How to Use Sales Route Optimization To Stimulate Sales Growth

Salespeople spend only a fraction of their time in front of customers, according to the latest research. 

So where does their time go?

Boring admin duties, responding to emails, and manual route planning are all things that can be massive time consumers. 

When it comes to route planning, sales route optimization is something that can make all the difference. Sales route optimization is the sweet science of calculating the most efficient way to travel between multiple locations.

When done correctly, sales route optimization will:

• Minimize the overall travel time
• Reduce fuel costs
• Increase your number of meetings in a day, enhancing customer satisfaction
• Decrease carbon emissions, contributing to environmental sustainability
• Boost overall operational efficiency, allowing for better resource allocation and planning

Let’s take a look at all of this in more detail.

Sales Route Optimization is the process of designing the most efficient and effective route for sales representatives to follow when visiting customers or prospects. 

While you can easily find the fastest route between 2 points using an app like Google Maps, most sales reps will need a route optimization app for a trip that involves more than 2 stops. Google Maps is a great tool, however, it has many limitations for those interested in mapping multiple stops. 

Sales Route Optimization uses specialized software that leverages algorithms and GPS technology to generate optimized routes based on various factors, such as the locations of customers, time windows for visits, and sales priorities. Using specialized sales route planners can help you maximize sales productivity minimizing travel time and costs.

You shouldn’t just rush in and start using sales route optimization software. There are a few important steps to consider before doing so such as assessing your needs, importing your customer information, and ultimately, planning your sales routes. 

Assessing your needs starts with identifying the current inefficiencies of your sales route planning:

• Are you struggling to find and calculate the shortest route?
• Do you wish there was a way to visit more customers in the same time period?

Spending valuable time manually planning your sales routes can lead to both errors and missed opportunities. This isn’t necessary anymore as route planning software automates the process seamlessly. However, these tools don’t just create routes based on the proximity of a customer's location. It can consider a customer’s availability times, your different priorities, and live, ever-changing data, such as traffic conditions. 

Sometimes, the nature of the route requires immediate attention, such as when dealing with high-priority clients, or even those working in industries such as field services, delivery services, or medical courier services. 

Sales route optimization isn't always about efficiency - sometimes it's about prioritizing certain stops to minimize travel time and ensure that you arrive at the right place at the right time.

Check out our breakdown of the best free route planners with unlimited stops here!

OK, so now you’ve assessed your needs and realized you need a sales tool that has a sales route optimization feature. How do you transfer your long customer lists into your sales route planner? 

Route planners such as Badger Maps offer a two-way, real-time integration with the most popular sales CRM software. With Badger Maps, you can visualize all of your customers on an interactive map and create optimized routes at the touch of a button.

You can transform your current CRM into a mobile CRM solution to keep all of your data in sync on the go. You can enable a two-way, real-time native integration with the most popular CRMs such as HubSpot, Zoho, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Insightly, and many more. 

On average, sales teams using Badger Maps save 8 hours a week, drive 20% less, and sell 22% more.

Discover the value of Badger Maps by trying it out yourself. Start a free trial or schedule a demo now!

Once you successfully import your customer information into your route planner, you’ll have a visual representation of all your customers’ locations on a map. 

Tools like Badger Maps can connect to your preferred navigation app such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze, allowing you to get turn-by-turn directions and other features you love and are so accustomed to. 

Once you are able to visualize all of your customers on a map, you can use the Lasso tool to group certain customers together. Badger Maps then automatically generates the most efficient route for those selected stops.

You can add your starting point and finishing point, click to optimize, and Badger Maps will create the most efficient sales route.

Once you’ve created a route with up to 120 stops, you can go into Route Mode, where you’ll get turn-by-turn directions powered by your favorite navigation app, guaranteeing you will never be late for an appointment. If at any moment while on the road you need to add an extra appointment or make a quick stop for food or gas, you’re all covered. 

You can easily add or delete stops and Badger Maps will automatically re-optimize your route.

Sales teams have reported that they sell 22% more and drive 20% less when using Badger Maps, in fact, the average team of 10 reps sells $936k more the year they start using the app.

Useful features such as check-ins allow you to log customer interactions as soon as they take place, making it easy to keep track of valuable information.

When creating a check-in, you can select the type of customer interaction you had (i.e., meeting, phone call, email), write down your notes, and automatically sync the notes to your CRM, saving you time on tedious administrative tasks.

As not all customers are the same, visualization tools can arrange customers by many segments of your choice, such as:

• Next step (add details of where the lead is in your sales cycle.)
• Days since the last check-in.
• Next step date.
• Lead priority.

These toggles ensure you’re pursuing the most promising opportunities, which are color-coded on the map.

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You can build better route planning strategies by setting up your route with Badger Maps. Specifically, you will be able to:

• Get 20% more meetings per week by optimizing your sales routes, allowing for increased customer engagement and sales opportunities.
• Drive 20% fewer miles by following the most efficient routes, reduce wear and tear on vehicles, and lower overall travel costs.
• Cut fuel expenses by 20% thanks to more direct routes, leading to significant savings and increased revenues.
• Spend 50% less time on admin work, freeing up more time for customer interactions and strategic sales activities.

Manual route optimization is a thing of the past.

With features designed to streamline your sales processes, reduce travel time, and minimize costs, sales route optimization can contribute greatly to your sales growth. 

Badger Maps is the best sales route optimization software in the market. It’s the only tool that offers all the features a field salesperson needs to streamline every single part of their job. 

Start optimizing your processes with sales route optimization now!

Author bio: Catalina Grigoriev is an incurable optimist with a bubbly personality. Currently delving into the depths of SEO and content marketing at Planable.

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