Google Maps is great for personal use. And don’t get me wrong, I love using Waze to avoid car crashes and speed traps.
But when money talks, as it does for all field salespeople, you’re going to want to use a route planner for all business trips.
Planning a route manually isn’t as easy and straightforward as it sounds.
Are you ready for this? Depending on what city you’re in, a route with only 10 destinations can have over 100,000 unique plans.
If you don’t have the artificial intelligence built into a route planner supporting you, are you willing to take the gamble that you can randomly choose the number one planned route each and every time, avoiding the 99,999 less-optimal ones?
This is at the core of what a route planner is. Optimal Routes.
But an “optimal route” is much more than just eliminating or reducing driving distance and time.
It’s also about increasing the number of stops, whether they’re meetings or drop-ins, and the number of new prospects discovered.
Because, if you’re using a field sales route planner app like Veloxy, you’ll be able to locate and download prospects in your surrounding area no matter where you are. And these are just a few examples of how Google Maps cannot help your sales career.
Despite the growing use of Google Maps and Waze amongst field reps for getting from client A to client B, route planning has more to do with optimization and time efficiency than mere directions.
While you can manually add multiple stops ahead of time using Google Maps, there are missing route planning features that are key to helping field salespeople hit quota and exceed customer expectations.
Maximizing your time on the road is at the center of a worthy route planner.
Here’s why.
What is a Field Sales Route Planner?
Now that the country is opening back up, field salespeople are expecting their workday to return to normal very soon. That means hitting the road, accumulating miles, and chasing greater commissions.
Since the introduction of the smartphone, field reps have done a good job managing their records and appointments across multiple apps or by using more traditional, manual methods.
The only problem with this approach is that quotas aren’t getting any easier, and the competition in the field is getting more digital.
What would it mean to you if you could integrate Google Maps or Waze with Salesforce or another CRM?
What would it mean to you if you could double or triple your daily customer visits without sacrificing extra time?
By using a field sales route planner, you can automatically save time with routes optimized to visit more customers and discover new prospects — and you can call, email, and update customer records within the same route planning app.
Other key benefits of using a field sales route planner include:
Does Google Maps have a Route Planner?
Yes and no. If you’re traveling to a family barbecue or looking to avoid traffic and police radar, Google Maps and Waze are an optimal solution for planning a route. Plus, it’s free and easy to use.
If you’re curious to see if Google can plan your sales routes, or if you’re curious how inefficient it is to use Google Maps for field sales, follow these instructions:
The limitations here are quite clear.
There’s no guarantee that your route is optimized to maximize time with customers.
You’re manually entering each step one by one, and don’t be surprised if Google re-routes you without asking for your permission.
Lastly, if you don’t arrive as early using a route planner, you don’t have as much time to open up other apps to review the account and contact intelligence.
Field Sales Route Planner vs. Google Maps: What's the Difference?
Google Maps is great for personal use. And don’t get me wrong, I love using Waze to avoid car crashes and speed traps.
But when money talks, as it does for all field salespeople, you’re going to want to use a route planner for all business trips.
Planning a route manually isn’t as easy and straightforward as it sounds.
Are you ready for this? Depending on what city you’re in, a route with only 10 destinations can have over 100,000 unique plans.
If you don’t have the artificial intelligence built into a route planner supporting you, are you willing to take the gamble that you can randomly choose the number one planned route each and every time, avoiding the 99,999 less-optimal ones?
This is at the core of what a route planner is. Optimal Routes.
But an “optimal route” is much more than just eliminating or reducing driving distance and time.
It’s also about increasing the number of stops, whether they’re meetings or drop-ins, and the number of new prospects discovered.
Because, if you’re using a field sales route planner app like Veloxy, you’ll be able to locate and download prospects in your surrounding area no matter where you are. And these are just a few examples of how Google Maps cannot help your sales career.
When to use a Field Sales Route Planner?
Competitive advantage. It’s usually a marketing focus, but any high-performing field sales rep will tell you that you can’t have too many competitive advantages in the field.
With this being said, Google Maps is not a competitive advantage.
However, if you’re empowered with a route planner app, one designed specifically for field sales reps, and competing reps are using Google Maps — you therefore have a strong competitive advantage!
Here are some signs that your route planner isn’t designed for field sales professionals:
There’s an old adage in the mobile app development space. If your app replaces the need of over five other apps, your app is going to be popular for users seeking efficiency and productivity increases.
This is why field sales route planners reduce the need for the following mobile apps:
If you’re a field sales pro, the time is now to move on from Google Maps and Waze, and other non-sales focused route planners.
Investing in route planning software might seem like an expense you don’t want to take on, but when you realize that sales-focused apps have 30 other productivity and efficiency features, your ROI will be realized in no time!
How do you choose a Field Sales Route Planner?
Field sales route planners are very different.
Some planners are hyper-focused on only providing you with route planning features, while field sales software empowers you with dozens of sales engagement and intelligence features.
Our list below covers the three best field sales route planners on the market.
With this information, and a free consultation with our Director of Revenue Jeff Grice, you’ll be able to choose the best option for your specific role and commission aspirations.
Veloxy
Veloxy is well known as being the app that has displaced Salesforce1 on many field sales reps’ smartphones. While Veloxy rivals Badger and Geopointe on route optimization and usability, it offers over 30 sales features that are tightly integrated with Salesforce. You can initiate sales engagement with one click, drill through sales intelligence with a few clicks, and download new prospects in the vicinity of each of your destinations. Best of all, you can use an eagle’s eye view to spot hot opportunities nearby.
Just look to G2’s field sales software grid for guidance.
Badger
If your company happens to use a CRM other than Salesforce, such as Microsoft Dynamics or HubSpot—Badger may be your best choice. While you may not have access to robust sales engagement features found in Veloxy, you’ll have a dedicated manager and the opportunity to have your data visualization and onboarding 100% personalized. They also have a cool ‘Lasso’ feature that lets you circle a section of a map to generate an optimized route.
You can also find Bader on G2’s field sales software grid
GeoPointe
Like Veloxy, Geopointe is heavily used by Salesforce users. It’s a favorite of Territory Managers who manage several field sales reps. Territory managers can quickly and easily map out territories in a way that optimizes routes and maximizes revenue. One of the other favorite features of managers is the ditching of spreadsheet field sales reporting for thematic and heat mapping. In a few seconds, you can see where the hottest opportunities are concentrated, thereby aiding in prioritizing trips for your team.
You can also find GeoPointe on G2’s field sales software grid
Using a Field Sales Route Planner to Crush Quota
Get ready to say goodbye to all those Zoom calls. Dust off your suit, hop in your car, and start using a field sales route planner to crush sales quota quarter after quarter, year after year.
You’ll wonder how you ever got by without a field sales route planner.