What politicians have been doing since 1812, businesses have just begun to do. The term “gerrymandering” was named after Massachusetts Governor, Elbridge Gerry who, in 1812, signed a bill redrawing the electoral map of his state to benefit his party in the election. This is a sleazy practice in politics, but it is an effective tactic in business. Territory mapping is rationalizing the geography in which you do business to make it better fit the practice of sales and marketing.
Territory Optimization:
Territory mapping may involve dividing the geography of a region into territories that best fit your sales staff with a known customer base or demographics. It may mean putting a sales territory on a live map that uses GPS data to give sales people power to design the best travel routes and schedules.
Simple territory mapping can be done with in-house software. However, complex territory mapping may require big data solutions. Mapping services may design territories based on complex formulas involving sales volumes, sales staff, prospects, locations of competitors, and other factors with carefully chosen weights for each factor. Sales territory planning may lead to important changes in the way your company uses its resources.
Optimizing Sales Staff:
Unbalanced or poorly designed territories can lead to wasted human resources and time. Well designed and mapped territories enable your staff to reach the most customers while optimizing your resources.
According to some estimates, 40% of field sales staff have either too much or too little work. Overworked field staff will waste useful contacts who are simply not visited or under-visited. Underworked sales staff may have morale issues and become wasted resources.
The average field sales staff spends upward of 20% of their time in travel. If that percentage can be reduced it could vastly improve sales efficiency. Many companies have found that intelligent sales territory design can increase sales at a relatively low cost.
Here’s another article that you might like: Territory Mapping Hot Swapping Feature
