Episode 284: Steve Benson
Meet
Steve Benson
Steve Benson is the Founder and CEO of Badger Maps, the #1 App in the App Store for field salespeople. After receiving his MBA from Stanford, Steve joined Google, where he became Google Enterprise’s Top Sales Executive Globally in 2009.
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We live in a noisy world where it’s hard to focus. But you can manage your territories better with great territory planning. If you’re a salesperson in the field every day, proper route planning can be a gamechanger. The right tool not only helps you plan the most efficient route but also helps you prioritize your sales calls in any way you see fit—annual spend, important relationships, and more. Steve Benson joins Paul in this episode to talk about his revolutionary route planning too, Badger Maps.
Outline of This Episode
- [0:46] Territory sales planning: underrated by salespeople?
- [1:27] Sales territory planning can reduce reactive sales activities
- [2:28] The ingredients of the ideal territory sales plan
- [3:54] Attributes and characteristics of a great salesperson
- [5:57] Tools + tactics + strategies to improve sales planning skills
- [8:20] What Badger mapping offers field-based people
- [11:32] Top 3 territory sales planning dos and don’ts
- [14:42] The right tool boosts effectiveness enormously
The ingredients of the ideal territory sales plan
It’s important to take your actual territory into account when you make a plan for your territory. You want to figure out how to plan your day in a way that hits the most important customers efficiently. You need to be organized and gather data so you can prioritize in the first place.
Some people are more organized by nature. Likewise, some people—and cultures—have a better grasp of geography than others. Some people can visualize things and use mapping or routing tools. Those that struggle with geography—and even those that are skilled—can benefit from tools like Badger Maps.
Paul covered the NE part of England when he first started in sales. His trunk was full of maps and he’d use 4–5 every single day. At the time, you had to master driving with one hand and navigating with a map in the other. He wished he had access to a tool like Bader Maps. So what can it do for you?
What Badger Maps offers field-based salespeople
Steve was a geography major in college. He, too, used paper maps. But as mapping tools came out, he realized that sales territory planning was a problem that could be solved with technology and mobile devices. Bader Maps combines the ability to connect their customer’s data (i.e. in their CRM) into a mapping environment. It helps them see their field and determine who to prioritize as a customer (spending can be color-coded, as one example).
It shows them where appointments are already set and helps them optimize a route based on priority. The app allows you to map out your sales territory in minutes—not hours. The algorithm behind building a route is heavy math that can’t be done in your head. Badger takes mapping a territory, prioritization, and route-planning to a whole new level. It also allows you to change your route on the fly and adjust your day to prioritize high-value customers when necessary.
Top 3 territory sales planning dos and don’ts
Steve follows these simple—yet effective—when route planning for a sales territory.
- Take the time to get organized.
- Leverage tools to be efficient; don’t design sales territories by hand.
- Enjoy the strategizing. If you’re in the right headspace it can be fun!
- Don’t do it by hand (using google maps, a calendar, and CRM).
- Don’t blow things off.
- Don’t strategize alone, keep your team (including management) in the loop. They can help you brainstorm and improve.
Listen to the whole episode for more of Steve’s tricks of the trade.
The right tool boosts effectiveness
Steve works with a company with 300 sales reps. Each one of them manages 10 partner relationships with dentists. But many of them were competing for the same dentists. Their data was a mess. So Steve helped them connect Badger with their CRM. They organized their customers, guided them in the right direction, and their sales jumped 15%. They calculated their miles and meetings throughout the process. Their miles decreased 20% and weekly meetings increased 25%. When the whole company uses the product, the results can be astounding.
It’s worth spending your time on route planning for your territory using the right tools. You’ll drive fewer miles and bump your sales in a meaningful way. Learn more about Badger Maps in this episode of Sales Reinvented!
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Resources & People Mentioned
Connect with Steve Benson
Connect With Paul Watts
Audio Production and Show notes by
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More About Steve Benson
Are there any books on or including Territory Sales Planning that you recommend? The Badger Sales Blog
In the field of Territory Sales Planning – Who do you most admire and why? A salesperson that takes the initiative to do this, less than 2% do.
Are there any aspects of your own Territory Sales Planning skills that you are working on improving at the moment? Badger Maps is building lots of new ways to help salespeople do this more efficiently. Badger Sales University is like Netflix for salespeople.
Hobbies, Interests? Snowboarding, Hiking and Backpacking.
How can our listeners connect with you? www.badgermapping.com.
The best place to get in touch with me is Linkedin.
Here is the link to my podcast: ‘Outside Sales Talk’. The episodes focus on outside sales skills and strategies. It has the top people in Sales on the show and gets their tips and tricks specifically for outside salespeople.
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