How to Optimize Field Sales Reps with Route Planning

A major part of a successful field sales team is planning – Whether it be planning your selling objectives, customer targeting, or finding the most efficient route to take that day - AKA route planning. Route planning is essential in the field sales world for a multitude of reasons. For starters, route planning optimization maximizes each sales reps’ schedule with real-time route planning and prioritizes sales calls based on client value. According to a study from Salesforce, “66% of a sales team member’s time is spent on non-sales activities” and “45% of mobile workers have wasted significant time because of inaccurate or outdated information.” Let route optimization do the daily planning for your reps and give them more time to sell.

• Having disconnected tools and/or the ever-changing market dynamics could result in a lack of territory understanding and overlooking opportunities – thus resulting in missed potential opportunities.
• Finding gaps in your schedule, unplanned downtime (which happens more often than not), unpredictable driving conditions, and, of course, outdated tools make it all the more challenging to put together an effective route.

Planning sales routes is a simple solution to these challenges. Rather than wasting time not selling, route planning helps reps take advantage of this downtime and plan for unexpected changes (traffic delays or inclement weather). 

Well, why can’t I just use Google maps to plan out my stops efficiently?

• While google maps can plan point A to point B to point C in the most efficient driving order – It doesn’t know that you’re planning this route to see clients. When visiting clients, there is typically an order of importance in which you need to be seeing your clients – There could be a key client you need to hit that day but it’s technically at the “end” of the most “efficient” route. With smart route planning software, you’re able to hit those key clients and still have an efficient route.

Main benefits of route planning

• View all your customers on a single map
• View your planned and unplanned calls
• Easily visualize your customer groups with configurable shades
• Use filters to refine your map results
• Plan to visit customers with a few taps
• View your route for the day with multiple stops and end location
• Optimize your route based on current traffic

How should you decide what route planning software is best for you?