Planning a route is an essential part of successful outside sales. It can seem difficult and challenging to plan your route when you have to take into account the geography, your customers, and your time management. However, there are plenty of tools that can help you achieve the best route possible. 

Sales route planning software will help you find the optimal plan for your company by helping you complete key tasks such as mapping out any zones in your region that need more attention, assigning different customer types to each zone, and saving routes for future use. The right tool makes it easy to plan a productive route that will boost your revenue.

The basics of route planning

The first thing you need to know about route planning is how to take the perfect approach. This is the most important aspect of route planning because, without it, your route will be ineffective.

Analyzing your competitors’ routes is an excellent starting point. Take a look at your top competitors’ websites and figure out what strategies they have to grow their sales. Are they offering discounts? Are they improving their conversion rate? Are they focusing on different demographics? Ask yourself these questions when planning your own sales routes. 

Tips for successful route planning

Using a sales route planner is one of the easiest ways to plan your sales route. This tool can help you more efficiently plan your sales routes in the following ways: 

1. Plan ahead of time and map out your region

You can plan ahead of time and plan your route in the region with all the information you have at hand. Map out your region ahead of time and determine the areas that require your attention more than others. Map out the routes for these areas. Doing this way can give you a lot more confidence in knowing that you’re not going to leave anyone out. Make sure you are mapping out your regional routes before you begin to show, distribute or deliver any products to your customer.

2. The big picture matters

Once you map out all the details of your region, it is time to look at the big picture. It is important that you take into account all the locations where your customers will be located as well as any weather or traffic conditions that can impact outside sales activity.

How to create an efficient route with the right tool

For small companies with a small staff, planning routes manually may not be efficient because of the nature of some businesses. Many businesses find that driving to potential customers is a rather time-consuming process. It’s so difficult to avoid rush hour and traffic jams that by the time you get to your customer, the deal might be lost.

To avoid this, it’s best to assign workers to different routes and prioritize them based on their efficiency and capacity.

Another way to plan your route efficiently is to estimate the number of customers you can see during each of your routes. Multiply the number of routes with the number of possible customers, and you’ll find the number you can reach each time.

Conclusion

A sales route planner can help your business to plan efficiently, discover the best routes, and perform analysis on different parameters. Using one will not only increase your route planning efficiency but also increase your sales conversion rate.