Sales Prospecting

Techniques to Grow Your Home Improvement Business

Using SaaS Sales Software To Grow Your Home Improvement Business

By most other industry standards, the home improvement vertical experienced a robust 2018. A recent article from the Qualified Remodeler, 2018 HIP 200: Labor and Leads, showed that the largest 200 home improvement and replacement contractors (HIP200) billed just under four billion dollars on 696,773 total jobs. Great news for the home improvement sect – until we dig just a bit deeper into total industry earnings from the previous year.

Despite a relatively thriving marketplace, the 2018 home improvement segment actually dipped when compared to 2017, when earnings totaled $4.2 billion billed on 749,000 jobs, indicating a relatively significant downtown after a prolonged stretch of accelerated industry growth.

Lead Generation Poses Challenge To Leading Home Improvement Professions

There are many factors and moving parts contributing to lower home improvement industry earnings, including labor shortages, increased government regulations, and employee retention.

However, while a lack of qualified talent topped the list of industry challenges (at 28.1% and 25.1% respectively), a third prominent challenge was acknowledged by 21.6% of those polled: generating leads for new business.

The chart makes it very clear that in 2018, not only did the HIP 200 struggle to access the talent needed to sustain their business; they also struggled to unearth the new prospects needed to grow their business. The ever-increasing expense of sourcing, chasing, and tracking leads, coupled with an upswing of marketplace competition is proving cost prohibitive, ultimately restricting a company’s overall revenues and profits.

Beyond Internet Searches: Home Improvement Professionals Recognize Lead Opportunities

Fortunately, not all is negative on the home improvement lead front. Despite feeling challenged to effectively and consistently generate leads, the HIP 200 did recognize an overall higher volume of leads for new business as the industry’s top opportunity:

Generate Leads Around Current Job Sites

It may seem counterintuitive that the disturbance from a construction site is the perfect time to land new business, but there could not be a better time to capitalize.

Here’s the strategy…

Knock doors within a 5 – 10 home radius of the project to drop off a “we apologize for the temporary inconvenience” treat (think: fruit basket, baked goods, ear plugs, etc.). As you deliver your goodies – with a company flyer in there for some marketing – let each resident know the scope of work, the projected timeline, and ask if they currently have a need for any home improvement projects you may be able to help them out with.

Not only does this simple gesture speak volumes of your business, but it will result in new clients as well.

SaaS Sales Software To Enhance The Sales Process

As industry competition continues to grow, home improvement firms find the need to supplement their existing sales tools and strategies. For many business owners looking to go beyond Google searches and door-to-door lead tracking, a SaaS-based sales software solution delivers an ideal way to both sustain and grow their current operations.

Recognizing The Benefits Of An Integrated Sales Software System

Does a SaaS-based sales software platform make sense for your home improvement business? Understanding some of the biggest benefits yielded with an integrated platform can help you decide if it’s right for your operations.

A dynamic, digital sales system can help:

Optimize Lead Efforts And Efficiencies

Manual lead sheets can prove a major time waste. Not only are handwritten leads time-consuming – they often offer very little long-term value. A digital sales system allows your staff to quickly log every prospect engagement and possible lead in mere seconds to maximize effort and efficiencies with long-term ROI.

Log And Manage Referrals

Referrals from existing customers can prove an invaluable lead source – when they are logged and stored appropriately. An integrated sales platform not only automates data capture on each lead, but it will also help you manage the referral throughout the process to ensure it receive sufficient follow-up.

Eliminate Intelligence Gaps

Manual prospecting and lead gathering often mean that collective account knowledge is lost every time a sales rep leaves your organization. A SaaS-based solution centralizes all data points to eliminate the intelligence gaps that may occur with employee turnover. Every new hire will have instant access to all relevant client information to keep the sales process moving forward.

Provide Invaluable “Big Picture” Insight

Finally, an innovative digital sales solution will provide a detailed dashboard that automates relevant metric calculations, so you can quickly pinpoint what’s working…and what requires modification. Viewing real-time sales data of your pipeline can help boost productivity levels where it’s needed most as well as help you strategically set up each individual sales rep for best possible success.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

Webinar: Have You Left Your Field Salespeople in the Technological Dust?

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We invite you to watch our webinar where we share our insights around the current state of field sales.

We discuss:

Results from Spotio’s 2019 State of Field Sales Report
Biggest Field Sales Challenges
Best Opportunities for Increasing Efficiency
Time Management
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How to Confidently Handle Sales Objections: A Field-Tested Action Plan

The word “no” can kill your sales mojo. When you’ve poured your time, resources and heart into developing the perfect solution for your customer, a sales objection can feel like a slap in the face.

While its natural to feel a bit discouraged and defeated, most of the time, sales objections are not personal. With the right techniques, preparation, and agility, they can be easy to overcome.

In fact, the most successful salespeople are masters at handling sales objections. They get to the bottom of issues and turn them on their head to propose a solution that works for everyone.

In this article, we talk about the most common sales objections, what they may actually mean, and how to handle them so that everyone wins.

What is Objection Handling?

Objection Handling: Is one of the stages of salesperson during his personal selling where he has to handle certain objection and resistance of the customers. There are certain times when the customer argues and differs from the demonstration and explanation given by the salesperson to him.

Why is Objection Handling So Important for Your Sales Team?

The word objection usually has a negative connotation, but not in the case of sales! A sales objection means that the prospect is interested.

So, why do customers object?

1. The customer isn’t convinced
2. The customer doesn’t understand
3. The customer is attempting to hide the reason (they may be bluffing to set up a better deal)

The fact that they’re talking about their concerns is your chance to prove that you have the solution they need.

The video below will walk you through the objection handling process in a play by play format.

Edit date and time

10 Examples of Sales Objections (and How to Overcome Them)

Hearing an objection is disheartening, but you shouldn’t let it derail you from the sale. Objections should be expected and you should plan accordingly. Most are subjective to the customers initiatives. This is where you can change their mind and shift their priorities by showing off your best features. Convince them of the value your product provides.

“It’s just too expensive.”

I’ve spent time analyzing our quarterly budget and unfortunately, we just do not have the funds to cover your service. I appreciate your time and effort and hope we can work together in the future.

While price is often cited as the reason for turning down a sale, it’s rarely the real reason. There is usually something deeper. If your customer has cited price as a reason for not moving forward in your engagement, it’s time to take a step back and ask yourself two key questions:

1. Do I really understand the customer’s challenges, and have I done an excellent job showing how my solution will help them?
2. Have I conveyed the value they will get from using my solution? Have I positioned it as an investment?

If you can’t honestly answer the questions above with a resounding “yes,” you have some work to do to recover your credibility with the customer.

Here are a couple tips for getting the conversation back on track.

Ask Clarifying Questions and Listen: Without discrediting the customer’s price objection, give them the opportunity to share more information.

“I understand that price is a concern. Is there anything else about my proposal that concerns you or your team?”

Once you’ve asked your question, let the customer respond. It’s important that you keep your words to a minimum; let the customer talk, and actually listen. You want them to understand that you are genuinely interested in knowing their concerns, so that you can learn and grow from the experience. You may be surprised how much information you can uncover by giving the customer the space to speak.

Shift the Conversation: Focus on Value: If a customer is concerned with price, they don’t understand the value they can expect from your solution. Think back to the problem the customer is trying to accomplish and ensure your proposal clearly addresses his or her needs. If it makes sense, shift the conversation from the price tag to what they’ll save or gain by using your solution in the long run.

While it’s always an option to discount, incent, or add bonus offers to your proposal, it shouldn’t be your first reaction to a price objection. It’s best to start a sales relationship by being clear about the value you bring to the table. You want to be seen as the best option, not just the cheapest option.

“We’re fine with what we have.”

My team and I have reviewed your solution and we have decided not to move forward. You have a useful product but we’re happy to stick with the solution that we’re using today.

If your customer cites complacency as the reason for not moving forward in a sale, it’s likely that they don’t understand how your solution will address their needs. In fact, they may have lost sight of the fact that they even have a problem or an opportunity.

Here are a couple steps you can take:

Remind the customer of the issue or opportunity: In most cases, they started talking to you for a reason, whether it was that they saw an opportunity, or they were experiencing issues that they thought you could address. If they have decided your proposal is no longer a priority, your job is to remind them of the issue they were trying to solve and how your solution can help.

“I remember that you mentioned challenges with the speed of your software. Is this still an issue?”

Reinforce the competitive advantage: Successful businesses pay attention to competition to ensure they don’t fall behind. If your customer’s competitor is doing something to get ahead, your customer will likely be interested. To grab your customer’s attention, look for opportunities to cite examples, case studies, or competitor insights, showing how similar customers have benefited from a solution like yours.

“You’re offering too much!”

We’ve reviewed your proposal and are impressed by the many aspects of your product. Unfortunately, we’re only looking to solve a single issue, and your product offers a lot of stuff we simply won’t take advantage of.

It seems counter-intuitive, but your customer may get cold feet if you’re offering a solution that exceeds their needs. In this case, the customer may be concerned with the value they’ll get from a solution that they’re underutilizing because they will only take advantage of a portion of the offering.

In these situations, your role is to clearly articulate the value they will get from your offering, even if they’re only taking advantage of a portion of it. At the same time, you can help them see the big picture by reinforcing your understanding of their business challenges and sharing ways they will be able to benefit from the other features now or in the future.

As with other objections, the best way to do this is to ask questions and listen attentively to your customer’s answers.

“The timing is not right.”

Unfortunately, we are just not ready. We just went through a major re-org and our team is going through too much change to make such a major decision. I’ll follow up with you when things settle down and we’re ready to talk again.”

Timing can make or break a deal, and sometimes your timing does not align with your customer’s timing. Unfortunately, your need to close a deal in a certain month or a certain quarter is usually irrelevant to the customer. When you’re in a situation where timing is not aligned, your job is to create and show the advantages of completing the transaction during your desired timeframe.

Ask yourself:

Can you demonstrate what they’ll lose by putting off the sale? Will they miss additional profits? Will they continue to operate with costly inefficiencies?
Can you incent the customer to close within your timeline?

As always, center your value on understanding what’s important to your customer. If it’s truly a tough time, pushing the customer may hurt your relationship. In this case, you’re better to serve as a trusted advisor while waiting for the right timing. It seems counter-intuitive, but sometimes taking a short-term hit leads you to a long-term lucrative customer relationship.

“You’ve got the wrong person.”

I spoke with our Vice President of Marketing and what you’re offering is not aligned to her current priorities. I wish there was something more I could do! If something changes, we will let you know.”

If your customer is objecting based on the decision of another person, you may have a misunderstanding of your audience. This is a challenging situation as your contact may be acting as a gatekeeper, making it hard to understand the decision maker’s business issues.

Ask yourself:

Do I understand who the decision maker is on this deal?
Do I understand that person’s biggest challenges and opportunities?

If your answer to these questions is “no,” you have some work to do. In some cases, you may try to gain direct access to the decision maker. In other cases, it may be advantageous to focus on understanding how your solution benefits the gate keeper. For example: Is championing your solution a good opportunity for the gatekeeper to demonstrate their strategic value to the company?

Sometimes customers will use another person’s rejection as an excuse to mask another reason for rejecting the sale. Like a price rejection, you can use this opportunity to ask questions and uncover additional information about what the customer did not like about the solution.

Regardless of the reason, proactivity is key. Instead of agreeing to wait to hear back, offer to schedule the next engagement, whether that’s prepping the gatekeeper to champion your solution or setting up a joint meeting.

“It’s too much work.”

Thanks for taking the time to walk us through your solutions. What you shared is great, however, at this time we don’t have the time to invest in the implementation. We’ll get back to you when things slow down.

The best things in life require work. If your customer is objecting due to the effort required to implement your solution, we recommend two approaches.

Focus on Knowledge and ROI: Most likely, you and your company have experience implementing your solution and have a good understanding of what it takes for successful implementation. When discussing this with your customer, focus on data and real customer examples that can help assure them they will be able to tackle the implementation successfully with your support. When referencing client examples, be sure to focus on success data. Share specific numbers that show that it’s worth putting in the effort. Numbers speak louder than words.

As always, asking the right questions may help the client realize that the work they put in will pay off exponentially. For example, if your solution introduces automation, remind the customer of the long-term time savings they will enjoy once the implementation is complete.

Offer Extra Consulting and Support: When clients are concerned about implementation, sometimes all they need is extra support. In these cases, focus on consulting and implementation services that you can offer to ensure the project is a success. You may be able offer this as an incentive, but if not, present it as a low-cost way to ensure they get a quick return on their investment.

“We’re going with the someone else.”

Thank you for the great presentation. We’ve considered all options and have decided to go with another vendor.

This may be one of the hardest objections to swallow. If your customer has decided to go with another vendor, it’s natural to feel defeated. If this occurs, your first step should be to understand why they chose the competition. Was it price? Was it features or functionality? Was it the promise of customer service and support? Did the other salesperson do a better job selling the solution?

Regardless on the reason, your job is ask genuine questions and allow the customer the opportunity to answer. It’s important in this situation that you do not come off defensive, but demonstrate that you have an open mind and are eager to hear the feedback that will help you learn and grow. You may find that you have a blind spot. Maybe you missed something that you still have the opportunity to address with the customer. Even if there is no hope to recover this sale, your willingness to hear feedback set you up for successful future client engagements.

“I don’t know if we really need this right now.”

We have so many other pains that need to be addressed, we’re just not sure we need this solution yet.

But it is a problem, so why not solve it now? In order to persuade them to take action, it’s up to you to give them reasons why they need it now. You do this by figuring out what they care about and relating it back to how your product will help them do that.

Only 13% of customers believe a sales person can understand their needs.

“I don’t see the potential for ROI.”

You have a great product, but we don’t see how it will help us and our bottom line. Paying for a system in which we already have a work around for is not in our best interest.

This is an easy one. They just need more information but are being difficult and not asking for it. This is where you need to provide them with data and use cases. Show that you’ve helped companies just like theirs by increasing revenue X% or saving X hours per day which has lead to a boost in productivity (which directly impacts and improves the bottom line).

“I don’t want to get stuck in a contract.”

You know they’re interested and they have a need, so finding value in your product is not the reason. This could be a sign of budget issue. Work with them to figure out a payment plan or discount offer. If you still get nowhere, try a month to month contract. Surely they can afford one month at a time? If still met with a ‘no’, it’s probably a blessing in disguise. They may not be a viable business and not worth investing your time in onboarding, support, etc. Leave on good terms and touch base occasionally because their cash flow issue may resolve down the line and they will be ready for your sale!

3 Techniques to Handle the Toughest Sales Objections

Pause.

Once the objection is aired, take a few breaths. Silence is your friends at this juncture. Digest what you have heard and craft a well thought out response. If you immediately blurt out once they’re done talking, you look less confident and will lose credibility.

Repeat/Confirm Their Objection.

When the prospect is done talking, pause and repeat back what they just said in the form of a question. Ex) If I understood correctly, you have concern around the responsiveness of customer service, yes? Now pause and wait for their response. They will then clarify the question. Now you can put their mind at ease with the proper solution to their grievance.

The Less You Talk, The Better.

Being clear, concise, and brief demonstrates your confidence (which will put the potential buyer at ease). A confident rep portrays a valuable product. The more you blabber on, the less engaged your prospect will become. Letting them talk shows that you care about their needs and are interested in helping find a resolution to their pain points.

Learn to love the “no” (and close the sale)

Regardless of the objection, your best bet is to manage the objection as quickly as possible, before the customer has a chance to solidify his or her answer. To avoid being caught off-guard, be prepared. Think about possible objections and how you will handle them if they arise. When in doubt, the way forward is nearly always centered on asking good open-ended questions and listening attentively.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

CRM Mapping Software: 9 Ways to Accelerate Outside Sales Performance

How efficient is your outside sales team?

How many times have your sales reps walked into the office of a prospective lead, only to find that they’ve already spoken to another rep in your company?

Or, what about the times your reps go all the way out to the boondocks to meet with a lead, and realize only once they step back into the office that they could’ve visited another lead just a few miles down the road?

According to recent studies, sales reps spend only 34% of their time selling. The rest is split up into administrative tasks; for field reps, this includes manually mapping out the routes they’ll take to speak to leads and customers.

Obviously, this is not an efficient way to work.

Thankfully, there’s a solution that will save both field reps and their managers a lot of time and effort: CRM mapping software.

3 Advantages of CRM Maps for Sales Teams

First and foremost, a CRM mapping software saves everyone time.

Forget about the hours you spend manually planning your routes, or the time your managers spend mapping out territories in Google Maps.

A CRM software for outside sales mapping takes the majority of this heavy lifting and does it for you.

Second, many CRM mapping software options can sit on top of your existing CRM. If your sales reps are already engaged with your current CRM, no problem: options like SPOTIO give you the mapping capabilities you need without the hassle of switching to a whole new CRM. This is one of the reasons why SPOTIO has become a popular alternative to Geopointe, which is pigeonholed to Salesforce.”

But, what if your team isn’t engaged with your current CRM, and you’re in the market for a whole new product? Therein lies the third benefit of CRM mapping software: it can act as a CRM solution with the mapping software built-in. That way, your outside sales team can work more efficiently, and new leads are mapped directly as they are added.

But what exactly can a CRM mapping software do to improve the performance of your outside sales team?

9 Ways CRM Mapping Software Can Accelerate Sales Performance

1. Distribute Territories By City and Zip Code

We all know how much time managers can waste manually creating territories for your field reps in Google Maps or other tools like Streets and Trips or MapPoint.

Besides wasting your time, Google Maps won’t show you how many prospects or existing customers are in each territory. That almost guarantees that the territories you create will be unbalanced.

Ultimately, using Google Maps to distribute territories limits you, and can end up costing your company more.

A CRM mapping software enables you to save time and distribute territories efficiently. For example, in SPOTIO, you can choose to distribute territories by zip code or city.

Worried that your field reps’ territories aren’t equal? Your CRM mapping software can also show you an estimated number of houses in each territory, giving you the ability to create territories that share an equal amount of prospects between all the reps on your team.

2. Improve Rep Productivity

Between running to different meetings, getting to know new prospects, and connecting with existing customers, a field rep’s schedule is always full.

So when your reps are out in the field, are they really maximizing their productivity?

Here’s how it works with CRM mapping: reps get a visual overview of where their prospects and customers are located. So rather than just plugging in addresses from an excel sheet into Google Maps, they can easily see which prospects are close to each other, or if an existing customer is near the route they’re going to take.

SPOTIO takes this one step further by color-coding the map to show the status of new prospects, leads, or current customers.

Best of all, this map is available for mobile, meaning reps can quickly access the information they need right from their phone.

3. Find Existing Customers & Get Referrals

Referral leads are the most valuable leads your company can get.

In fact, one study found that referral leads have a 16% higher lifetime value compared with other types of leads.

More than that, the same study showed that referrals generally have a 37% higher retention rate.

So, how can a CRM mapping software help you get more referred leads?

While your reps are in the field, they can easily spot where existing customers are on the map, and which prospects are nearby.

When a field rep walks up to a new prospect and mentions how Joe Smith from next door uses their services too, that name-drop can have a powerful effect.

But it gets better: field reps can also talk directly to their existing customers and ask for referrals in the neighborhood. That way, they can get new referred leads and follow up while they’re in the area.

By working to get more referrals, your sales reps can increase their productivity and gather higher-converting leads.

4. Use Google Places Data to Prospect Smarter and Faster

Using a CRM mapping software like SPOTIO that integrates with Google Places allows your reps to pin-point the best prospects in their territory within seconds.

For example, let’s say your business targets restaurants. Your reps can do a simple search and see all of the restaurants in their assigned territory. They’ll also be able to see the contact information, business hours, and more! Then, they can plan the most efficient route to contact new leads.

With access to information for over 150 million businesses worldwide, an integration with Google Places gives your outside sales team the advantage they need to seamlessly search for relevant prospects.

5. Move Sales Prospects From the Map into the Pipeline

When your CRM includes mapping capabilities, you can move seamlessly between the map of prospects and leads to the integrated sales pipeline.

For example, when an outside sales rep contacts a new lead, they can easily assign them a status that is color-coded and later appears directly on the map. The status assignments can be customized depending on your business process.

Later, reps can also add new events to their prospects, whether it’s an upcoming meeting or an email they need to send with proposals or information.

That new event is then automatically synced to the rep’s Google Calendar.

6. Optimize Routes and Spend More Time Selling

How many times do your field reps find themselves with nothing to do between two meetings?

Using a CRM mapping software, these reps can optimize their routes and focus their efforts on selling more efficiently.

In most CRM mapping software, routes are organized automatically, saving your outside sales team time and effort. The software takes into account set meeting times, the distance between destinations, and pulls data on nearby prospects and existing customers.

It also automatically calculates your route depending on the time you set for various appointments, making sure reps always have enough time to get from one place to the next.

7. Improve Field Data Capture

With their non-stop schedules and on-the-go workday, field reps sometimes find it hard to keep track of important information and keep prospect data stored in their CRM.

A mobile CRM mapping software solves this problem by giving reps everything they need right on their phones. They can easily input important data quickly, and return to their route map without skipping a beat.

SPOTIO goes above and beyond with its E-contracts feature, allowing sales reps to get important documentation signed on the spot, right from their smartphone.

It also allows easy access to important files such as product specs, presentations, and more.

8. Stop Leads From Falling Through The Cracks

When sales reps are on-the-go, it can be easy to forget about leads. A CRM mapping software takes care of this by reminding reps which leads are on their current route, and storing all of the important information in one place.

For example, let’s say that a rep spoke with a lead, but at the time that lead wasn’t interested in the product. You can set this lead’s status to “Not Interested”, and in a few months the rep will receive a reminder to re-engage with them. Also, since all leads stay on the map, sales reps can visit disengaged leads or opportunities that haven’t continued to move through the pipeline.

Since a CRM mapping software can store all of your important customer and lead data in one place, you won’t have to keep moving between different software to get the information you need. That prevents important leads from falling through the cracks.

9. Work With the Systems You Have in Place

The best CRM mapping software is one that will integrate seamlessly with the tools that you and your team are already using.

For example, as mentioned, a good CRM mapping software can work with the CRM your team already uses, “bolting” on the mapping capabilities your team needs to work efficiently.

You can also integrate this software with other important tools, such as Google Calendar, Dropbox, DocuSign, and more. In fact, using Zapier integrations, you can connect CRM mapping software to over 750 different tools.

Final Thoughts

Using a CRM mapping solution, you can create balanced territories faster and help field reps work more efficiently. It will take the click of a button to map the best route, and they’ll never leave important leads on the table.

Other businesses using SPOTIO have seen a 46% improvement in sales rep productivity, and a 23% increase in gross revenue.

What could a CRM mapping software do for your business?

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SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration platform designed specifically for outside sales managers and reps to squeeze every drop out of their field sales efforts.

GPS Prospecting Best Practices

GPS Prospecting gives today’s competitive marketing teams distinct advantages. Using location-based services to secure yourself a stream of new opportunities, leads and new territories should be at the forefront of sales and marketing. From assessing optimal routes to discovering untapped potential within existing areas of business, using GPS often rewards one with massive potential.

We’ll be taking you through a comprehensive look at what GPS prospecting is, and how you can use it to leverage mapping for maximum advantage in your business.

What Is GPS Prospecting?

GPS prospecting involves using your GPS data to plan efficient routes, work territories effectively, and hold sales reps accountable for their performance. This means more deals won, higher productivity, and better overall territory management.

Once a CRM with tracking and mapping software is integrated, all of your maps show the location of your customers, leads and opportunities. All current GPS data is also shown such as nearby points of interest.

With complete company data enriching all pins displayed, there is no better platform for improving sales and sales productivity.

Considering GPS Prospecting?

If you’re considering implementing CRM software with built-in GPS prospecting, then you should be asking yourself the following questions:

– Do your sales teams attract enough new opportunities and leads?

– Are you happy with the current closing rate of your teams?

– Is the automation and optimization of sales routes and cycles of importance to you?

– Can staff currently access real-time on-demand insights from the whole company database?

– What is the limit of sales tracking in your business, and can it improve?

– How flexible is your field sales management platform, and would you like more control?

– Whose time-management, efficiency, and productivity could be better with support?

Every business benefits from the insights and control of a proven platform. Sales technology is no longer optional in today’s markets. Instead, GPS prospecting and location-based sales optimization are becoming essential to gaining a competitive edge.

Refining Territory Management

An abundance of external data sources can be captured by all robust tracking software. Leading platforms function as both CRM software and GPS prospecting tools. All of the information in the world won’t help an agent unless the company system aggregates business intelligence in ways that all levels of staff can use and understand.

This is what makes mapping such an asset.

Sales can build lists of target companies according to any predefined criteria while assessing the viability at a glance. Every pin, point of interest, or prospect is categorized and ready to contact. From a singular territory management interface, sales intelligence delivers key data regarding corporate information, company roles, and other background information exactly when and where it’s needed.

Leverage Location Data for Optimal Sales & Marketing

In today’s connected world, almost everything is networked. Data can be harvested from customer interactions with metrics being captured in real-time. As more and more customer engagement information is amassed, the more automation becomes necessary.

With the help of GPS prospecting tools like SPOTIO, analytics are segmented, sorted, and reported in any way that suits your unique approach and business model. With data visualization available to all levels of staff, there’s no easier way to anticipate the needs of your customers, and determine what needs to be done to make the sale and win loyalty.

The Benefits of GPS Prospecting

Team leaders and managerial staff are capable of tracking the exact location of their sales reps in real-time. As mentioned, accountability is a clear asset – enhancing performance and ensuring that productivity is kept as a constant priority. In time and with the right sales leadership, field reps will soon see the rewards of efficiency first-hand.

The more engaged you get your reps in the planning and strategy behind each sales cycle, the more driven they are to perform.

With basic information like the shortest route, scheduling appointments on the fly, and customer mapping – it’s easy to see what needs to be shifted to get the most out of each day.

Territory Management and Your GPS

Every sales rep knows the value of time. Yet, just because you’re pushing 60 to 80 hours a week in the field, this doesn’t mean that you’re banking big. Field sales team tracking let’s management fill schedule gaps with opportunities that are nearby, and those that suit their sales abilities best.

Companies focused on strategy will love the way that opportunities, leads, and customers are visually displayed. Combine this with total performance tracking, and you’ll soon see how remote monitoring using a CRM with a GPS tracker can help any sales department streamline and plan their workflows better.

Plan the Optimal Route, Always

One of the forerunning benefits of good GPS prospecting practices are the route planning improvements. With the all territories mapped out and potential areas of business highlighted and color-coded, territory analysis is made easy affording one superior insights. This translates into both fuel and time-saving benefits, while at the same time elevating service levels to all new highs.

Your reps are always spending the right amount of time at each stop, while taking the safest, most productive route overall. There’s no dwindling away time and resources when every route is planned out and optimized for not only basic factors like fuel, but for advanced criteria such as territory balance barriers, demographic suitability, and sales potential as well.

Adding Prospecting to Existing Mapping Strategies

The time in between opportunities is vastly untapped, but very few reps have enough room in their schedule to begin working new customers and optimizing their tactics.

If the company software doesn’t factor in qualifying criteria for leads and opportunities automatically, it seldom ever gets done. Every business focused on sales performance and scaling marketing growth will soon need to start considering feature-packed territory management software.

There is no better way to supplement or start a marketing campaign across any range of channels. Visualize your customers and the way that your staff interacts in real-time, and on-demand decisions begin to take the place of estimations and projections.

Track Progress Based on Location

SPOTIO’s sales rep tracking via GPS serves as the perfect example of a platform that promotes good GPS prospecting practices. One has to remember that it’s just as vital to analyze and manage sales rep performance and assignments as it is to optimize territories. Prospecting means looking for opportunities in not only new, uncharted areas but in existing avenues of business as well.

With the right software at your aid, you’ll know exactly where your reps are at all times.

Location verification spurs an environment where accountability breeds healthy competition. It also lets keen team leaders shift appointments and fill in schedule-gaps with visits that save time and resources rather than extending traveling time and creating additional burden.

Information-Enriched Mapping

As you work your territories towards total market penetration, the many benefits of effective management technology begin to emerge. You will be able to know where reps are working with extreme accuracy.

For example, sales rep tracking from SPOTIO lets you know that your reps are within a 300 foot radius from their pin. Pins deliver real-time knowledge concerning the location and status of your reps. Everything is timestamped, all data is captured, and analytics are made easy.

Recognize Best Practices For Sales & Marketing

With the help of GPS tracking, management can track leading team members discovering valuable data concerning their approach. You can identify best practices in use by top-performing sales staff, replicating these measures across the rest of your teams. Modeling success is straightforward with intelligent software.

Management can assess both real-time data and historical records thanks to the way that all automated check-ins are timestamped, and all company data is captured, backed-up and secured.

Supercharge Your Sales Cycle

One of the best things about good GPS prospecting software is just how easy it makes selling. With SPOTIO, reps’ hone in on a neighborhood while evaluating their prospects. All pins visible are enriched with up-to-date information, including any historical data if available.

Just before your sales reps heads out into the field, all the information needed to pitch the perfect sell is right at their fingertips. You determine the qualifying criteria, and given the visual nature of GPS prospecting itself, an enhanced view for critical thinking and optimal decision making is guaranteed.

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SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration platform designed specifically for outside sales managers and reps to squeeze every drop out of their field sales efforts.

Open-Ended Sales Questions: The Remarkable Importance of Qualifying Leads

Open ended questions are essential for sales success. They allow reps to get inside the head of prospects and better understand their pain points.

The right open-ended questions help ensure that reps are building rapport, uncovering pain points, establishing need, and clearly articulating the value of their offering.

Below are 26 open-ended sales questions that will help you resonate with any potential buyer.

We’ll cover the difference between open and closed sales questions, talk about how to use them in your business, share examples, and highlight critical mistakes to avoid.

What Are Open-Ended Sales Questions?

Open-ended sales questions (part of the consultative sales approach) are also called sales discovery questions because they are designed to get to know the prospect better. Core DNA says these questions begin a conversation with the prospect and are used both during the initial stages with a prospect as well as with the close.

Characteristics of Open-Ended Sales Questions:

– They are conversational.

– They usually involve Five W’s: Who, What, When, Where and Why; and also How (which some people call the Six Ws—even though How isn’t technically a W).

– They don’t have a set pattern, meaning there is no formula or structure to them.

– They usually require thought before someone answers.

– They are subjective in nature rather than objective, meaning they are about personal feelings rather than facts and figures.

The Objective of Open-Ended Sales Questions:

Open-ended sales questions are designed to create a dialogue between the sales rep and the prospect. They are probing questions used to get a prospect to talk more about their business.

When used in a sales call, the questions enable the sales rep to learn more about the lead’s pain points and needs. The open nature means there isn’t a specific answer; they are designed to facilitate an exchange of ideas. They can also be used to build engagement and help create rapport between the rep and the prospect.

Open-Ended vs. Close-Ended Sales Questions

While these questions seek more information from the source and are answered in the prospects own words, close-ended questions lead to specific answers, like a yes or no, or a multiple-choice option.

Richardson Sales Training distinguishes open-ended questions as those which allow the control of the conversation to flow between sales rep and prospect, while close-ended questions leave the control in the hands of the sales rep alone.

When Should Reps Ask Open-Ended Sales Questions?

Ideally, sales reps should ask as many open-ended sales questions as they can throughout the sales process. The more you learn about a prospect, the more consultative you can be to help them with their goals.

However, the obvious time to ask open-ended questions is in the qualifying stage with a prospect. Sales training organization The Brooks Group says, it gives you the opportunity to learn everything you possibly can about the prospect’s needs and wants. Through asking sales discovery questions, the sales rep can find how their product or service can help the prospect.

26 Examples of Open-Ended Sales Questions (By Category)

Different sales discovery questions are appropriate for different situations. Preparing ahead of time can be useful to help you cover all the areas you want to in the qualifying stages.

Remember, as Sam Parker, sales trainer and author of Just Sell.com says, you are asking the prospect to answer the question. You want to hear what they have to say, meaning no leading, no prompting, and no interrupting.

Qualifying Questions

When you first get a lead, you need to clarify where they are in the buying process. These questions can determine the interest level of your potential customers as well as what they think of the process so far. They can help you manage your sales funnel by letting you know what you need to do next—or whether you should move on for now.

Examples:

1. When do you need to get this issue resolved?
2. What’s your budget?
3. How are you currently solving this problem?
4. Who else needs to be involved in this purchase decision?

Needs-Based or Pain-Based Questions

When you want to discover the prospect’s wants or challenges with their current situation, try Needs-Based Questions, aka Pain-Based Questions. When you are preparing these, be cognizant of what needs your product or service typically serves. In other words, don’t ask about areas that your product or service does not address. Each of the following questions seeks to discover more about what is and isn’t working with the current system the prospect employs.

Examples:

5. When do these issues arise?
6. What is this problem costing you?
7. What would you change about your current solution?
8. Have you given up trying to fix the problem?

Impact or Benefit-Driven Questions

When you want to know how to close a customer, try Impact or Benefit-Driven Questions. Benefit-driven questions help you discover which features are the most vital to your prospect, so you can get right to what interests them most about your product or service. To prepare, review the features and benefits of your product or service so you can ask appropriate questions of potential customers.

Examples:

9. How important would you say solving this problem is to you?
10. What happens if you don’t fix it?
11. What would it mean to your business if you could rely on a trustworthy supplier?

New Future or New Reality Questions

These questions are constructed to help you show the potential customer arriving at their goal and how your product or service gets them to that point.

Examples:

12. How do you think changing this area could improve your day-to-day work?
13. What would you want to achieve in the next year by making this change?
14. If time and money were no object and you had full authority to do whatever you want, what would you change about your current system?

Objection-Based Questions

When you are faced with an objection to your product or service, respond with an Objection-Based Question. These questions are designed to uncover potential objections before they come up in the sales process.

Examples:

15. The common objection is, “I need to discuss this with my supervisor,” so the question could be: Who else is involved in making these types of decisions?
16. The common objection is, “I can’t afford this right now,” so the question could be: What budget do you have allocated for something like this?
17. The common objection is, “I am not interested in your product or service right now,” so the question could be: When are you intersted in learning how I can save you X% with this product/service?

Buyer History Questions

Use Buyer-History Questions to understand the potential customer’s past experiences or purchasing habits. These questions seek to determine their past experiences, and discover how often the prospect or organization makes these types of decisions.

Also, you can discover the state of their relationship with their current provider, which can have significant implications for your sales process.

Examples:

18. What has your past purchase experience been with [insert product/service]?
19. When was the last time you evaluated something like this?
20. Why or why not would you say you were satisfied with your past experiences with this vendor?
21. How would you describe the level of service with your current provider?

Rapport Building Questions

When you are working to establish a personal connection or build a relationship with the potential customer, you can use Rapport Building Questions. As Xactly.com explains, rapport-building requires you to get under the surface of the interaction and get to know the prospect. Without this relationship and information, you cannot consult the account. You have to know what they want and need so you can create a solution with your product or service.

Examples:

22. What can we do to earn your business?
23. What motivated you to take this call with me?
24. Which other vendors are you evaluating?
25. What concerns do you have about making changes?
26. What have I not covered that you would like to know more about?

5 Tips to Perfect Your Open-Ended Sales Questions Technique

Once you have prepared your sales discovery questions for the different areas of the sales call, you must consider how to ask open-ended questions. From what order you ask the questions to how you transition from one area to another, your technique should flow naturally while allowing for unstructured conversation with the potential customer.

The Sandler Pain Funnel is an excellent example of how to ask open-ended questions. Sales reps that have trained in the Sandler method use a series of needs-based questions to uncover the prospects pain.

Similar to a traditional funnel, the pain questions start broad; i.e., “What are some things you would like to change about your current system/provider/product line?;” and then move to more specific questions, i.e., “Can you give me an example?”

The best open-ended sales questions techniques progress to uncover the underlying reason a prospect is experiencing pain in their business.

Here are a few tips for perfecting your open-ended sales questions technique:

Invert the pyramid. A pyramid shape starts broad at the bottom and builds up to a point. In open-ended questions, it’s a good idea to invert the pyramid, so the broad part comes first, and you work your way down to a point (much like the Sandler Pain Funnel example above).

HubSpot suggests asking a broad, non-threatening question to start, e.g., What should I know about your business? Then, look for areas that you should explore in greater detail from their response, eventually drilling down to specific questions that will reveal any areas of opportunity for you.

Exude curiosity. A vital component of this open-ended questioning process is showing a sincere interest. As Core DNA says, “Good salespeople tend to be good listeners, and good listeners almost always tend to be curious.” Perhaps more importantly, you are asking about something that is often very near and dear to the prospect (their business or career) and sharing an interest in it will help form a bond between you.

Keep it personal. Preparation is vital for a sales call. However, too-prepared can be dangerous. It is crucial to keep the exchange personal if you want to build rapport or gain the trust of the prospect. Giving them a script does not elicit the emotional engagement that open-ended questions seek to facilitate.

Get comfortable with “dead air.” You learn more from listening than talking. In the qualifying or beginning stages of the sales cycle, keeping your mouth shut can help you get the information you need. As Leadership Guru Michael Hyatt says, “you will often find that people volunteer amazing amounts of information that you would have never obtained any other way.”

“What” is your friend. When in doubt how to ask a question, remember that the word “what” is your friend. Most questions that begin with what encourage the answerer to elaborate. As Arden Coaching puts it, “questions that start with ‘what’ will be open-ended.”

5 Critical Mistakes Reps Make When Asking Open-Ended Sales Questions:

1. Answering your own questions. It can feel natural to nudge a prospect with a suggested answer that you heard from a similar prospect in the past. However, when the prospect hears your suggestion, it could change what they were going to share. Since you want to listen to what the prospect has to say, ask the question and practice zipping you lip right afterward.

2. Forgetting to listen to the client. Similar to answering your own questions, forgetting to listen to the potential customer defeats the purpose of asking open-ended questions.

3. Interrogating clients. Rapid fire questions that dig a little deeper than a person wants feel more like a cross-examination or an interrogation than a conversation, which is not going to help you build rapport.

Be sure that you follow up enough that you have a better understanding of what your lead was saying, but not so much follow up people wonder if they should have a lawyer present.

4. Asking too many “why” questions. Why is one of the Five Ws, however it is tricky. Sometimes when you ask why, you sound accusatory. As Arden Coaching points out, “Why did you do that?” is more pointed than “What did you use as the basis for your actions?” You can ask why, of course, but be careful how many times and the tone of the query when you do.

5. Jumping straight to a solution. Remember, this part of the sales process is about learning more about the prospect, not pitching your product or services. If you hear a problem that your product or service can help with, resist the temptation to share that information at the moment. Good sales come to those who wait.

Ready. Set. Question.

Open-ended questions for sales are the tools you need to harvest qualified opportunities.

Open-ended sales questions differ from other types of queries. Probing questions for sales give you the opportunity to listen to your potential customer and take a consultative approach to your sales relationship with them.

The best open-ended sales questions help you identify areas of opportunity in potential accounts. Sales discovery questions also reveal pain-points and needs that are not currently being met by the prospects provider. Perhaps most importantly, however, open-ended sales questions allow you to prioritize your prospects to optimize your sales funnel for efficiency and success.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

Spotio is the #1 field sales acceleration platform designed specifically for outside sales managers and reps to squeeze every drop out of their field sales efforts.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

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Sources:

Saltis, Sam. “87 Open-Ended Sales Questions Every Digital Agency Should Ask in Every Buying Cycle.” www.coredna.com. 6 November 2018. Web. 15 November 2018. < https://www.coredna.com/blogs/open-ended-sales-questions#>.

“Open-ended Questions Require and Answer Beyond “yes” or “no”!” richardson.com. Web. 16 November 2018. < https://www.richardson.com/sales-resources/open-ended-sales-questions/>.

Rose, Lisa. “Open-Ended Questions for Sales: How to Get Your Prospect Talking.” Brooksgroup.com. Web. 15 November 2018. < https://brooksgroup.com/sales-training-blog/open-ended-sales-questions-how-get-your-prospect-talking>

Parker, Sam. “Top 30 Open-Ended Questions.” www.justsell.com. Web. 16 November 2018. Web. < https://www.justsell.com/top-30-open-ended-questions/>

Schultz, Mike. “21 Powerful, Open-Ended Sales Questions.” www.rainsalestraining.com. Web. 16 November 2018. < https://www.rainsalestraining.com/blog/21-powerful-open-ended-sales-questions>.

Scott, Jordan. “24 Open-Ended Sales Questions Your Reps Should Be Asking.” Xactlycorp.com. Web. 26 February 2018. Web. 16 November 2018. < https://www.xactlycorp.com/blog/importance-open-ended-sales-questions/>.

Ledwein, Tim. “Sandler’s Pain Funnel: Getting Beneath the Surface.” I10.sandler.com. 24 February 2016. Web. 16 November 2018. < https://www.i10.sandler.com/blog/pain>.

Alessandra, Tony. “15 Tips For Asking More Effective Sales Questions.” Blog. Hubspot.com. Web. 16 November 2018. < https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/10-tips-ask-sales-questions-si>.

Hyatt, Michael. “7 Suggestions for Asking More Powerful Questions.” Michaelhyatt.com. Web. 16 November 2018. < https://michaelhyatt.com/asking-more-powerful-questions/>.

Perry, MA, PCC, Maren. “How (and Why) to ask open-ended questions.” Ardencoaching.com. Web. 16 November 2018. < https://ardencoaching.com/how-and-why-to-ask-open-ended-questions/>.

4 Costly Limitations of Sales Territory Mapping in Google Maps

Is your team still mapping sales territories in Google Maps?

Three in ten businesses are still assigning sales territories geographically because it’s “the way things are done.” But using Google Maps to plot and plan sales territories is an old school approach. The territories have to be created manually, and it leaves a lot of room for error.

What does that mean for your business? Well, it can lead to missed prospecting opportunities, and more importantly, lost revenue.

To optimize your sales mapping process, you need to include details like prospect demographics, existing customer data and have clear boundaries. Otherwise, your sales reps will be door-knocking the same houses, crossing into each other’s territories, and ultimately⁠—wasting their time.

Let’s dive into why using a free tool like Google Maps to do your sales territory mapping could actually be costing you money, and why you should start mapping territories in a smarter way.

4 Costly Limitations of Assigning Sales Territories with Google Maps

Sometimes, the best things in life aren’t free. And when it comes to sales territory mapping, using a free tool like Google Maps to plan your sales prospecting can cost you money in the long run.

It’s not that Google Maps is totally useless. In fact, our territory mapping software relies on it for geographical data. But if you’re using Google Maps as a standalone mapping solution, you’ll run into several costly limitations.

Problem #1 – No idea how many homes are assigned to reps

It’s a typical Tuesday morning, and your sales reps are out canvassing neighborhoods you’ve assigned them on Google Maps.

But, how many homes are they supposed to hit in that area?

If you’re using Google Maps, you’ll have no idea. The fact is, you could assign two reps to the exact same geographically sized area in Google Maps, but there is no way to know the actual number of homes you’ve assigned to each rep.

Unless you manually input every home in each sales territory, it’s impossible to know how many homes are in each one. [Image source]

One area might have 50 houses, and the other might have 500.

This is a recipe for disaster when it comes to making sure territories are fairly balanced. If a rep is constantly given areas with fewer homes than other reps, not only will they be closing fewer sales, but they might not be too happy about their commissions at the end of the month, either.

Problem #2 – No idea how many existing customers you have in each territory

Talk about flying blind.

Google Maps gives you the tools to assign territories. But it doesn’t give you any information about existing customers inside the area.

[Image source]

This is a problem for two reasons.

Firstly, your sales reps could be door-knocking current customers and trying to sell to them. This is a bad look and makes the rep (and your company) look unprofessional. Secondly, it rules out any chances of reps using existing customers for referrals when they’re targeting a territory—because they’ve got no idea where the existing customers are located, and as a result, cannot customize their script.

Problem #3. No demographic information on the homeowners/businesses you should be targeting

An article by Alexander Group found the best and highest performing territories are those that have been ‘optimized’ for sales reps.

So, the more a territory has been scrutinized into fitting your company’s target persona, the more chance reps have at closing clients. Using Google Maps, it’s almost impossible for reps to have this data on hand, and it makes even less sense to send them to an area without knowing the profile of the prospects they are trying to close.

Does the area fit your company’s target persona? Are there businesses or homes in the area that are already customers of yours? Can the prospects in the area afford your product, or more importantly… do they even want it?

You won’t be able to answer these questions if you’re using Google Maps to assign territories, and your reps will be essentially selling blind.

Problem #4. No ability to plot multiple routes at a time

Plotting routes in Google Maps isn’t just time-consuming⁠—it’s limiting. You can only plot a single route at a time.

For a sales rep, this is very restrictive. They must plot a single route and complete it, and then map out another plan. This adds up to a lot of extra admin time for your sales reps. A study by Salesforce found sales reps spend a whopping 64% of their time doing non-selling tasks like admin and service tasks.

But restricting the number of routes a rep can map out not only takes up a big chunk of their time, it makes it easier for prospects to slip through the cracks. If they’re rushing to manually map out routes, they might miss potential prospects in the area.

How to Map Sales Territories Faster and More Efficiently with SPOTIO

Here are 5 ways using a sales territory management app can supercharge your sales efforts.

1. Map Territories With Demographic Data

To start selling smarter, you need data.

Using a sales tracking app, you can build sales territories using prospect data you’ve already got on file. When your sales reps are out in the field, they’ll be able to see every prospect and customer’s geographic location.

This can save them valuable time if they’re out selling and a new lead enters your company’s sales pipeline. Because SPOTIO helps build a rep’s selling route, it can automatically adjust their route if the new prospect is in the area, so they don’t fall through the cracks.

2. Pinpoint Existing Customers & Get Referrals

For reps out in the field, using existing customers as examples can be a powerful tool in their sales toolkit.

Picture this. Your rep is canvassing a street, and they can see on their app that the prospect’s neighbor is an existing customer of your company. This will give your outside rep the ammunition to open their pitch with something like, “You know John Smith next door? He actually hired us last month and was very impressed with the work we did. In fact, seven of your neighbors in the area have trusted us to work on their home.”

See how that ice breaker completely changes the tone of the conversation?

But having powerful data like this can also help supercharge your rep’s referral process, too. Your customers can provide your reps with some of the highest converting and cheapest leads– referrals. They just have to ask.

In fact, 86% of buyers want to be able to ask in-person questions before making a purchase, and a further 90% of all buying decisions are based on recommendations. So if a rep is out selling in the field and getting referrals at the same time, they can kill two birds with one stone.

3. Assign Territories By Number of Homes

Making sure that sales reps have enough doors to knock is essential to their performance and the amount of commission they can make.

But it’s also essential to maintain a balance in your sales rep’s workloads. Using a sales territory mapping app can help assign a fair number of homes to a territory in a more accurate way.

For example, using SPOTIO you can create fair, balanced territories for your reps in less than 10 minutes. Let’s say you want to assign each rep 300 houses to target for the week. Using SPOTIO, all you have to do is start drawing out an area, and the software will tell you the estimated number of homes in that territory.

Once you reach the amount of houses you want each rep to target, all that’s left is to assign the territory so they can start selling.

4. Use City & Zipcode to Eliminate Grey Areas

Distributing territories by city or zip code is one of the easiest methods because it’s black and white.

There’s no grey area, and it minimizes the risk of sales reps crossing into each other’s territories. But there’s a catch. Assigning territories by city or zipcode can lead to unbalanced territories, and one rep having higher amounts of prospects than another.

Because cities or zip codes vary in the number of houses, you may need to give two cities to a single rep, while one city might need three reps. Using SPOTIO to assign these territories can eliminate all this guesswork. SPOTIO can help to ensure you distribute the number of houses for each rep to work evenly by the city or zip code.

5. Use Google Places Data to Find, Filter & Target Businesses

SPOTIO’s native integration with Google Places makes it easier for reps to find the best prospects in their territories.

Let’s say your target prospects are restaurant owners. Using Google Places, sales reps can pull up every restaurant in the area, and then SPOTIO will automatically plan out the best route for them.

And because Google Maps is constantly staying up to date with businesses’ information, your reps won’t be wasting time in the field chasing down leads with outdated addresses.

Integrating Google Places into your rep’s sales plans can make sure the prospect information they’re using is up to date.

Final Thoughts

Google Maps is a great tool to help find a restaurant if you’re out walking the streets. But if you’re trying to use it for sales territory mapping, it’s another story.

For sales reps to be successful in the field, they need more than just a map with boundary lines on it. They need existing customer information, demographic data, and smarter sales routes.

Planning sales territories in Google Maps may be free, but it’s also very limiting. When you add up the cost of lost prospects and the extra admin time spent manually planning routes, ask yourself… what’s free mapping software actually costing your business in the long run?

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SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration platform designed specifically for outside sales managers and reps to squeeze every drop out of their field sales efforts.

Outside Sales: The Complete Guide for 2019

Outfit pressed and hair coiffed, it’s time to set out into the field to meet with prospective clients. Being the face of the product/service makes the role of an outside salesperson an important one. This face-to-face interaction is what sets outside sales apart from their inside selling counterparts.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll talk you through everything you need to know about the world that is Outside Sales.

What is Outside Sales?
Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales
What Does an Outside Sales Rep Do?
Most Important Skills for Outside Sales Reps
Average Outside Sales Rep Salaries
How to Hire Top Performing Outside Sales Professionals
Outside Sales Interview Question
6-Step Guide to Building a Winning Outside Sales Strategy
Inside and Outside Sales Teams Can Work Together
Outside Sales Training Resources
Outside Sales Tools

What is Outside Sales?

Investopia defines outside sales as “the sale of products or services by sales personnel who go out into the field to meet with prospective customers. Outside sales professionals tend to work autonomously outside a formal office and formal team environment. They travel to meet customers face-to-face, as well as to maintain relationships with existing customers.”
Outside means exactly that… outside. An outside salesperson is spending the majority of his or her time out in the elements meeting people in person.

Inside Sales vs. Outside Sales

How does outside sales compare with inside sales? The ultimate objective is the same… to close the deal, of course. However, the way it is done between the two have some significant differences.

When looking at outside sales, you’re working autonomously most of the time. The area around you is your “office” – in that you meet with people all over the place – and you spend quite a bit of time driving around in your car.

With inside sales, you are more likely to be in a team environment in an office setting working set hours, depending on the industry you are in. You will likely make many more contacts with prospects in customers in a day since you are not spending any time driving around to an appointment.

It is important to note that while inside sales is being adopted more and more, outside sales is still a big driver in achieving sales quotas. A top performing sales strategy will include elements of both inside and outside sales strategy.

What Does an Outside Sales Rep Do?

A day in the life of a sales rep can be broken up in the following ways:

Prospecting For Leads

According to a poll done by Hubspot.com, when salespeople were asked what they struggle with the most, 42% said it was prospecting. It doesn’t matter how good you are at selling, if you have nobody to talk to, that skill won’t matter.

Below, we will discuss various methods and tools one can use to aide in sales prospecting success.

Tools that you can use to aid in prospecting:

Build a targeted prospect list:

– LinkedIn.com
– LimeLeads.com
– Mattermark.com
– SPOTIO’s Lead Machine

Search for emails:

– VoilaNorbert.com
– Emailhunter.com
– Sellhack.com

Sales territory mapping. How many people that are a prospect for your product live or operate a business in a given area? How close together are they? How many of them are near an existing customer that you could introduce yourself to in case your appointment cancels or ends sooner than you thought? This is where sales territory mapping comes in.

As I mentioned before, spending too much time in your car zig-zagging across town all day will minimize the efficiency of the time you spend out in the field. Knowing where to go, with minimal travel between engagements, is a great way to maximize your time and energy during that day.

Customer mapping. Where are all your customers located? Is it a concentrated area or is it spread out all over the place? Where are they in relation to prospects you’d like to meet? When you take the time to do this, it is a very enlightening thing. You may find out that you haven’t penetrated a desired market nearly as much as you would like to. Maybe you’ll see that you are into an area more than you would like to be, and there are more profitable markets to pursue. Knowing your footprint from past deals, and how it relates to where you would like to go is a vital part of managing your existing business as you seek to grow it.

With field sales software tools (such as SPOTIO), this process is automated. The whole premise of SPOTIO is to drop pins on properties located on a map so that you have a physical representation of a desired territory. It’s much easier to actually see on a map exactly where a desired property is located rather than staring at unorganized data on a spreadsheet or even a handwritten list. Having this level or organization at your fingertips is one of the main benefits of using field sales software.

Appointment setting. Okay, so you have the names. Now it’s time to set appointments with them. One of the most important skills a salesperson can invest time in would be what to say, whether it be in person or on the phone, I’m a firm believer in scripting. Why? Because using a well thought out script will eliminate a robotic, bumpy, and awkward presentation that lacks a connection to the prospect.

Here is an example call script:

Sales presentation. Data shows 75% of sales presentations leave prospects feeling like the salesperson just didn’t get it. Obviously, this will have a negative impact on your chances of closing that deal. We want the prospect to not only feel that we “got it”, but that we are the answer to their situation. What are some things that can be done to make this a better part of your overall process? The article referenced above gives some great tips.

Make sure the presentation comes after a thorough discovery. It’s self-defeating to make a pitch when you haven’t gotten the answers to all the pertinent questions in order to MAKE that pitch to begin with. It’s possible that you are either the perfect answer to the problem the prospect has, or that you are the last solution they need to look at – this will be determined when you ask the right questions to determine if a presentation is even warranted.

Only present solutions to your prospect’s challenges. How annoying is it when someone presents a recommendation that doesn’t meet the challenges at hand? Stick to the issues at hand and focus on solving them.

Don’t present “one last thing.” Focus on the issues at hand directly, and handle them.

Use case studies. Many presentations can be dry, so using real-life situations where you solved the same struggle(s) that the current prospect is facing will go a long way to build your credibility in the room.

The 60-second rule. Don’t dominate the conversation. In order to maximize your chances of closing the deal, it needs to be an interactive presentation. Never talk for more than 60 seconds without an interruption. Ask for questions, etc. Pull them in.

Use feedback loops. This is how you solve the 60-second rule. Asking “Does that make sense?” or “Are we on the same page?” will prompt responses that will keep the prospect engaged.

If you lose them, stop. When/if you feel like you’re starting to lose your prospect, there is nothing wrong with just stopping and mentioning that to them, backing up and seeing where you missed it and fixing that to move forward.

Keep it as short as possible. Getting off track will cost more sales than it will land. Stick to the points at hand. If you do anything other than present a solution to the problems that the prospect has, you’re going to lose them more often.

Clear and scheduled next steps. One-call closes are pretty old-school anymore. Most of the time, there are going to be next steps before you can close the deal. Make sure they are clearly defined, and most importantly SCHEDULED so that nothing is lost due to ambiguity here.

Lead management. How do you keep track of all the prospects that you have? At any given time, your “sales funnel” can range from hundreds of leads to thousands. When someone says “call me in a month” or anything else that isn’t leading to a sale right now, how do you store them? What do you do to make sure you don’t forget to call that client again in a month? There is a saying that “not all leads are created equal”, and it is very true. Due to the many categories that leads can fall into, it’s very important for a salesperson to organize his or her leads in a way so that you are spending your time appropriately with the right leads at the right time(s).

The process and method of lead management is what drives the success of a sales team. Capturing specific details about each prospect quickly and efficiently, and then being able to use this data to increase productivity and sales is the goal of SPOTIO’s lead management software.

Sales reporting, or as I like to call it, keeping score. There are so many activities that salespeople engage in, and most of them are important. How do you know if you’re effective enough at what you do? What are the most important metrics to keep track of so that you can keep everything else in line? Here are some of the most vital metrics you should be privy to:

– Team performance in relation to your sales funnel
– Data from custom statuses and fields based on KPIs
– Team performance and best time and day to knock
– Number of attempts it takes to establish contacts, get leads and make sales

Sales Dashboards provide real-time insights that identify exactly where each individual team member needs assistance in your sales process. You will be able to spot train reps on the areas where they need the most assistance to be successful.

Most Important Skills for Outside Sales Reps

If you are thinking about Outside Sales as a career path, it’s probably a good idea to assess yourself and see if you possess the skills that employers are looking for. I’m certain that employers will debate heavily as to what the most important skills are, so this isn’t an all-inclusive list. However, I doubt that many would doubt that any of the following skills would be very useful, if not vital.

I know this sounds obvious, but this is a big one. Have you ever asked a salesperson a question on a product and they didn’t know the answer? Annoying, wasn’t it? You must be a subject matter expert when it comes to whatever you are selling. You need to be able to answer any questions that come your way, and in a confident manner. If you aren’t confident in the answer you are giving, then your prospect may have a hard time being confident in you.

Do your research. In other words, know who you are dealing with. When you make your approach and have those initial contacts, being able to talk about their company shows that you are a professional that is truly interested in their business. It will also help you avoid making a contact with a prospect/company that is not a good fit.

Know your metrics. It’s hard to ever know if you’re hitting an objective if you don’t know what it takes to get there.

Sales Metrics You Need To Know To Improve Sales Performance

Contact Rate: the number of decision makers (DM’s) a rep speaks with.

Lead Rate: the number of leads generated from conversations.

Close Rate: the number of closed-won opportunities from the number of leads.

Average Revenue per Sale: the average amount of revenue a rep generates for each sale made.

Rate of Follow-up Contact: number of opportunities with at least 1 follow-up activity recorded.

Be organized – all the way through.

The person that is planned spends less time doing unproductive activities and also has contingencies in place to make the unplanned situation productive anyway.

The first impression.

When someone opens a door you knock on, or a decision maker in a business takes a minute to shake your hand, you have a very short period to win another several minutes with that person. Your smile, the handshake, what you say, how you say it; all these things have a major impact on whether you can hope to turn this prospect into a client.

Handling rejection.

You must have the ability to “shake it off”, don’t take it personally, and move on to the next one with the same smile on your face as before. If you’re down, the person interacting with you will sense that.

Know when to move on.

Any individual you meet with will fall into one of 3 categories: they will right now, they will buy later, or they will never buy. Your job is to figure out which one they are

and do it as soon as possible. The sooner you can figure out what kind of person you are dealing with, the sooner you can either take them to the next step or move on to the next prospect.

Qualifying the prospect.

This is the process of asking very deep, meaningful questions to determine if you are able to meet the challenge(s) your prospect if facing, and how to do so.

Close the deal.

This is where you are putting all the information you gathered together and forming the solution to your prospect’s need(s) and asking for her business.

Answering objections.

Most objections at the forefront aren’t the real objection, but a “smokescreen.” Being skilled at answering objections is vital to keeping a valid sale alive.

Average Outside Sales Salary

The range of salaries for outside sales is all over the board. If you look at it as more of a “big picture”, with all industries included, you will see a range of $31,000 to a little over $92,000. That range includes salary, bonus, profit sharing, and commission. As you can imagine, the numbers will vary quite a bit from industry to industry.

The average life insurance agent makes $34,229 per year. The average automobile salesperson makes $38,801.Pharmaceutical salespeople average just short of $70,000. Monster.com gives a list of sales jobs that are the highest paying… from Consulting Sales ($120k – $150k base salaries plus commissions to Digital Media Sales ($170k – $180k base salaries plus commissions), they list the higher end of this spectrum.

Some people have chosen their path in sales strictly because of the highest earnings potential. Others have gone with what they are passionate about and that drives them to be a top performer and blow past the average for his or her field.

How to Hire Top-Performing Outside Sales Professionals

Plain and simple, hiring the right people is hard. And expensive. It costs as much as 1.5–2.0 times of the employee’s annual salary to replace them and takes an average of 4 months to hire their replacement. This makes having a bulletproof hiring strategy absolutely essential. So, how do you go about finding, hiring, and retaining your ideal candidates?

The job description.

Personally, I believe that a lot of thought should go into this document that is taken for granted a lot of times. Remember, you want to attract the best possible fit for that job. So, this job description should describe that person. How do you do that? What skills would that person have? What would be his/her responsibilities? What kind of experience and qualifications would he or she have?

1. Skills – what kind of skills would your superstar possess?

New business development
Customer relations
Account management

2. Responsibilities – what would this person be able to handle?

Attending trade shows to create new leads and contact existing clients
Keep on top of industry trends to ID opportunities for the company to grow
Collaborate with the management team to improve marketing techniques and grow the company’s presence in the existing and desired markets

3. Experiences and Qualifications

Familiarity with a CRM
“X” amount of years’ experience
Proven track record of exceeding sales quotas
Industry-relevant certifications
Sales awards
College education

Try to avoid ambiguity.

Be very specific about who your company is, what it does, and why. It’s hard for a salesperson to sell something if they don’t believe in it. If you’re worried that being specific might scare away a superstar, think of it like this: chances are that he or she wouldn’t have been a superstar with you. Remember, you want the right person to come to you. That means you won’t have to interview 20 people to hire the “perfect” one… maybe you can cut that down to 3-5. Think of how much time and energy you just saved yourself or your HR team in interviewing people that aren’t the right fit from the start?

Outside Sales Interview Questions

Okay, you have figured out the profile of who you want to hire. You have created an amazing job description that has gotten some dynamite applicants to contact you for an interview. What kind of questions should you ask to sift through the pool of great candidates and find “the one”? If you focus on 3 main areas – personality, skills, and performance – you can do that very well. Some examples might be:

1. Personality Questions

What drives you to succeed?
What are you looking forward to in this role?
What would you like to achieve in the next 3-5 years?
In an ideal world, how would you collaborate with your team members?
How do you prefer to work with your sales manager?
-What is your optimal sales environment?
-How do you see yourself fitting with our company and this team?

2. Skills Questions

Would you rather call or email prospects? Why?
How do you deal with rejection?
What is your closing percentage?
How do you get around the gatekeeper when you make a call on a prospect?
When do you decide to walk away from a prospect?
Does social media play a role in your sales process? If so, how?
How do you stay up-to-date with industry trends? What specific resources do you reference?
What is your negotiation style?

3. Performance Questions

Tell me about a time when you were in a competition to win a prospect’s business that you ultimately won. What caused that to happen?
Tell me about a time when you were dealing with a very hard-to-convince prospect that you won over. How did you do that?
When you lose a deal, what is the most common reason why?
Tell me about a time that you didn’t hit your performance objective. What caused you to fail and what did you do to make sure it didn’t happen again?
Tell me about the achievement you are most proud of in your career thus far.
What is the length of your current sales cycle?

How often do you beat your quota?

6-Step Guide to Building a Winning Outside Sales Strategy

Any company that has a sales division wants that wing of their corporation to thrive. After all, they are responsible for selling the products that they make to the marketplace, right? So, how do you build a sales division that doesn’t just “win”, but will thrive? Here are what I think are 6 steps that will help in this area.

1. Identify the team that you need.

Outside vs. inside team – Do you need an outside sales team? Inside sales team? Both?
Build a profile of the people you want in each role that you’re looking for.

2. Customize your recruiting process – and make it repeatable.

Build the job description.
Identify sourcing tools.
Who does what part of your process?
What does the interview look like?

3. Make sure the sales managers are the right ones.

Build profiles.

An outside sales manager will have different characteristics than an inside sales manager. Using the same person for both isn’t going to always be the best option available.
– Can they lead people?
– If they were successful as a salesperson, can he/she clone themselves? MUST be able to train people.

4. Get with the times. In other words, modernize your sales process and tools as much as you can. Many companies will cut corners here, and cite costs as the reason. This approach is narrow minded due to the costs on the back end. What productivity is lost when the salespeople are spending more time in the office doing things they shouldn’t have to do because their tools are out of date instead of being out there doing what they do best – selling?

CRM system.
Tracking software.
Assign proper sales territories.
Planning and organization software.
Enable mobile updates.
Personalized dashboards.

5. Make sure that your Marketing department is aligned with your sales department.

Qualify leads with inbound marketing.
Create lead nurturing campaigns.
Track leads through the sales cycle.

6. Rewards.

Create a multi-tiered incentive structure.

Research shows that a multi-tiered incentive plan will drive production.
Use the salespeople to help develop it.
Make sure to include a way to motivate the ones that fall behind.

Inside and Outside Sales Teams Can Work Together

In my experience with an organization that uses both inside and outside sales teams, it has been an “us vs. them” mentality. And most of the time, that mentality starts from the top. If the executive team doesn’t respect and see the need to work together to be mutually beneficial, then it isn’t likely that the sales teams themselves will either. So, it starts there; make sure the executive team is in alignment so they can model that behavior to their respective teams and spearhead efforts in working together.

Visibility is also a key. The entire team needs to know what the other members of the team are doing. Communication plays a big role here. Are the marketing people actively developing leads in one of the field salesperson’s territory? He or she should know about it. Is that salesperson following up with those leads in a timely fashion? The marketing people should know about that. There are systems in place that can help everyone see that, and with the proper accountability in place, this can make things very transparent to everyone involved.

Ultimately, utilizing this approach will end up causing your entire sales team to build a strong relationship among each other, just like they do, hopefully, with their prospects and clients.

Outside Sales Training Resources

Any true professional should continually be a student of their field; finding ways to get better at what she does. The sales profession is no different. Phone skills, general prospecting skills, fact-finding, closing technique, asking for referrals, marketing as a whole, client retention… these are all areas that a salesperson should continue to get better.

The following are some resources to help develop those skills:

1. Wilson Learning focuses offers resources and programs for sales, leadership and workforce development. For sales, they offer programs on foundational and strategic selling, along with consulting, sales management, and sales support and service.
2. Customer Centric Selling offers sales training through training workshops around the globe. Their focus is on a buyer-driven sales process.
3. Sales Performance International uses online curriculum and technology to facilitate their training and development programs.

There are literally hundreds of other places to seek out sales training in any area, whether it be based on a certain part of the sales process, or even based on industry.

Outside Sales Tools

Every salesperson is interested in being more productive. And, so should each company. There are many tools out there that will help make various parts of the job easier… from mapping to CRMs, sales tracking and everything else. Here are some resources to take a look at for various sales tools:

1. Spotio has various software tracking tools (sales territory mapping, sales tracking, lead management, field sales, territory management, canvassing, customer mapping, sales rep tracking, and outside sales tracking) that will keep tabs on all the different things that you would want to keep an eye on, making key data and metrics available to you with a click rather than someone having to keep track of it all on their own.

2. Sales Hacker provided a list in February of this year of over 160 sales tools that I found to be very comprehensive, covering 11 different areas:

Account-based Sales & Marketing
Analytics
Communication / Conferencing
Content Sharing & Management
Contract Lifecycle Management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Email Management
Lead Generation, Productivity, Prospecting
Performance Management
Sales & Market Intelligence
Search Engine Optimization

3. LinkedIn is primarily meant to be used as a networking site. Today, salespeople use this as a way to expand their footprint, develop leads, and ultimately create new sales. Can be a very effective networking and recruiting tool. It is also a great tool to do some research on a prospect before you contact them.

4. Profit Story is a tool that will help you calculate margins on proposals pretty easily. It is driven by profit-based metrics.

5. CamCard lets you take a picture of a business card and automatically saves the information to your contacts. Knowing that business people – especially outside salespeople – tend to collect many business cards, this is especially useful.

6. Doc Scan lets you snap a picture on your smartphone of important documents and generates a PDF for you.

7. DocuSign is an e-signature service that allows you to get the signature no matter where you are.

8. Dragon is a note taking app that will transcribe what you say into notes if you would rather not use the texting method to do so.

Conclusion

Outside sales is a very broad topic, and it’s impossible to cover everything in one article. However, the objective of this piece was to draw some attention to some key areas that will raise or lower the bottom line results in your organization and team.

From getting you sales team organized to equipping them with the tools to make them as pro productive as possible; all of these things require due diligence to ensure you are “stacking the deck” in your favor. Best of luck in your endeavors!

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

SPOTIO, Your Microsoft Streets and Trips Alternative

A few years ago, Microsoft Streets and Trips users discovered their software was no longer supported. The exit of the software created a void for trip planners waiting for a new player to fill in where Microsoft left off.

SPOTIO provides an alternative for Microsoft Streets and Trips that fills that void with all the things Microsoft’s product did well for trip planning and then taking it to a new level of functionality and efficiency powered by the internet.

What Was Streets and Trips?

Before Google Maps or Siri, and before Bing Maps and all the other online navigation helpers, many people who needed to get around in the U.S. used a self-contained, offline navigation software called Streets and Trips by Microsoft.

Microsoft’s Streets and Trips was a mapping software designed for people unfamiliar with North America to navigate the U.S., Canada, and Mexico with a variety of services including route-mapping. You bought it on CD-ROM and loaded it into your computers, no internet required.

The features were numerous, and included:

– Street-level maps of the U.S. and Canada which included 2.5 million points of interest along the way with easy-to-see icons of what restaurants and hotels are around your destination

– Trip planning functionality for multiple destinations, as well as scenic detours and fuel and rest stop planning

– One-click trip optimization to get the quickest way to your desired destination

– Road type optimization feature, so you choose the way you want to go, e.g., freeways, scenic route, country backroads

– Capacity to add notes, phone numbers, reservation codes to stops

– Offline high-speed planning capability, which some users said was faster than their internet connection

– Drag and Drop utility for rerouting on the fly, no internet connection required

The last version of the software also added customer ratings for businesses. However, you had to be online to see these.

What Happened to Streets and Trips?

As a DOS-Based program in an increasingly Internet-driven world, Microsoft Streets and Trips was discontinued at the end of 2014, with support ending a few months later in 2015. Microsoft sought to migrate Streets and Trips users to Bing Maps, their online mapping system. The move to sunset both Streets and Trips, as well as the business version of the software MapPoint, was part of a broader strategy by CEO Satya Nadella to focus on products that were part of Microsoft’s future rather than its past.

Microsoft purchased the program in 1994 from NextBase, a UK software development team based in a team member’s garage, and developed the program for the next two decades. The European version of the software was called Microsoft AutoRoute, which was also discontinued.

Once Microsoft acquired the program, it commingled NextBase’s route technology with the Encarta World Atlas mapping technology to create earlier programs that were separate, one for mapping and one for route planning that were released on Expedia in the mid to late 1990s.

In 2000, Microsoft evolved away from Expedia and merged the separate programs branding it Microsoft Streets and Trips (although in Europe, the AutoRoute brand remained). Today, the programming behind Streets and Trips and MapPoint were the basis for Bing Maps.

Microsoft Streets and Trips users who miss the software will find that new technology has filled the void and added to the features and benefits enjoyed by its users. SPOTIO’s navigation software does everything that Streets and Trips did, and more.

For example, with our routing utility, SPOTIO offers many of the same tools that Streets and Trips did.

Street level mapping enhanced by Google Places, which integrates directly with SPOTIO and provides detailed business information and map views of surrounding businesses around your destination.

Routes can be calculated for multiple stops, allowing you to pre-plan your trip in great detail before you ever turn the key on your vehicle.

SPOTIO creates efficient routes based on distance from point to point and optimizing it by the shortest path, or by the scheduled stop times and arranging them by meeting durations and calculating arrival times based on start and end times for events.

Captures notes about destinations, including pertinent trip information, which is available with a tap on the pin.

Just like Streets and Trips, you can make changes to your route as you go. However, unlike Streets and Trips, you can use SPOTIO on your Android or iOS mobile devices and change your routes from them. Drop pins on the destinations and tap them later for their exact address or to add information about the stop.

Plus, SPOTIO calculates driving and walking times to your destinations. It’s up to you to figure out which will give you a better option for your day.

SPOTIO also has automatic functions that simplify your planning.

For example, it automatically integrates into your calendar without ever leaving the app. You set the appointment in the SPOTIO calendar, and it goes to your Google or Outlook calendar, too.

Also, SPOTIO automatically calculates your mileage for easy tracking of distance and expenses.

The Power of Google Places Can Maximize Your Trip Enjoyment

SPOTIO’s integration with Google Places is one of the reasons it is the optimal Streets and Trips alternative for 2019. There are over 100 million “places” in Google Places, all with comprehensive points of interest data.

Also, Google Places data updates daily, to the tune of 25 million updates every day. Not only that, the Google Platform has one billion (that’s with a “b”) active users every month, giving the data a scale backed by an infrastructure that has no equal.

In other words, when you use SPOTIO’s trip planning software, you can trust that you have the most up-to-date information about your destination in real-time.

Consider the following comparison of SPOTIO’s user interface compared to Microsoft Streets and Trips.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

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Sources:

“History of AutoRoute and Streets and Trips.” www.laptopgpsworld. Web. 29 May 2019. <http://www.laptopgpsworld.com/3562-history-autoroute-streets-trips>.
Jung, Brian. “Microsoft MapPoint vs. Streets & Trips.” Smallbusiness.chron.com. Web. 29 May 2019. <https://smallbusiness.chron.com/microsoft-mappoint-vs-streets-trips-55760.html>.
Smolaks, Max. “Microsoft. Plans to Retire MapPoint Software By The End of The Year.” www.silicon.co.uk. 18 July 2014. Web. 29 May 2019. <https://www.silicon.co.uk/workspace/microsoft-to-retire-mappoint-149394>.
Protalinski, Emil. “Microsoft will discontinue MapPoint and Streets & Trips on December 31, 2014.” Thenextweb.com. 7 July 2014. Web. 29 May 2019. <https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/07/07/microsoft-will-discontinue-mappoint-streets-trips-december-31-2014/>.
Fried, Ina. “Microsoft Quietly Shutting Down MapPoint in Favor of Bing Maps.” www.vox.com. 11 July 2014. Web. 29 May 2019. <https://www.vox.com/2014/7/11/11628758/microsoft-quietly-shutting-down-mappoint-in-favor-of-bing-maps>.