Salesforce Maps
Salesforce Maps is a location intelligence tool that helps you to visualize your workforce based on the territories, live location tracking, and route optimization. It can be integrated with the Salesforce CRM and helps you in territory management. You can manage the territories based on the number of customers you have in that region, streamline the sales rep’s activities based on their location and increase their productivity. Like any other application, Salesforce Maps too has its own pros and cons. Here we are going to discuss in detail the features and the things you should know in advance before choosing SalesforceMaps as your field sales solution app.
Things you should know before you choose Salesforce Maps
Salesforce solution for the business has different features that help the salespeople do their work more effectively, hit targets on time, and increase sales. But before you choose any solution for your business, it’s your duty to how well the features match your business needs. Know these Salesforce tips and tricks about its features before you choose it for your business.
- Create sales territories to boost efficiency
The highlight of Salesforce Maps is that it enables users to create and manage sales territories based on the number of customers in a particular region. You can manage and balance them using Salesforce CRM. This saves a lot of manual work and helps your team to spend less time on the roads.
- Route optimization
Optimized sales routes developed by Salesforce Maps show the distance between two customers, the shortest routes, and also the travel time needed. By checking all these in advance, the sales reps can attend back-to-back client meetings effectively without any confusion.
- Uses Google Maps data integration
Maps and location services use Google Maps to display the existing addresses and if you need to enter new addresses, Salesforce gives the option to autocomplete. Also, it helps in identifying your best customers nearby within a territory. For example, if you are having few logistics clients in an area named X, using this integration you can find other logistics operators in X.
- Territory-based pipeline management
You can view the pipeline activities within the territory and adjust your strategies based on that. Also, sales managers can use the pipeline activity data to know the marketplace trends. But the absence of deals tracking feature is one of the major drawbacks of the Salesforce solutions that reduce the accuracy.
- Smarter data insights
Not every sale happens at the first meeting itself. You need to follow up with the potential leads at a later point in time. Some who are not interested in your product/service may need it later. Salesforce Maps lets you save the data and get useful insights from the past meeting status and other comments.
- Spend more time selling
Salesforce Maps, being a field sales solution, helps the salespeople to create and manage sales territories effectively, thus saving a lot of time and effort needed to go to and fro from the different client places. This is further supported by route optimization features of salesforce solutions. By knowing how to use these Salesforce solutions, one is at ease and can spend more time on selling rather than the sales process itself.
- Real-time activity mapping
To be a good field sales solution app, it should provide more accurate live location tracking features. Using Salesforce Maps, you can track your salespeople, identify if there is any problem, optimize safety, and cut down excess fuel expenses. It also improves customer satisfaction and results in better productivity overall.
- Team collaboration
Salesforce Maps allows cross-platform sharing of the routes and locations. As 28% of the enterprise businesses use Salesforce, the time taken for the team to get adapted to the UI remains smooth and easy. Not only that, the customizable features enable its use for the entire sales team, not only the field sales team.
- Easy integrations
Direct integration with Salesforce CRM and google maps facilitates an easy flow of data without any need for modification in your current database. This reduces the burden of maintaining the additional platforms.
- Pricing
Salesforce Maps comes in 2 editions – Basic and Advanced at $75 and $125/user/month respectively. According to the users, it is neither cheap nor expensive considering the advantages it brings to your business. Still, it may not be affordable for many startups and other small enterprises. The features available are also limited in the basic edition which needed to be noticed before choosing the Salesforce solutions.
The downside & the alternative
Salesforce Maps, however, has its downside because of a few disadvantages. The geographical data is based on the existing customer data which makes it difficult to find new customers in the region. Also, deal tracking facilities are not available, unlike many robust field sales solution apps. Not much affordable pricing and the difficulty in using the mobile app by sales reps are some of the major drawbacks of Salesforce Maps.
So, what now? We suggest you go with a better alternative in the market when it comes to choosing a field sales solution for your team, which is Lystloc. It is a real-time location intelligence and analytics platform that increases your workforce productivity. A much more affordable subscription-based app compared to other competitors in the market and an end-to-end location-based solution for your sales team. Have a look at Lystloc’s best-in-class features available here:
Final Thoughts
A field sales solution you select for your team directly impacts their productivity and the revenue in return. Hence, it is a crucial decision that needed to be made after knowing all the pros and cons of the solution in addition to its features. Also, ensure you choose a solution that gives a better return on investment (ROI) than the cost of the tool itself.
