Sales Route Planner: How to Boost Profitability + Efficiency

Have you wondered how much time a typical salesperson spends in a car? According to the Canadian Professional Sales Association, an average outside sales rep covers over 19,691 miles each year. That showcases the extensive travel involved in their role.

In some industries, sales reps might cover a whopping 700 to 1,000 miles weekly. There can be lots of meetings in different cities, even across states. In this case, planning the best route (often called the traveling salesman problem) can be a real headache.

Hence, a crucial factor influencing your sales success is having effective software. This software does two essential things. First of all, it collects your sales leads' addresses. It then takes care of your upcoming meetings. It decides which clients are most vital and checks when they are available. Then, it ensures that your route is the most efficient for your meetings.

Now, let's explore how top-notch sales reps use software tools to plan effective routes with modern technology.

What Does Route Planning for Sales Involve?

Sales route planning means organizing driving routes for field sales teams. Sales managers use it as a tool to help their salespeople plan their routes more efficiently. It aims to cut travel time and distance. Creating the quickest and most efficient route can save salespeople hours each week. The result is a boost to the company's efficiency and profitability.

Before the advent of modern technology, route planning relied on Excel spreadsheets. Manual planning was a time-consuming process. It made it challenging for managers to pinpoint the most efficient routes. With the introduction of sales route planning software, finding the fastest routes now takes a few minutes. That, in turn, provides the sales force with valuable extra time.

Route Planning for Sales: A Crucial Tool for Today's Sellers

Field sales teams commonly meet prospects face-to-face to build connections. It involves dedicating a significant portion of a salesperson's day to visiting clients. The goal is to establish and nurture relationships through direct interactions.

Sales managers plan efficient routes for sales reps in their assigned areas. They aim to ensure each prospect is visited. Yet, managing a field sales team involves more than route planning. It goes beyond just creating routes for potential client visits.

eLogii surveyed industry experts to explore successful approaches to addressing this issue. The efficiency of a sales route depends on careful planning and scheduling. It means that it can either save time or result in a significant waste of resources.

Gone are the days of using physical maps and pins to plan routes, and it's not solely due to Google Maps. Only being able to support 10 stops and lacking robust route optimization features, Google Maps fails as an efficient route planning tool.

Now, specialized route planning software tools simplify the process of mapping sales routes. That means less time spent planning routes and more time spent closing deals.

Let the Software Manage Your Routes

After obtaining a list of qualified leads, import their addresses and let the route planner software take care of the rest. With geocoding, the software will organize the addresses efficiently.

eLogii Geocoding

Typical Challenges in Routing

• Effectively assigning leads to reps considering their skills, rapport, or location.
• Strategizing long-term sales efforts and routes.
• Adhering to time constraints for scheduled meetings.
• Designing routes to focus on high-value leads during peak hours.
• Making real-time adjustments to routes and schedules.

Basic route planning tools often struggle with these challenges. Yet, eLogii provides a distinctive set of features. It makes the creation of an optimal sales route effortlessly achievable.

How eLogii Makes Sales Routing Easier

eLogii can handle intricate workflows and determine the best route by adjusting in real-time to various factors. This makes it an excellent tool for external sales teams.

Let's explore how this software has revolutionized the way salespeople work.

Imagine a typical sales manager overseeing a team of field agents at Bristow & Sutor. Some key responsibilities include:

1. Managing follow-ups for 150 to 200 field sales meetings each month.
2. Overseeing client relations in a multi-state area covering thousands of miles.
3. Prioritizing between high-priority planned meetings and low-priority drop-in cold sales.

Before eLogii, planning long-term sales routes, managing ownership, and reporting within a management hierarchy would have been a serious challenge. It involves accounting for various factors like a lead priority, meeting times, service areas, and more. Mistakes would occur, opportunities would be missed, and the bottom line would suffer.

When polled, field sales managers emphasize that great routing software comes down to three key game-changing features.

1. Capability to plan for the long term every week

eLogii enables you to devise efficient schedules and routes for up to 5 weeks ahead. It considers crucial constraints essential for a field sales team at the same time. This includes limiting meetings to specific time windows when clients are available.

2. Define service areas to distribute leads effectively among reps

eLogii allocates territories to outside sales reps based on their specific coverage areas. It then distributes new leads and meetings within those regions. That enhances the efficiency of your sales reps. It also ensures they can achieve more while maintaining strong client relationships and building rapport.

3. Optimize high-priority meetings and accommodate drop-in visits when workable

eLogii empowers field sales managers to focus on scheduled meetings with important clients. This ensures timely attention. Lower-priority drop-ins are strategically scheduled when sales reps have available time.

4. Make sure you're never late or lost with turn-by-turn navigation

After scheduling meetings, send them to the mobile app, compatible with both Android and iOS. Field sales reps can choose their next assignment. They do this by accessing step-by-step directions and eliminating manual address input. This ensures the most efficient route, reducing the risk of human error.

5. Take notes, jot down impressions, or set reminders for any meeting

Another useful feature involves recalling essential details about your potential client as you reach the meeting location. Remember the name of their child or pet? Favorite sports team? Or a detail from your last meeting? In eLogii, this customer data can be added as notes and displayed just as you arrive at the next meeting.

Planning Your Sales Routes with eLogii

Planning a multi-stop sales route doesn't need to be complex or involve a lot of manual work. Check out our step-by-step guide for how a field sales team can set up customer visits.

With eLogii, you can export and import your lead list from your CRM to get an efficient route, considering all essential factors.