Accelerating Growth Through Better Sales & Marketing Decisions

Maps Add Value to CRM: How Sales Reps Benefit

What do you think of when you think of maps? Vacations, treasure hunts, weather forecasts?

Maps do more than display a place or how to get from one place to another. In sales, for example, maps let you visualize and conceptualize spatial relationships more easily than with rows and columns in spreadsheet data.

Even better: When combined with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, mapping is changing the name of the game. With InfoGrow's "CRM Call Planner" mapping tool, in just one click, you can convert CRM data into a map with street and satellite images.  

So, what value does a map add for sales reps?

• Save time in planning trips by coordinating travel time to see other customers and prospects.
• Find all customers and prospects in a particular area: Let’s say you are travelling to location X and want to visit customers and prospects in a radius of, say, 10 miles of that location. With a map inside CRM, you can easily make callbacks and work out appointments to visit all nearby key customers and prospects.
• Find missed sales opportunities: On a map, see a point for every won or lost opportunity. You might be surprised to find that you have not targeted companies in a particular area for some time. Although you could look at the data in a table, a map makes your data much more visible, jumping out to you for better decision making. 
• Filter sales calls by specific CRM data (such as sales per year and number of employees), build a radius around a call location, and spend time setting appointments with higher valued targets. Because not all customers or prospects are created equally, you need to ask, "With limited resources, where do I spend my limited time?" 

I'd like to tell you more about how maps can help accelerate your growth through "CRM Call Planner" and our mobile app for responding to last-minute customer needs and prospect leads on the road. Please call me: 800-897-9807, x224, or email: bsullivan@InfoGrowCorp.com.

You, too, will know, indeed, "If a picture tells a thousand words, then a map tells ten thousand.”

Reps Make Better Sales Calls Decisions with Mobile App for "CRM Call Planner"

InfoGrow announces a mobile app for its popular “CRM Call Planner” module.  The CRM Call Planner takes CRM information and, through the power of Bing Maps, creates a visual representation of accounts and contacts on an online real-world map. This helps sales reps to better plan sales calls.  A big plus for users is that the app works without CRM being installed on the mobile device.

And now, with a mobile app for tablets and smart phones, reps can respond to last-minute customer needs and prospect leads -- on the road. Using the CRM Call Planner, with or without the mobile app, is easy, selecting by radius, type of company, sales volume, and more within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

InfoGrow's mobile app is in keeping with current trends; for example, according to market-research firm, IDC, three out of ten C-suite executives say that: (a) CRM is the most wanted mobile application, and (b) mobile CRM and social capabilities are boosting productivity for sales workers by 25%. 

With visualized sales information, maps point the way for marketing and sales teams to make better decisions for their limited time resources. If a picture tells a thousand words, then a map tells ten thousand.

Learn more at www.crmcallplanner.com and sign up for a demo today! 

Why a “Clean” Address is Important for Mapping

Before B2B places (such as customers and prospects) can be put on a map, their database addresses are first converted into geographic coordinates. The process is called “geocoding,” done with Geographic Information System (GIS) software that matches each database place record with geographic reference files. 

The degree of exactness of places on a GIS map depends on what geographic level you are looking for, such as county or an address. A specific place needs a “clean” address: street, city, state, and zip code. “Clean” means a database address with no problems, errors, or limitations which can result in places displayed in wrong locations, or not displayed at all. 

For clean address data and minimized mapping errors:

• Use the true, complete name of the street, such as “2140 Front Street,” not just “2140 Front”
• Include “directions,” such as “123 East Main Street”
• Use standardized address information, such as correct abbreviations, “St,”
•   for “Street”
• Include the street number, not just the street name
• Spell out street addresses and cities, such as “Martin Luther King” instead of “MLK”5
• Do not use “Post Office Box” numbers
• Do not include extensions in database fields for street addresses, such as an “apartment number,” “suite,” and “building name” (which should be in a separate database field)
• Make database address fields “text” columns, not numeric
• Make sure database fields are complete (no missing data)
• Use a unique “ID” field for each database record, with no blanks and no duplicated IDs
• Update database addresses periodically
• Use GIS geocoding software that has the latest streets (such as new subdivisions) and the best possible reference data sets
• Do a quality control on your final geocoded data by examining a sample.

Do not use zip codes for geocoding

Zip codes for geocoding have limitations and are only approximations. Zip codes are mail-delivery routes, not areas with exact spatial boundaries. Zip code assignments are linked to mail volume, delivery area size, geographic location, and topography, but not necessarily to community boundaries. Some zip codes do not have contiguous areas, so the same zip code may represent addresses several miles apart, with other zip codes in-between.  

Completeness and accuracy

Completeness is the proportion of addresses that are successfully geocoded. If many records in a database can’t be geocoded, mapped data may be misleading. Different reference data sets vary in the geocoding software algorithms used to match an address to a street segment. 

Although geocoded data may have completeness, accuracy may be more important. For example, a database may have an address at 100 Main Street, Middleburg Heights, OH, and 100 Main Street, Middleburg, OH. A geocoding system might consider both to be the same. Although both addresses were geocoded, one of them is inaccurate. 

If your business maps are incomplete or misleading, or if your database is not yielding productive results (such as too many nondeliverable target emails and postal mails), let me tell you more about clean addresses. And then create a results-oriented map for cost-effective mailings, better sales territory assignments, and more productive sales calls.

Want to Go to Market Faster?

Most CEOs do.  But, how do you make that happen?  Simple!  Combine your CRM data with mapping. 

It just makes common sense.  Combining your CRM data with mapping provides a CEO and their sales teams with insight they will not find anywhere else. 

What type of insight will a CEO and their sales teams acquire?

• See how many customers or prospects are in a given area. So, if sales reps are traveling to a given area, they can map out and visit customers and / or prospects within that determined radius.   
• Target and map out similar prospects within any given area. 
• Locate and see the locations of all your competitors on a map.  Gain knowledge of their activities. 
• Visualize where the nearest sales rep is in real time as they travel.  Respond to new leads and have the sales person visit that day.
• Use geocoding and mapping to display a map and list of targeted addresses, then overlay demographics, like income per capita, showing target areas with little chance of closing business and / or showing areas which could be potentially lucrative.

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

By combining your CRM with mapping, you will be able to see all these things at once.  See all customer, prospect, and competitor data on one simple, clear map.  Names, addresses, phone numbers, routes, current and past purchases, pending proposals…everything you need to get to market faster.     

I bet reps, back in the day, would have loved this technology and been so much more productive than with their notorious index cards flying around in the back of their company rental car. 

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

But, that’s not the case anymore. There are easy, cost-effective options. Check InfoGrow’s CRM and Mapping Tools at:

Deliver Insight – Better Decisions

 

The Power of Dynamics CRM and Bing Maps

Mapping is changing the game in CRM.  In fact, it is putting companies ahead of the game. 

In a recent blog article by John O'Donnell, titled Integrating Mapping with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, John describes the combination of mapping and CRM as “It is the latest source of innovation adding value to the already value-stuffed Dynamics CRM 2011.”
 
In the article, he provides some great examples of how integrating mapping with CRM data will provide your business with the ability of getting ahead of the game. Some article highlights are:

How many customers are in a particular area?
Let’s say you are travelling to location X and want to also visit customers in a radius of say 10 miles of that location. If you have geocoded all of your customer addresses you can easily work out all of the customers nearby and visit then.

Display all of your customers on a map
Couldn’t be simpler, display a map of the USA for example and plot a point for every one of your customers. You might be surprised that you have not targeted companies in a particular area for example. Sure you could look at the data directly but displaying on a map makes it so much more visible.

Who is the nearest sales guy?
Perhaps you can use your CRM system to track your sales people in real time as they travel about the country. With a simple service on their phones they could be transmitting their position every 15 minutes or so. With that data you could respond when a new lead comes in and have the nearest sales guy reach out and perhaps visit in the same day.

Marketing
In a real world example I deployed CRM to an organization that did a huge amount of direct mail each month at significant expense. Using geocoding and mapping I was able to display not only a map showing all the addresses they targeted but also overlay demographic data such as income per capita showing they were targeting area where they had little chance of closing business and also missing areas which could be potentially lucrative. This was definitely one of those moments I wish I had a camera to record the reaction when the head of marketing saw his data presented in this way.

Well, John, I also wish you had a camera in that instance. I’ve seen similar reactions from marketing VPs and CEOs when I’ve presented their data via mapping. 

With everyone looking for new business, how does your company stay ahead of the game?

Link Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Bing Maps for Free

Not to toot our own horn, but sometimes we must, especially if it will help our customers and prospects sell and market more effectively. I would like to make you aware of our recent launch of CRM2Maps for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

CRM2Maps is a powerful, visual, and easy-to-use tool, providing users the convenience of a map inside CRM for increased sales rep productivity and greater user acceptance of CRM.

CRM2Maps creates the ability to map leads, accounts, or contacts inside your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 with Bing Maps. With just one click, you can convert a CRM record into a map with street, image, or a bird’s-eye view. You may also retrieve driving directions to the displayed location from any address.

So, if you are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and have been wondering how linking maps to your application could help you, then please visit CRM2Maps - Maps & Directions for CRM.

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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