Businesses use CRM to store customer data and manage their relationships with it. Visualizing tons of data is overwhelming. You might miss a few things that can impact your strategies.
Visualizing continuously varied data is even more difficult. For example, you have an on-field sales team approaching doctors to recommend the latest medicine. There will be a lot of figures about sales coming in. Additionally, you would want them to book appointments with doctors and reach meetings on time. All this is not possible without a CRM mapping tool.
Let’s learn what a geolocation mapping tool is and how it can help you!
What is a geolocation mapping tool?
There are standalone apps and plugins available in the market for the same.
However, the data you will be using for the map visualization will come from the CRM. Hence, a better idea would be to integrate a mapping plugin with the CRM. For example, if you use a Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM rather than a standalone app, use a Dynamics 365 plugin so that you don’t have to integrate the CRM separately.
Why do we need a mapping tool?
Here are some reasons that explain why you need a mapping tool:
- Business Growth
- Data Visualization
- Build More Pipelines
- Optimizations to save time
- Automation
Features of the Mapping Tool
1. Auto-Schedule Appointments
If you want to effectively use your working hours, you must first plan meetings and then schedule them with the appropriate team. With a mapping tool, managers can plan activities for their teams. You can create a timetable for a day, a week, or a month and auto-schedule appointments. The tool will have all the customer information and an optimized route to connect all the meeting locations.
Managers can view the real-time location of their team while they are out in the field performing meetings, deliveries, or other services. They can check if the sales representatives are on time, how many meetings they have already attended, if they are running late or not, how well they are managing their time, and much more. So, managers don’t need to call their team members if they need to check something or say something. They are able to accomplish it effortlessly from the office.
Automation is required to digitize all meeting data. Manipulating manual entries is simple. The mapping tool you purchase must have automatic check-in and check-out capabilities to prevent such situations. Management can keep track of all meeting times and determine whether or not they are on time. If a sales representative arrives late, the request immediately goes for approval. Only once the manager has approved it, it is considered valid. Moreover, the software automatically checks in the sales representative when they arrive at the client’s location and checks them out when they depart.
The mapping tool must have a mobile version so that the true working and travel hours of sales representatives can be recorded. It will serve as their proof of work for the sales team. Digital data makes sure no one is overworking. Also, customers can check the optimized routes and save time by feeding locations and finding the route every time they want to meet.
2. Optimized Route Planning
A mapping tool must have a feature that creates optimized routes for you to share with your sales team. The gadget will include links that sales representatives can click on and instructions on the places they want to go. To ensure that your team never arrives late, the paths in these links will be the shortest of all. From the tool itself, you can email them.
Sales representatives can view routes in Apple or Google Maps. It is simple to access routes or any other information pertaining to client location because the perfect mapping application must have a fully functional mobile version. Managers should make better use of their time by communicating with sales representatives about any changes to locations and routes.
As the sales representatives are on the road all day, they may need to stop at a restaurant, coffee shop, pharmacy, or gas station. Or maybe they want to schedule a meeting at the cafe. Sales representatives are constantly looking for a decent cafe or co-working area to meet potential customers. They don’t need to use a different app! They can use the mapping tool in their phones to locate the point of interest that lies in their path.
3. Proximity Search
Meetings are frequently rescheduled or called off, which disrupts the sales representative’s schedule. They’ll completely waste the time they set aside for the meeting that was just canceled. But you can make use of that time if you have a mapping tool.
The mapping application has a function called proximity search. Users can utilize this function to locate every client location in their area. They can search for nearby prospects using a variety of criteria and schedule meetings with them.
The client’s location can first be determined using location. The tool lets you enter any place and displays the clients’ whereabouts nearby. The second approach uses distance. To discover a client nearby, users can enter up to three proximity levels (in kilometers or miles). The next usage is to use the time to find clients in your area.
4. Sales Pipeline
Sales managers need to regularly monitor their sales figures as well as their pipeline, repeat business, and other metrics that will help them reach their strategic objectives.
Managers must make sure that territories are properly managed in order to monitor sales closely. The mapping tool enhances the ability of records to be visualized and intelligently allocates those records to sales representatives. You can allocate several on-field teams based on geography, industry, etc., their areas of expertise, and the consumers they will be meeting.
Heat maps are another method of monitoring sales figures. Heat maps are the most straightforward method of visualizing any entity. Here, various colors are utilized to show the number of records present in the chosen area.
The mapping tool has numerous dashboards to track various performances. It offers a dashboard to improve customer experience, assess risks, track the effectiveness of sales teams, and provide users the ability to construct their own unique dashboards.
5. Mapping CRM Data
You don’t want to view every CRM record every time. It is recommended to see records by region for more clarity. That is exactly what a mapping tool provides. With the help of various filters like drawings, territory, regions, or users, you may view any desired area of the map.
Further details are required to make things clearer. The Dynamics 365 map plugin also displays all the records in a grid layout on the map. When you hover over the geotag pin, a summary card also appears. The summary card will include all relevant details, including monthly and yearly revenue, order details, client details, and more.
The mapping tool can geocode any record even if you don’t have a longitude or latitude. You can do it in bulk, or you can automate it so that each time a new record is created, the mapping tool will geocode. You won’t have to do it manually each time a new record is added to the CRM, hence saving you time.
6. Configurations
In order to use a mapping tool effectively and consider the needs of various businesses, the tool must be customizable. You should be able to choose between global and user-level configurations using a good mapping tool.
All users of the mapping tool will have access to the same filters and features if global-level customizations are in place. These parameters specify that all tool users must maintain informational consistency.
You can provide users with the option to personalize features via the user-level configurations. Certain on-field users choose a certain zoom level to examine the map. They can quickly save it for future use rather than having to do it each time they open the app.
The mapping tool enables all of these configurations. The administrator, however, is completely in charge of deciding how many features you want them to customize.
You can create several security templates using a mapping plugin. You can set up quick actions, for instance, to add a new activity, delete a record, change the owner, etc. On the map, they may also configure filters at the user level for things like drawings, regions, proximity, territory, and users.
You may view all of these mapping tool capabilities in the language of your choice. So, every staff member will be able to utilize this to its full potential, even if you have staff spread out throughout the globe.
Conclusion
A mapping tool can streamline your process and help you increase the outcome. A small integration with the CRM can make a lot of difference. A mapping tool is a must-have for businesses with on-field teams. The features of a mapping tool like data visualization on maps, proximity search, and route optimization are the most useful and popular features. Tell us which feature you think would make a huge difference to your business.
