Sales route planning, or sales route optimization, is the process of organizing traveling to multiple stops in the shortest amount of time for salespeople. When this is done with a specialized route planner, the process becomes quite simple.
For salespeople, the time spent selling to prospects and customers is directly linked to quota achievement. According to a study done for the Forbes article "Why Sales Reps Spend So Little Time Selling", only 35% of a sales rep's time is spent selling to customers. Every minute regained through sales route planning, and optimization is time you can spend with customers. That leads to more revenue and productivity.
Your starting point is a deep knowledge of your sales territory and geography. Knowing your customers, prospects, and competitor locations is critical. Seeing those locations is transformational.
Your sales data will come alive as you uncover patterns like competitor clusters or customer hotspots. You will also see whitespaces or areas with untapped sales potential.
Sales strategy execution is always a priority, but often behaviors misalign with the objectives. For example, your strategy is to sell premium security systems to households with a minimum income of $200,000. But analysis of sales rep calls shows that they are calling on households with average incomes below $100,000. It is a common challenge.
So, be clear on your Sweet Spot Client first before you proceed.
Think of your Sweet Spot Client as a customer with the highest profitable sales potential. Ask these questions
As you enter the route design phase, focus initially on your highest-priority meetings. Add those to the schedule first. You'll want to optimize your routes with those "locked-in" meetings.
Next, add your pre-scheduled meetings. Experience shows that pre-booked appointments generate higher close rates.
Now think about your availability. How many non-sales meetings do you need to attend? How many hours will you need to set aside for call planning, administration, emails, and calls?
Assuming you work a 32-hour week, subtract the non-selling time each day to estimate your available selling time.
Once you have reviewed your availability, you can move on to your customers. Are there customers who have visiting time windows? If so, add these first to your schedule. And add calls you have already "locked in."
Your route optimization software will take account of your "locked-in" times and customer availability, then generate your optimized schedule.
Focus on your upcoming week to maximize your immediate potential and plan your month. It rarely goes exactly to plan, but if you have your month mapped out, you will be much more successful. And you'll feel more relaxed knowing you are on top of your schedule.
Now focus on your selling day. Remember the foundational work you have done to make your day a success:
You are ready to optimize your day.
You know how "best-laid plans" get messed up. Customers cancel appointments. Accidents happen on the roads resulting in delays. Sometimes you are running ahead of schedule and have free time to spend prospecting.
So, always have your route optimization tool at the ready and a backup call list. Your backup list is your go-to when you hit a challenge. You can easily re-optimize your day to include a new stop. Or to rearrange the order of your stops to accommodate a customer.