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Guides for field sales
Plan, drive, come back: answers from someone who started in field sales in 2017.
Every guide answers a question that really comes up in a territory, with numbers rather than adjectives: How many visits can a day hold? When does an overnight stay pay off? What belongs in a call report, and what does not? I have driven the routes myself.
If you are starting from zero, read them in this order: Route planning in field sales, Get your Excel customer list onto a map, Drive times in field sales. The pages under who it is for apply the same method to one trade.
All guides
- Field sales software: five kinds and which one fits Which kind of software fits which job? An overview of team CRM, route optimisers, Excel, map services and planning apps for field sales and sales reps.
- Field sales tips: what helps after years in the car Twelve field sales tips from the road: plan the week on Friday, count on six visits a day, cluster customers, cover cancellations, note it in the car.
- Route planning with Google Maps: multiple stops and limits What Google Maps can do for field sales routes: several stops, reordering, custom maps. And where it ends: due dates and the length of the day.
- Field sales call report: free template (Excel, Word) Call report templates for field sales: an Excel list with a monthly count and a Word form to print. Plus what belongs in a call report.
- Get your Excel customer list onto a map How to get your Excel customer list onto a map: every customer a dot in your territory, coloured by what is due. With the time it takes for 300 customers.
- Drive times in field sales: why the day runs long You plan six visits and manage five. Where the missing hour comes from, and how to plan drive times for the whole day, not just one leg.
- Overnight or drive home? Planning multi-day trips When a night away pays off in field sales, how to lay out a two- or three-day trip, and the mistakes that make the night cost more than the drive home.
- Excel template for field sales route planning (free) A free Excel template for route planning in field sales: customer list with visit cycle, automatic due dates and a weekly sheet.
- Route planning in field sales: a week in ten minutes Five steps to plan your field sales week in ten minutes: who is due, grouping by area, drive times, opening hours and one plan on every device.
- Sales territory planning: how to grade your customers Taken over a new territory? Grade customers A, B and C, set a visit cycle per class, check the sums, then build your weeks. With a worked example.