How To Use Route Planning In Voze

As a field sales representative, most of your days are spent on the road, navigating from one client visit to the next. Efficient route planning is crucial to maximizing your productivity and ensuring you don't miss out on potential revenue opportunities. However, manually mapping out routes and constantly updating them can be a time-consuming and frustrating task, taking away valuable selling time.

Voze is here to streamline field sales operations and help you to work smarter, not harder. One of Voze's standout features is its robust route planning functionality, which takes the guesswork and hassle out of optimizing your daily routes. With just a few taps, you can easily create, manage, and navigate custom routes, ensuring you never miss a beat when it comes to your scheduled appointments and customer visits.

But Voze's route planning capabilities go beyond simple navigation. By integrating seamlessly with your existing customer data and sales pipeline, the app provides a comprehensive view of your territory, allowing you to identify potential prospects and uncover hidden revenue opportunities. In fact, a sales rep at Jim Hawk Truck Trailers leveraged Voze's mapping tools to discover a previously unknown customer, leading to a staggering $520,000 deal – a 13x return on the company's annual Voze investment from a single sale.

In this step-by-step guide, we'll dive deep into Voze's route planning feature, exploring how to create and manage routes, visualize and follow them effectively, and even get turn-by-turn directions to specific customer locations. We'll also share best practices, pro tips, and real-world success stories to help you unlock the full potential of this powerful tool.

Whether you're a seasoned road warrior or new to the world of field sales, mastering Voze's route planning capabilities can be a game-changer, helping you save time, increase efficiency, and ultimately, drive more revenue for your business. So, let's get started!

Accessing the Route Planning feature

To begin leveraging Voze's route planning tools, you'll first need to access the Maps section within the app. This can be done easily from the main navigation menu or home screen.

On the home screen, look for the "More" button, typically represented by three horizontal lines or dots. Tap on this button to reveal additional options.

From the menu that appears, select the "Maps" option. This will open up the interactive map view within the Voze app.

Upon entering the Maps section, you'll immediately notice blue pins scattered across the map. These pins represent companies that are already known to you and exist within your Voze account or integrated CRM system.

To gain access to the route planning functionality, look for the icon resembling a car or a road. This icon is your gateway to creating, managing, and navigating custom routes.

Simply tap on the route planning icon to access this feature. Depending on your previous usage and existing data, you may see pre-existing routes already set up within the app.

For example, you might have a "Monday Route" or a "West Territory Route" already created, complete with information such as the number of companies included, the average distance, and the estimated drive time based on the locations of those companies.

If you don't have any pre-existing routes, no worries! Voze makes it incredibly easy to create new routes from scratch, which we'll cover in the next section.

With the Maps and route planning features readily accessible, you're just a few taps away from streamlining your daily routes and optimizing your field sales productivity.

Creating and managing routes

At the heart of Voze's route planning capabilities lies the ability to create and manage custom routes tailored to your specific needs. Whether you're setting up a weekly route, organizing visits by territory, or planning a one-off trip, the app provides a user-friendly interface to build and refine your routes with ease.

If you already have pre-existing routes displayed within the app, you can easily view, edit, or delete them as needed. Simply tap on a route to see the list of companies included, along with details such as the average distance and estimated drive time.

To modify an existing route, look for options to remove or reorder the companies listed. This flexibility allows you to adapt your routes based on changing schedules, new appointments, or shifts in priorities.

However, the true power of Voze's route planning lies in its ability to create new routes from scratch. To get started, look for the "+" or "Add Route" button, typically located near the list of existing routes.

Tapping this button will prompt you to give your new route a name. Choose something descriptive and memorable, such as "Friday Route" or "North Territory Visits."

Once you've named your route, you can begin adding companies to it. Voze integrates seamlessly with your existing customer data, allowing you to search for and select companies from your database or integrated CRM system.

As you add companies to your route, Voze will automatically calculate the average distance and estimated drive time, providing you with a clear overview of the route's logistics. You can continue adding, removing, or reordering companies as needed, ensuring your route is optimized for efficiency.

But Voze's route planning capabilities don't stop there. Many users find it helpful to organize routes based on specific criteria, such as geographic location, product line, or customer type. 

The app allows you to create multiple routes tailored to different scenarios, ensuring you have a comprehensive plan for tackling your territory effectively.

With the ability to create, customize, and manage routes at your fingertips, Voze empowers you to stay organized, efficient, and focused on your primary objective: driving revenue through successful customer visits and sales opportunities.

Visualizing and following routes

Once you've created your custom routes within Voze, it's time to bring them to life and navigate your way through each destination. This is where the app's powerful mapping and turn-by-turn navigation capabilities really shine.

To visualize your route, simply tap on it from the list of available routes. This will display the route on the interactive map, with each company location represented by a pin or marker. 

As you zoom in and out on the map, you'll notice that these pins dynamically update, providing you with a clear visual representation of your route's path and the relative positions of each stop along the way.

But Voze doesn't just show you where you need to go; it also guides you there seamlessly. Once you've selected your route, you can initiate turn-by-turn navigation by tapping on the first pin or company location.

This action will automatically open your device's default navigation app (such as Google Maps or Apple Maps), and provide you with detailed, step-by-step directions from your current location to your first destination.

As you follow the guided navigation, Voze streamlines the process of marking stops as visited and moving on to the next one. Simply return to the app, tap on the next pin or company in your route, and select the "Get Directions" option. The app will seamlessly transition to providing you with turn-by-turn navigation to your next stop.

This intuitive workflow ensures that you never lose track of where you've been and where you need to go next, eliminating the need for manual tracking or constant route recalculation.

Additionally, Voze's route planning feature offers optimization tools to help you make the most efficient use of your time on the road. This might include reordering stops based on proximity or traffic conditions, or even suggesting alternative routes to avoid delays or construction zones.

Getting directions to a specific company

While Voze's route planning capabilities are geared towards optimizing multi-stop trips, the app also caters to those instances where you simply need turn-by-turn navigation to a single company's location. This functionality can be particularly useful for ad-hoc visits, last-minute meetings, or when you need to quickly navigate to a customer's site.

To get directions to a specific company, there's no need to create a full route. Instead, you can access the company's information directly from the main navigation menu or search function within the Voze app.

Once you've located the desired company, tap on its listing to open the company details page. Here, you'll find various pieces of information, such as contact details, recent notes or activities, and any associated opportunities or deals.

Prominently displayed on this page will be a "Directions" or "Navigate" button, often accompanied by a location pin icon. Tapping this button will prompt Voze to open your device's default navigation app and provide turn-by-turn directions from your current location to the selected company's address.

This streamlined process eliminates the need to manually enter the company's address or search for it within a separate navigation app, saving you valuable time and reducing the potential for errors.

Additionally, Voze's integration with your CRM or customer database ensures that you always have access to the most up-to-date and accurate address information for each company, minimizing the risk of navigating to an outdated or incorrect location.

Whether you're en route to an impromptu meeting or simply need to find your way to a customer's site, Voze's built-in navigation capabilities make it easy to get directions to any company in your database with just a few taps.

Success story: How Voze helped uncover $520k in new business

While the routing and navigation capabilities of Voze are undoubtedly powerful, their true value lies in empowering field sales teams to uncover new revenue opportunities that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. One such success story comes from Jim Hawk Truck Trailers, where a veteran sales rep leveraged Voze's mapping tools to identify and pursue a game-changing new account.

Like many seasoned sales professionals, this rep had fallen into the habit of visiting the same customers repeatedly, assuming they had a comprehensive understanding of every potential opportunity within their territory. This "milk run" approach, while comfortable, ultimately limited the company's growth potential.

However, after implementing Voze, the rep began to explore the app's interactive mapping features, which provided a visual representation of their entire territory, including prospects and companies they had yet to engage with.

During one of these exploratory sessions, the rep noticed a previously unknown farm located just outside their usual route. Intrigued by this potential new opportunity, they decided to proactively visit the farm and introduce themselves to the owners.

Thanks to Voze's seamless navigation capabilities, the rep was able to easily plan a route to the new prospect's location and arrive prepared for their introductory meeting.

The proactive outreach paid off in a significant way. Not only did the rep successfully establish a relationship with the new customer during that initial visit, but they also closed an order for a hopper trailer on the spot.

Little did they know, this was just the beginning. Over the following months, the account would grow to encompass 12 trailers, representing a staggering $520,000 in revenue for Jim Hawk Truck Trailers – a remarkable 13x return on the company's annual investment in Voze from a single sale.

As Jim Thornton, the company's Sales Manager, explained, "My sales team sees Voze as a tool, more than just a CRM." This sentiment underscores the app's ability to empower reps with accessible tools and data, enabling them to maximize their territories and uncover surprising wins with ease.

Conclusion

Efficient route planning is more than just a convenience – it's a strategic advantage that can directly impact your bottom line. By mastering Voze's robust route planning capabilities, you're equipping yourself with a powerful tool to streamline your daily operations, maximize productivity, and uncover hidden revenue opportunities within your territory.

Throughout this comprehensive guide, we've explored the ins and outs of creating and managing custom routes, visualizing and navigating those routes with ease, and even accessing turn-by-turn directions to specific company locations. We've shared real-world success stories that highlight the game-changing impact of Voze's mapping and navigation tools, and provided best practices and pro tips to help you take your field sales game to new heights.

Whether you're a seasoned road warrior or new to the world of field sales, the benefits of Voze's route planning feature are clear: increased efficiency, optimized travel times, and a constant pulse on your territory that empowers you to proactively pursue new business opportunities.

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to bid farewell to the days of manually mapping out routes, getting lost on the way to appointments, or missing out on potential revenue due to lack of visibility. Embrace the power of Voze's route planning capabilities, and watch as your productivity soars, your customer relationships flourish, and your sales numbers reach new heights.

If you're not already a Voze customer, we encourage you to request a demo and see a full walkthrough of the app's features, including the powerful route planning tools we've discussed. Our team of experts will be happy to answer any questions you may have and guide you through the process of implementing Voze within your organization.