Sales & Marketing Effectiveness for Sustained Growth

Market Smarter with Mapping

Given today’s unstable economy, tighter marketing budgets and highly competitive business environment, marketers are facing some incredibly difficult challenges. Now, more than ever, it is vital for you to find effective ways to:

• Do more with less resources
• Understand and use your sales and marketing information better
• Access and share your data faster and easier; you need answers now – not next week
• Get your sales and marketing teams on the same page

There is no better way to solve these challenges than through mapping technology and location intelligence. Why?  Because these tools provide an instant visualization of your sales and marketing information that Excel or other reports can’t provide.  They enable you to clearly see data relationships, trends and patterns that are basically invisible in the rows, columns and tables spewed out in spreadsheets.

By looking at one clean map of your customer / prospect / competitor data instead of a Niagra of numbers in dozens of unintegrated reports, you can see the whole picture clearly and make smarter, more profitable decisions faster and easier. 

Combining your sales and marketing information with location intelligence and mapping tools, allows you to effectively:

• Identify you best customers and prospects
• Determine your current market share and see/decide how to increase it
• Optimize your sales teams and territories
• Analyze, access and share your data faster and easier
• Discover new markets hidden in spreadsheet reports
• Reduce sales force travel time and increase customer contact time
• Enhance your company image
• Focus on your most profitable customers / prospects and find more like them
• Present your CEO with a clear picture of where the company is and where they need to be

Those are only a few of the benefits. The possibilities are endless.

So, given the above benefits, why isn’t every marketer in every company not taking advantage of these readily available, powerful sales and marketing effectiveness tools?  Especially now, when marketers need all the ammo they can get to fight the economy and competitors. 

As I see it, though most marketers are aware of mapping and location intelligence, they often view these tools as too costly, too difficult to learn and use, too labor intensive, and believe everything has to be built and maintained in-house.

But, that’s not the case at all.  There are easy, cost-effective options. 

Microsoft’s Virtual Earth offers an integrated set of location based services combined with best-of-breed mapping technology.  These services can easily be delivered across the Internet and/or through a company’s Intranet and maintained by an in-house team or outsourced to an experienced Microsoft Virtual Earth Certified Partner / Developer with hosting capabilities. 

So, if you don’t have the in-house resources, contracting with a qualified Virtual Earth Partner / Developer is a great way to go.  With this option, there is no need for internal hardware, development, staff resources or support.  You can get all of the benefits without any of the headaches. 

Virtual Earth delivers solid solutions to marketers in every industry to visualize and share sales and marketing information instantly, effectively connect with your customers, and efficiently manage your limited resources.

For all marketers who are looking for the best ways to overcome today’s complicated challenges and succeed in 2009 and every year after, I suggest investigating what Location Intelligence, Mapping and Virtual Earth and Hosting have to offer. 

Visit these sites and learn more:

http://www.microsoft.com/VIRTUALEARTH/
http://www.infogrowcorp.com/Home/Solutions+Index/Location+Intelligence/default.aspx
http://infogrow.typepad.com/sales_marketing_effective/2007/04/mapping_the_tre.html
http://infogrow.typepad.com/sales_marketing_effective/2006/12/location_intell.html
http://infogrowcorp.com/Home/Solutions+Index/Development+Services/Application+Hosting/default.aspx

Have a Great New Year!

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Cure “Deal-Blindness” by Applying a Territory or Account Map

As year-end looms and next year’s quota is just a dream (but sure to be even bigger), sales reps are caught in the vice of big territories, big numbers, and little time. As a result, most reps are forced to be entirely opportunistic, preventing them from ever deeply penetrating their territory or major accounts. The focus on quick wins leaves millions of dollars on the table. Yet, many organizations get caught in “deal-blindness” - an affliction that hits every three months no matter how many vitamins you take!  Similar to snow-blindness, your organization may be so hyper focused on just this month’s or this quarters deals, that you only have a handle on just a small portion of any given territory or account.  You get stuck in the places you know well, without ever getting a handle on where you could or should be throughout the territory or major account. 

So as you focus on winding up this year, and begin to think about setting next year’s quotas, you might want to think about how badly your organization suffers from “deal-blindness.”  What are some of the symptoms?

• Deals come from predictable areas, with major pieces of the territory untouched
• Revenue is coming from only 1 division or department in a major account, relying on only 1 or 2 internal relationships
• Your “global” account” is actually only generating revenue from 2 or 3 countries, merely scratching the surface of global potential
• Your reps are pushing for lower pricing, while at the same time there is a low influx of net new opportunities being generated within their territory

The reason that many organizations have some of the issues above is that quota pressure pushes reps into focusing on “what can I close today or this month?”  Rather than really analyzing, thinking through and building a set of defined objectives, strategies and action plans to map their way to more fully realized territory or major account.

What if you could see a visual of your territory that plotted all your existing accounts, your pipeline accounts, and those similar companies across your entire territory that you haven’t touched yet?  Instead of working every lead that comes your way (even the ones that aren’t a fit), consider what it would be like to have the ability to make clear choices on where you’d spend your time, who you spent it on, with action plans to drive execution.  In effect, using tools like territory and account planning and mapping plots the map to not only meeting your quota, but builds insurance so you can exceed it, AND prime the pump effectively for next year.

Territory or account planning provides a set of tools that will enable sales reps to effectively & efficiently penetrate their assigned territory or major accounts.  It allows reps and sales managers to leverage resources to achieve the greatest gains from territories or major accounts.  And it enables Sales Management to consistently evaluate the effectiveness of the territory or account strategies selected and executed.  A territory or account plan and map drives success through 5 key elements:

1. Analyze The Territory Or Major Account
2. Make Informed Choices of the Best Targets/Strategies
3. Build Targeted Objectives & Actions
4. Work The Defined Plan
5. Manage To The Plan

Without a plan and a defined process and tools to create one, millions of dollars are left on the table by corporations and their sales people. Territory and account planning bring much needed strategy to “tactics-only” reps. Opportunistic selling can only take you so far. Creating and documenting a strategy with an action plan provides the means to ‘work the plan’ for deeper and more focused revenue generation.” 

So if you want to cure “deal-blindness”, consider implementing a territory or major account planning and mapping process.  Without a map, any road can get you somewhere.  With one, you can get directly to where you want to be, and know what that destination is in advance.

By Lisa Dennis - About this Author
President, Knowledgence Associates
ldennis@Knowledgence.com

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Adding Maps To Your Application

Maps4MyApps is a service provided by InfoGrow that allows web developers the ability to integrate location based services such as online locator maps, driving directions and proximity searches into web applications, desktop software, business processes and business intelligence reporting tools.

Maps4MyApps.com provides developers direct access to the Microsoft platform under usage plans similar to a cell phone model; monthly usage charges and rollover.  An annual contract is required but there is no activation fee.  Developers can select usage plans between 500 and 50,000 usage transactions per month or annual bulk plans. As your application grows, usage plans may be upgraded at any time.

Recently Microsoft MapPoint Web Service has been re-branded to the Virtual Earth Platform. The Virtual Earth Platform is an integrated set of location based services that combines unique bird's-eye, aerial, and satellite imagery with the best-of- breed mapping, location and search functionality. Through the Virtual Earth Platform, web-based application developers will have flexibility of tapping into one of the two Virtual Earth application programming interfaces (API): MapPoint Web Service API using SOAP XML to communicate with customer applications and Virtual Earth Map Control that lets users make requests via JavaScript to AJAX map object.

Check out the details

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The Real Price of “free” Maps and Directions

Yes, we all like to get something for nothing, but good marketing costs money.  And the entire reason for companies that do business online and offline to use location maps and directions is just good marketing, by sending consumers to their physical locations. 

Yet, most of the free mapping services direct the hoped-for consumers to sites packed full of competitor advertising and local competitor addresses and phone numbers.  Might as well just send them to the competitor’s website to find out more about what they have to offer. 

Why, after spending mucho money on branding and advertising, would any company’s marketing department use an online locator service that is packed full of competitor information and advertising?  They spent money getting them to their site, they want them to stay on their site, but decide to save money by using a free service that will potentially lose them countless customers.  What kind of marketing sense does that make?  I guess it is true – you get what you pay for.

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Product Review - MapInfo Professional V 8.5

MapInfo continues to enhance it’s comprehensive desktop product MapInfo Professional. The big news in this version release is the plug-in for MapMarker geocoding services through MapInfo’s web-services offering.  Users that have a limited number of records that require geocoding may find MapInfo’s Envinsa On-Line Services a cost savings as compared to purchasing their own copy of MapMarker.

This version has some valuable new map functionally enhancements, printing/output features and tool manager enhancements that make upgrading a must.  What I like about MapInfo the most is that the look and feel of MapInfo Professional remains the same with each upgrade. As a user, it is great to build upon your knowledge rather then needing to start over.

You will find a complete review in Directions Magazine

Complete details of what is new in V8.5 are available in a recorded web seminar form MapInfo

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MapInfo Releases New Version

MapInfo Professional a leading business mapping solution has released V8.5.  Power users will find useful database improvements and updated tools.  MapInfo Professional is the desktop mapping program we have been using and providing to clients for seventeen years.

Complete details of what is new in V8.5 are available in the following PDF – Version Comparison.

A recorded web seminar introducing the new version is also available – Introduction to MapInfo Professional V8.5

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