible, in every single one of your territories. It’s more than just territory management. Rather, you need a tool that empowers your teams to work more efficiently while also maximizing sales productivity.

When deciding on your sales mapping software, look out for these features:

• A Filter Tool: You likely have a lot of data on a lot of customers — data that you don’t want a sales rep combing through manually. Filtering will help you instantly zero in on the precise information you need — with the added benefit of presenting important trends that you might not have noticed otherwise. Look for a filtering tool that allows you to segment your data on key factors, including account names, deal sizes, stages of deals, and product types. When a sales rep is able to filter, he or she is able to maximize their efforts.
• Sales Territory Mapping and Demographic Tools: Key to building a high-performing and empowered sales team are well-optimized sales territories. Your sales mapping software should include a territory mapping feature that lets your sales team create territories based on geographic boundaries like zip codes, counties, and states.

However, you also need the ability to draw custom boundaries based on your established territories and account for any on-the-fly pivots you need to make.

The best software mapping software also allows you to include Census-based demographic data, such as age, education, income, transportation, labor, gender, and more. This will help your sales team understand their customers better and improve your ad targeting’s efficacy.

• A Heat Mapping Tool: Want to know where your sales are coming from—and where they aren’t? Heat mapping tools allow you to gain insights on sales density, target underperforming areas in your territories, and identify which salespersons and territories need your support and attention. A heat mapping tool is one of the most important features a sales mapping software should have.
• A Route Optimization Tool: If you want to increase sales as efficiently as possible, route planning tools must be non-negotiable in your sales mapping software search. Your sales reps have multiple accounts and meetings scattered across their territories. Therefore, route optimization leads to revenue optimization.

Route planning tools will help your team save a lot of time by calculating the shortest-possible routes, project travel time, and distance between locations, and create and save your sales routes. Together, these benefits help your team increase sales productivity. Look for a route optimization tool that will also allow you to easily change your route order, plot multiple routes to account for different scenarios, and plot an unlimited number of stops.

 The Best Sales Mapping Software

Exploring your options? These solutions are widely considered to be the best sales mapping software on the market today. Learn more about each solution, and whether they’re the right fit for your business, below.

1. Maptive

Sales teams value Maptive for its rich feature set, including its built-in route optimization, ability to add and share customer insights and leads, and its robust filtration tool—particularly the “average sale” filter, which enables sales teams to target high-value leads.

Maptive allows you to create efficient sales routes, with unlimited stops, almost instantly. Simply and securely upload your location-based data on their 256-bit SSL encrypted software and receive a fully customizable and easy-to-navigate map.

With a full feature set focused on intuitive route and territory design optimization, deep customization, and complete territory insights—including heat maps and demographics, Maptive is the best overall sales mapping software.

Interested in trying Maptive? Maptive offers a free, no risk, 10-day trial—no credit card required, so you can start mapping now.

2. Badger Maps

 Badger Maps is one of the popular sales mapping software options, and for a good reason: their mobile-first approach. Designed for sales reps on the go, Badger Maps gives reps a full-featured app, including a live territory map with up-to-the-moment traffic updates, simplified admin tasks, and an automated check-in feature to keep managers in the know.

While Badger Maps does a very good job at route optimization, its features are unbalanced, with some users reporting that it’s overly complicated and difficult to adopt, and others left wanting more. And while it’s great for sales reps in the field, it ignores several key features: including comprehensive data-driven sales insights, big-picture outlook, customization, and much more.

3. Spotio

Spotio is a micromanager’s dream: it automatically tracks each sale’s reps’ stops (including date, time, and GPS coordinates), lets managers schedule their rep’s day with a built-in calendar, and updates maps when a rep closes a deal. If you want your sales managers to track their rep’s every move, then Spotio is the right solution for you.

However, this micro-view is also its biggest drawback. For one, its precise and persistent tracking favors sales managers with a turn-and-burn philosophy versus a team-first, growth, and retention approach. And users report Spotio’s difficulty in managing macro-level data, with maps becoming less detailed (and, therefore, less valuable) the more you pan out.

4. Mapline

 Looking for a no-frills sales mapping software? Mapline is a simple, basic entry point for organizations that want to try mapping software without any advanced features. And since it’s one-size-fits-all by design, you can use it for non-sales applications. Mapline is built to work with Microsoft Excel, so it’s an easy in-way for organizations using the Microsoft Office Suite.

If you want to extract key insights, however, you have to export the data yourself and ad hoc a solution of your own. Its design sacrifices functionality for adoption: making it easy for you to implement but difficult for you to get the basic results other sales mapping software provide.

5. eSpatial

 eSpatial offers many of the exact things you want in your sales mapping software: deep customization, rich data sets (including Census demographic data), territory optimization, and Google Maps integration. In many ways, eSpatial is comparable in features to Maptive.

Where the two solutions differ is this: while Maptive integrates with virtually every spreadsheet and CRM Software, eSpatial only integrates with Salesforce. So, not only is it expensive on its own—$1,295 per year for a single user, and $2,995 for teams (with up to five users), even considering the required Salesforce-eSpatial stack comes with a hefty cost.

6. Google Maps

 Google Maps is great. With its ease of use, free access, Street View, and robust API, Google Maps handily earns the award of “lowest-barrier-of-entry route planner.” No wonder sales mapping software solutions like Maptive and eSpatial build their services on Google Maps.

But keep this in mind: without the features included in a more comprehensive service, Google Maps is best for simple routes, bootstrapping companies, and teams that aren’t yet at the stage where customization will give them a competitive edge. For example, Google Maps only allows you to route ten stops (25 if you use a workaround) and doesn’t offer much in the way of route optimization on its own.

If you’ve tried Google Maps and found yourself wanting more, consider Maptive. Maptive offers all of the advanced options that Google Maps lacks, but with a similarly user-friendly experience.

7. Geopointe

 Like eSpatial, Geopointe is a designed-for-Salesforce application for sales data mapping. Available in Salesforce AppExchange, Geopointe location enables the Salesforce CRM, allowing you to analyze, manipulate, and visualize your customer accounts.

Already using Salesforce? Then Geopointe may work well for you as it’s less cost-prohibitive and more flexible than eSpatial. Prices start as low as $55 per user, and any features you want, outside of visualizing basic sales data, are available as add-on upsells. While Geopointe is not the right choice for most sales teams, it’s perfect for organizations that use Salesforce, are price-conscious, and prefer to pick their features as opposed to getting everything out-of-box.

8. Maptitude

Like many of the options on this list, Maptitude allows your business to visualize geographic data in new ways. You can use Maptitude to discover geographic patterns that have been hiding inside your data, and you can also use Maptitude to organize this data in an easy-to-read and understandable way.

When you choose Maptitude for territory management, you’re able to see clearly where your customers are located, which sales territories are achieving the most success, any sales territory that is not maximizing its full potential, etc.

9. AlignMix

Among sales mapping software tools, AlignMix is one of the easiest to use. Its simple, attractive user interface makes onboarding and mastery a breeze, and it’s also easy to import and export information related to sales territory mapping across three hierarchical levels: normal sales territories, sales districts, and sales regions.

AlignMix does not offer the advanced and robust feature sets that you get with other territory mapping software options. But, if you’re just getting started and you want to make an impact for each individual sales rep, AlignMix is a quality entry-level option.

10. Xactly AlignStar

Xactly AlignStar is a sales territory mapping tool designed for sales operations and sales leadership. On the operations side, the product helps you optimize sales territory inefficiencies. It also helps you communicate changes to sales territories in a way that demonstrates fairness, accuracy, and how the sales territories best reinforce corporate objectives.

Sales leaders use Xactly AlignStar to gain needed visibility into the performance of their sales teams. When you use this sales mapping tool to align performance with targets, you’re better able to create future targets that are equal parts ambitious and attainable. The best sales leader integrates sales data into future projections, and that’s what Xactly AlignStar helps you do as a sales mapping solution.

11. MapBusinessOnline

You get a basic name but serious sales impact when you choose MapBusinessOnline as a territory management solution. This mapping software emphasizes affordability and ease of use. While it may not provide a deep feature set like some of the other sales mapping tools on this list, it can still be quite helpful with:

• Visualizing where customers and competitors are located.
• Optimizing sales-related business processes.
• Creating the most efficient route within territories.
• Communicating via maps.
• Identifying the most valuable customers in a territory.

12. BatchGeo

BatchGeo is a sales mapping tool that specializes in quickly converting spreadsheet data into geographic visualizations. It can be used for sales mapping and sales rep productivity, as well as for real estate work and retail store location analysis.

This is not free sales mapping software. But it is a product trusted by leading companies that rely on effective sales teams to drive year-over-year revenue increases.

13. Yellowfin

For enterprises that have a lot of money to invest in territory mapping, Yellowfin is an attractive option. This platform helps you increase sales productivity through data storytelling and collaboration tools, data visualization, and automation that allow you to find relevant and insightful data quickly.

Yellowfin is more for sales-related data analytics and less for sales team management. But, for some companies, that might be exactly what they need to sell to new prospects and retain existing customers.

14. GeoMetrx

Use GeoMetrx for sales territory mapping and for a range of other activities, including access to shopper data and choosing ideal store locations. Territory mapping isn’t necessarily the primary purpose of GeoMetrx, but it is one of many things you can achieve using this tool.

Perhaps the best part of using GeoMetrx is how quickly you can create and iterate on a map design. Simply upload your data, and you can create attractive, easy-to-read territory maps in just minutes.

15. ZeeMaps

Use a series of inputs (including Google Sheets, Excel, CSV files, etc.) to turn static business data into territory maps for your sales reps via ZeeMaps. You can include an unlimited amount of markers per map, and you can provide three different levels of access control: admin, member, and viewer.

This is another sales territory tool that is perfect for organizations just starting out and operating with limited budgets. ZeeMaps is free, and you don’t even have to create an account to start building a territory map.

Conclusion: Maptive is the Best Overall Sales Mapping Software

 If you want your sales reps to thrive in the modern market, sales mapping software is a must-have. Integrating your customer data with detailed maps, these solutions give you the precise information you need to create sharply optimized territories, spot high-potential opportunities, and elevate your revenue generation far above your expectations—and competition.

Every business has unique needs, and some sales mapping software will pose a better fit for you than others. Regardless of your decision, rest assured that making the choice to implement sales mapping software will lead to better results.

Because it offers the full range of key features, as well as its ease of use, flexibility, and customization, Maptive is the best sales mapping software available.

Maptive gives your organization great tools to systematically increase your sales, including the ability to:

• Fully understand your sales data by plotting it on a beautiful interactive map.
• Customize your map and filter out unneeded data to gain valuable insights and identify important opportunities.
• Create sales territories and assign leads to your reps.
• Learn more about your customers with demographic data.
• Calculate the most efficient route between sales meetings.
• … and much more.

Sign up for a free trial of Maptive today and discover how our mapping software can help you boost your sales and empower your sales reps to work more efficiently, productively, and profitably.

Start Mapping Now

The post The 15 Best Sales Territory Mapping Software for 2023 appeared first on Maptive.