Business.com

---

What Is a Sales Territory Map? Posted: 26 Mar 2021 05:38 AM PDT Mapping out your sales territory is a key way to reveal your sales team's full potential. Your reps' ability to close more deals is closely tied to the number of qualified prospects they can win over. To do that, they should spend as much time as possible actually selling (i.e., not doing administrative work or traveling too far to customers and prospects). This can be a challenge when dealing with multiple sales reps and large geographic areas. One solution is to create sales territory maps. What is sales territory mapping? Sales territory mapping involves creating geographic areas on a map and assigning those areas to field sales representatives. This enables you to define sales targets and resources and create sales strategies for achieving specific objectives. You can use a number of metrics to map your sales territories, including ZIP codes State boundaries Number of current customers Number of prospects within a target demographic Internal and external factors related to sales territories With sales territory mapping, you're able to visualize the locations of your customers and prospects, their distribution across target territories, and the distribution of the territories across your sales reps. This tells your sales team who is responsible for covering specific customers and prospects within specific geographic areas. You're also able to create and implement an evenly distributed and actionable sales strategy, which will make more efficient use of your sales reps' available time and resources. What are the benefits of mapping a sales territory? Mapping sales territories has several key benefits, including Maximizing the capabilities and resources of your sales reps Creating more sales opportunities for sales reps Increasing your understanding of effective sales processes Identifying which sales processes should be amended Highlighting which sales areas are too large or that are being underserved, thereby preventing missed sales opportunities and the potential for dissatisfied customers Identifying sales areas that are too small or oversaturated, which prevents wasted time and resources Keeping sales reps motivated and able to meet their quotas Supporting the profitability and growth of the organization by maximizing sales opportunities  FYI: Implementing sales territories can maximize your team's efficiency while improving how you market to your target audience. How to create a sales territory map Use the following methodology to effectively create sales territories that provide ideal results for sales reps in the field. Step 1: Analyze market and sales data. Begin by analyzing your market and sales data to map your sales territories. The best CRM systems should provide you with the market and sales data you need. Your analysis should include Current industries and markets being served Under and overperforming regions The geographic location of competitors Past sales numbers in different areas Step 2: Segment customers and prospects. Group customers and prospects into different segments according to relevant criteria. For example, you can segment customers and prospects based on Geographic location Business size Industry Target demographic Needs by products or services Using segmentation helps you divide potential opportunities more evenly among your sales reps' territories. You can use one customer segment or combine multiple segments to more effectively map sales territories to your reps. Step 3: Consider sales goals and objectives. Use sales goals and objectives to guide how you create sales territories. This helps ensure that sales reps have equal opportunities to meet those goals. To equitably divide customers and prospects among sales reps using sales goals and objectives Set goals for sales volume and revenue. Calculate how many sales are required to meet your goals. Use your sales reps' average conversion rates to estimate how many customers they must contact to meet the goals. Step 4: Perform a SWOT analysis. Conduct a SWOT analysis to identify sales reps' strengths and weaknesses, and determine internal and external factors that could affect their success in different territories. Here's what you should include in your SWOT analysis. Strengths: Evaluate your sales reps' strengths, skills and experiences. Examine the sales teams' overall strengths and which processes work well. Weaknesses: Evaluate individual sales reps' weaknesses in different areas (e.g., education, experience, ability to close sales). Also, look for areas within your overall sales teams and processes to determine where you can minimize weaknesses in different territories. Opportunities: Look for opportunities for future growth in current and potential sales territories. This can include determining which regions are underserved or untapped and whether there is increased demand for specific products or services in areas that lack competitors.  Threats: Look for internal and external threats that affect results in different sales territories. This can include significant changes in market demand, new industry standards and regulations, and an increase in competitors in certain regions. Step 5: Define and assign sales territories. Use the accumulated data to map your sales territories. The goal is to develop a fair and balanced plan that provides the greatest chance of success for your sales team. Use the following criteria to help with defining sales territories: Are the account numbers in each territory relatively even? Are the account numbers manageable? Where are high-value accounts located? Do sales reps have enough prospects in their territory to meet sales goals? What resources does your sales team need? How will sales reps generate new leads in their territories? After defining the sales territories, assign each territory to a sales rep. The most common ways to assign a sales rep to a sales territory are by their Geographic location (i.e., the sales rep is within or physically close to a territory) Expertise (i.e., the sales rep's skills and experience suit the needs of customers or prospects within the territory) You can also assign territories using a combination of the two. This increases the likelihood of aligning sales reps' skills and abilities with the needs of customers and prospects. Step 6: Evaluate and adjust your sales territory map as needed. Sales territories are usually not permanent, as many factors can change over time that affect the profitability of each territory (e.g., demographics, size of your sales team, entrance or departure of competitors). Continue to monitor sales data for each sales territory. Determine why sales data has changed in a specific territory, and then adjust the sales territory plan to address those changes. This helps maximize the effectiveness of your sales territory, and it helps sales reps to be more efficient in their sales activities. Did You Know: Proper territory mapping starts with analysis around your customer and market data, your business goals and KPIs, and your company's strengths and weaknesses. Tools to draw a sales territory map Optimized sales territory mapping software helps sales managers make data-driven decisions to create and evenly distribute sales territories among sales reps. These technologies also automate many territory mapping and sales processes to help reduce human error (which can occur when mapping territories by hand) and save time in the sales territory-mapping process. Sales territory mapping software also benefits your organization through its ability to Optimally balance territories for efficiency and opportunity Use current customers within territories to create referral and upsell opportunities Provide instant demographic data on prospects, increasing your sales reps' ability to convert prospects Reduce the probability of overlooking hidden opportunities Prevent sales reps from infringing on other sales reps' territories Eliminate time-consuming tasks, such as manually plotting out routes to visit prospects Ensure sales reps spend most of their time visiting and converting prospects and less time driving Some specific software you may want to consider using include the following solutions: Geopointe Geopointe uses Salesforce CRM data to optimize territory mapping processes, create geographic insights and create contiguous territories for sales reps. The Automated Assignments feature enables sales managers to assign and share territories across multiple sales teams. Map My Customers Map My Customers is a mobile workflow tool that simplifies sales teams' day-to-day activities. Sales teams can use the mobile interface to map, route, plan, automate and track their day. Sales managers can use the team management functionality to remotely coach sales teams, as well as visualize sales reps' performance and activities on the map. Maptive Maptive provides built-in directional tools that reps use to find the most efficient route between prospects. The territory mapping software indicates the prospects that sales reps are responsible for in the area and provides optimized routes for visiting them. It enables users to create and save routes, edit territory maps with customer insights, add new leads to sales territories, and pass along prospects who fall into another sales rep's territory. Maptive highlights group geographical areas by worth. Sales managers and reps can increase sales efficiency by identifying areas with higher probabilities of a sale. The software combines input sales data (e.g., average or total sales within a territory) with its data on geographical areas to proactively target areas within territories. Salesforce Maps Salesforce CRM enables businesses to store and organize key sales data and customer information. Salesforce Maps provides territory management and mapping within the main software. It supports the ability to define specific territories for sales reps, visually observe sales data on the map-based interface, and make location-driven decisions to improve productivity. The software allows for the division of territories using CRM data (e.g., geography, current or new customers, revenue, product requirements, sales types). You can also use it to create optimized routes to reduce drive time and fuel costs. Sales managers and reps can use Salesforce Maps to create and optimize a seven-day schedule for visiting prospects. Visits can be defined according to various metrics (e.g., Einstein Score, Pardot Score, potential revenue) to maximize time spent with the most valuable customers and prospects. Users can use mobile or desktop devices to view schedules on exchange-based calendars. Using Google maps to draw your sales territory Google Maps was one of the first electronic versions of territory maps used for sales territory mapping, replacing the traditional method of using a highlighter to draw on physical maps. However, relying solely on geographic data will limit the effectiveness of your sales territory mapping. Using Google Maps alone prevents you from maximizing your sales reps' efficiency and helping them to increase their revenue, due to the following drawbacks: You cannot provide sales reps with demographic data for a specific territory. As a result, they won't know if prospects in that territory fit the target customer profile or demographic. Sales reps could be wasting their time on prospects who have no interest in buying your products or services, which can reduce their sales numbers. You do not know how many businesses or prospects are located within a territory. This prevents you from balancing the number of prospects assigned to sales reps for each territory. While you might be able to assign territories of the same geographic size, one territory could have significantly more customers and prospects than another. This can reduce the efficiency of sales reps' performance and route planning, the total number of sales, and the number of commissions, which affect the likelihood of sales reps remaining on your team. Google Maps has limited ability to create specific routes. It is time-consuming because you must manually create routes, and you can only plot and complete one route at a time. You cannot combine routes, and you won't always find the most efficient routes when working on one route at a time. This means sales reps spend more time doing administrative work in creating routes, as well as more time driving, and less time selling. Examples of sales territory maps You can see example of sales territory maps at CustomMapping.com ESpatial Maptive

What Is Short Code Texting? Posted: 26 Mar 2021 04:30 AM PDT Businesses use SMS messaging, one of the oldest and most popular methods of texting, to communicate with customers and market their products and services. Short code texting enables businesses to scale their texting efforts and reach more customers at the same time with less effort. What is a short code? A short code is a five- or six-digit phone number. The number is shorter than a typical phone number, which makes it easier to remember. Short codes are most commonly used for sending high-volume, high-throughput SMS and MMS messages to groups of customers. What is the purpose of short code text messages? Short code text messaging is similar to SMS or MMS messaging. The main difference is that short codes enable a business to quickly send or receive a high number of text messages (100 to 500 messages per second) that will not usually be filtered out as spam. Wireless text message carriers will approve short code numbers for sending more messages than a long code phone number within the given time period. Businesses can use short codes for marketing campaigns to send text blasts and promotional messages, such as these: Product discounts for subscribers New product announcements Voting links for viewers of TV programs Text-to-win contests, sweepstakes and giveaways Text-to-vote surveys for collecting feedback Fundraising requests FYI: Short code text messaging is similar to SMS marketing but allows you to send a text blast at scale, which is perfect for quick communications to your audience. Short code SMS messages have the same text limits as regular SMS messages (160 plain text characters). Short code MMS messages allow up to 1,600 characters (depending on the service provider) and multimedia (e.g., pictures, GIFs and videos). You must set up a short code as MMS if you want to send MMS messages. Subscribing and unsubscribing For someone to subscribe to a short code message or receive text messages, the person must text a keyword to a specific short code or sign up using a web form. In other words, they must give express written consent to receive messages through short code messaging. When the person texts the keyword to the short code number, their message is sent via SMS through the text message marketing software, which validates the code and responds with the programmed response (e.g., a confirmation message or special offer). Companies do not need to receive a keyword or consent to send some types of transactional messages (i.e., the customer has requested additional information). The information must be deemed necessary to use your product or service to qualify as a transactional message, and a person who consents to receive a transactional message does not consent by default to receive a promotional message. These are some examples of transactional messages: Password reset request Order confirmation with tracking number Two-factor authentication Reservation confirmation To opt out of all future messages from an SMS short code, the person can reply to a text message with the word "STOP." This obligates the business to cease sending text-based communications to that person. Types of SMS short codes There are two types of SMS short codes: shared and dedicated. Shared short codes Shared short codes are any SMS short code that different businesses or brands can use. They cost less than dedicated short codes. Companies use shared short codes because they do not want to pay for dedicated short codes or are new to SMS marketing. Many short code services have used shared short codes for all clients. However, effective June 2021, cellular carriers are banning the use of shared short codes; the details are provided in their updated messaging guidelines. The goal is to identify and eliminate spam. To continue sending text messages, companies that have been using shared short codes will have to either lease a dedicated short code or purchase a 10-digit phone number for texting purposes. Dedicated short codes Dedicated short codes can only be used by one business or brand. Large companies, or companies with a sufficient budget, typically lease a dedicated short code. Companies that need access to any and all possible keywords will also lease a dedicated short code. Companies with a dedicated short code have complete control over the types of text messages that they can send using this number. They do not have to depend on a short code service provider to ensure that a third party's text program complies with the requisite laws and regulations. There are two types of dedicated short codes: random and vanity short codes. Random short codes: These five- or six-digit numbers are randomly assigned when you apply for the dedicated short code. Vanity short codes: These codes are similar to vanity license plates. You can choose a specific five- or six-digit number when applying for a dedicated short code. The governing body, such as the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA), charges a premium if you choose to maintain a specific dedicated short code, as they tend to be more memorable than random short codes. Geographic restrictions of short codes You cannot use one short code to send messages across the world, as every country has its own governing body for short codes. For example, the CSCA governs short codes in the United States, while the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association governs short codes in Canada. Since short codes do not work universally, you must acquire a short code in the country where you plan to send or receive messages. You can lease the same short code in multiple countries if that number is available, but you are responsible for the cost of the code in each country. How to get an SMS short code Getting an SMS short code can take eight to 12 weeks. You'll need to follow this process: Determine whether you want a random or vanity short code. Lease a short code from the appropriate short code provider (e.g., CSCA in the U.S.). Codes can only be leased, not purchased. Choose an SMS service provider. Submit short code applications to all individual cellular carriers to request activation of your short code. Wait for every cellular carrier to review and approve your application. Connect the short code to your SMS service and activate your account. Short code compliance Companies that engage in short code messaging must follow short code rules and best practices. In the U.S., two sets of rules apply to short code text messaging. CTIA short code compliance: The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association is a nonprofit trade association that represents wireless carriers. It develops, maintains, and enforces best practices related to short code text messaging. The CTIA audits SMS short code programs to ensure U.S. companies follow the rules and to protect consumers. It verifies that people have properly opted in to receive messages, that SMS marketing programs use the correct compliance terminology, and that short codes do not violate its guidelines when sending content. TCPA short code compliance: The Telephone Consumer Protection Act is a set of laws that governs all text messaging in the U.S., including SMS short codes. It focuses on preventing people from receiving spam texts and unwanted phone calls. Companies that fail to comply with these laws can receive severe penalties, including losing their short codes. Restrictions on applications Most businesses are permitted to get a dedicated short code. However, cellular carriers have rules on what message content is allowed. Text messaging programs that promote content related to sex, hate, alcohol, firearms and tobacco might be prohibited. If a cellular carrier denies your application, you can discuss your options with your SMS short code service. Short code audit A cellular carrier or an auditing agency working on behalf of a carrier can conduct a short code audit, which is when it decides to test your short code that does not meet one or more of its basic requirements. The consequences of an audit have varying levels of severity, from the requirement to fix the wording of your call to action to suspension of your short code messaging. Most short code audits are relatively minor and the issues easy to fix. The severity of the short code audit depends on the issue. A minor issue could be forgetting to include opt-out instructions after someone opts in to receive your text messages. A more major issue would be sending content that violates your carrier's guidelines. What do SMS short codes cost? When you lease an SMS short code, you pay for the right to use the short code for the given time period. Fees are typically paid on a quarterly basis. Random short codes cost at least $500 per month, while vanity short codes cost at least $1,000 per month (CSCA fee). You must also pay a connectivity fee to the cellular provider, which is the cost to keep the short code connected; this can range from $50 to $100 per month. Some SMS service providers include the cost of a dedicated code in their monthly service fee. They might charge a setup fee or a higher cost per message to cover the connectivity fee.

You are subscribed to email updates from Business.com. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States