The Secret To Perfecting Sales Territory Mapping

Ask any small business owner what the most trying part of managing a company is, and they’ll likely tell you the same story: it doesn’t take a genius to scale a business to the point where it warrants existing, but generating enough growth to ensure that the company remains stable and profitable for years to come is an obstacle few overcome.

It’s estimated that somewhere around 65% of all small businesses in the U.S. close within their first ten years of operation. Of course, there are thousands of companies across the county that remain stable and profitable well beyond the ten-year mark. So what’s the secret that’s kept the remaining 45% afloat? “We focus on feedback,” says Jen Moon, Marketing Manager at Kaput Products. Kaput recently celebrated their 20th year in the pest control industry and continue to show signs of growth after two decades of operation.

The company’s business model runs through a diverse network of distributors and dealers that serve a specific territory. Customers looking to take care of a pest infestation must go directly through their local dealer to acquire any of Kaput’s products. If there’s no local dealer available, aspiring pest-exterminators in the making are encouraged to reach out to the company directly, highlighting potential gaps in the company’s distribution model. New territories are added to their distribution map regularly thanks to contributions from their traveling sales team and user feedback loop.

Part of Jen’s responsibilities at Kaput involve tracking, managing, and updating the company’s regional map as it evolves throughout the business year. Up until a few months ago, the entirety of the company’s distribution and travel data was only logged online, which was fine. Kaput’s database was still regularly updated, sales team members were still visiting new prospects, and the company was still discovering new territorial expansion opportunities; the only issue was that the software wasn’t easily accessible for quick reference points. “If I want to look something up as a quick reference, I want it to be easy to access,” Jen explained.

A few months ago, Jen reached out to the team at Magnatag Visible Systems to find an easy to access tool for managing Kaput’s territorial map. The solution: a large format, full color, magnetic dry-erase map of the United States. Standing eight feet wide and over five feet tall, the map is designed to outline individual cities and their corresponding counties, making it the perfect tool for identifying gaps in Kaput’s distribution strategy.

“We ordered our map alongside some of the colored magnets to use for marking territories for our dealers and distributors. We use one color to mark the distributors that currently carry our baits and another color to represent potential dealers… We also use a separate color to identify pests that are commonly associated with a specific location. Using this as a big picture, I can fill in the gaps in our marketing program as needed.”

Today, Jen and the rest of the Kaput team use the digital software and physical dry-erase map in tandem, with each tool serving its own purpose; the software logs and archives their regional dealer information while the map visualizes opportunities in their distribution network at a glance.

For over fifty years, Magnatag Visible Systems has developed high-quality printed magnetic dry-erase boards. If you’re looking to bring a personal and motivational approach to your project management strategy, contact us at sales@magnatag.com or give us a call at (800) 624-4154.