Sales territories are used by some of the most successful businesses out there to uncover new business opportunities, hand sales teams a clear strategy, and gain a profound understanding of their territories and markets.

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.

[START YOUR FREE 10-DAY TRIAL]

Fred Metterhausen

Fred Metterhausen is a Chicago based computer programmer, and product owner of the current version of Maptive. He has over 15 years of experience developing mapping applications as a freelance developer, including 12 with Maptive. He has seen how thousands of companies have used mapping to optimize various aspects of their workflow.