Sales

Plan a sales trip in 20 minutes

You can create a targeted and efficient plan for your onsite sales calls in about twenty minutes, depending on the number of stops on the trip. This article uses Microsoft Office Excel 2003 and Microsoft MapPoint North America 2004.

Suppose that you open your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Workplace and see that Marketing has assigned a new task to you. They want you to introduce a new product line to your active accounts in Southern California with over 500 employees and an annual revenue of at least $7,000,000. For our example, assume that you are based out of Chicago and will fly into Los Angeles International Airport. In Los Angeles, you will rent a car and drive to each of your clients, ending your sales trip in San Francisco, where you will fly back to Chicago. You want to make sure that you can see all customers in the three days that you have available, so you want to plan your trip to minimize time-consuming routes and backtracking.

To accomplish this, you can create a list of your accounts in the region and their locations by using the search capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Then, you export the results from Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to an Excel worksheet. Next, you import the data from the worksheet into MapPoint by using its import wizard. Finally, you use a second wizard to help you map your addresses or other data to provide you with the most efficient routes, specific directions to the addresses, and much more.

Apply your situation to the following example, and next time you can have a more efficient and enjoyable sales trip.

On This Page

Gathering information

Exporting data

Importing data

Creating the route

Viewing the results

Gathering information

In Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Begin by obtaining a list of your accounts, and then select the data on those that you want to work with using the Advanced Find feature. Add information that you will need for the trip, again by using Advanced Find.

Tip

If you do not need to use the Advanced Find feature to limit your data, export your selected View list immediately to Excel by clicking the Export Data to Excel button and then selecting the Dynamic worksheet option in the Export Data to Excel dialog box. After selecting this option, you can still delete and add additional columns before exporting the data to Excel.

  1. In the Navigation Pane, click Sales, and then click Accounts.
  2. In the View list, select Active Accounts to get a complete list of accounts with which to work.
  3. On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find to limit the accounts to only those that you are interested in visiting and to get additional columns that are not currently displayed.
  4. In Advanced Find, click Edit Columns.
  5. In the Common Tasks area, click Add Columns, and then select the columns that you want to add from the list. For our example, select the following unless they are already displayed:
    • Account Name (*)
    • Annual Revenue
    • Address 1: City (*)
    • Address 1: State/Province
    • Address 1: Street (*)
    • E-mail
    • Main Phone (*)
    • No. of Employees
    • Primary Contact (*)
    • Web Site

    Note

The fields marked with an asterisk in the list above may not appear in the Add Columns dialog box because they may already be part of the default view.

  1. Click OK when you are finished adding columns, and then click OK again to return to Advanced Find.
  2. On the Find tab, begin filtering your search by leaving the default query Status Equals Active.

    Note

For assistance using the Advanced Find feature, click Help, and then select Help on This Page from the list.

  1. Click Show Details to display Select, if it is not available.
  2. First, limit your search to accounts in California by doing the following:
    • Click Select, and then select Address 1: State/Province from the list.
    • Leave Equals in the next list.
    • Click Enter Value to enter CA in the text box.
  3. Next, you can limit the accounts to those with more than 500 employees by doing the following:
    • Click Select, and then select No. of Employees from the list.
    • Click Equals to change the limiting factor to Is Greater Than from the list.
    • Click Enter Value and enter 500 in the text box.
  4. Then, you can limit the accounts further by doing the following:
    • Click Select, and then select Annual Revenue from the list.
    • Click Equals to change the limiting factor to Is Greater Than from the list.
    • Click Enter Value and enter 7,000,000 in the text box.
  5. Click the down arrow at the beginning of each row, click Select Row to select it, and then on the Filter toolbar, click Group AND.
  6. Click Find.

    Note

Data will automatically populate the columns that you added earlier. Click Back to Query to make additional searches as needed and to save your query.

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Exporting data

From Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to Excel

Next, export the data that you gathered to an Excel worksheet by doing the following:

  1. On the Actions toolbar, click Export to an Excel worksheet.
  2. In the Export Data to Excel dialog box, click Static worksheet with records from this page.
  3. Click Export.
  4. Click Open.
  5. On the File menu, click Save as, change the file type to Microsoft Office Excel Workbook, name the file Sales_Trip, and then click Save.
  6. Close Excel.

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Importing data

In Microsoft MapPoint

At this point, you are ready to import your Excel worksheet data into MapPoint.

  1. Open MapPoint, and then clear any current map by clicking New on the Standard toolbar.
  2. On the Data menu, click Import Data Wizard.
  3. From the wizard, browse to the Excel worksheet that you just saved, and then click Open.
  4. Look at the headings in the row labeled Data type to confirm that MapPoint has correctly determined the types of data contained in your columns. If not, select the correct heading for each column.
  5. You may be prompted to indicate what a state or a geographic location that you entered in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online goes with. For example, if you wrote an address in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online that the MapPoint database does not recognize as standard, you will be asked to choose what you were referencing from a list.
  6. Complete any additional steps in the wizard.
  7. Click Finish.

    Note

    • If the Finish button is disabled, you must set the data types for the records.
    • You may be prompted to clarify geographic information that you are importing from Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. For example, if you abbreviated Nebraska as NB instead of NE, the database will not recognize it. You will be asked to select from a list of possibilities to indicate that NB means Nebraska in your file.
  8. On the Choose a map type page, click Pushpin, and then click Next.
  9. On the Select the properties for your Pushpin set page, leave the default in the Pushpin set name box. (You may also select colors and the design of your pushpin or accept the default.)
  10. In the Select which fields to display in balloons for this set box, select the options that you want to display. For this example, select:
    • Account Name
    • Primary Contact
    • Main Phone
    • Address 1: City
    • Address 1: Street
    • Address 1: State/Province
    • No. of Employees
    • Annual Revenue
    • E-mail
    • Web Site
  11. Select the Display selected field names in balloons check box.
  12. Click Finish.

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Creating the route

In Microsoft MapPoint

Next, create an optimized route, showing the order of your stops and driving directions. For this example, you will be starting your trip from Los Angeles International Airport traveling to destinations in Southern California where your contacts are located before departing from San Francisco International Airport for your return trip to Chicago.

  1. On the Route menu, click Route Planner.
  2. On the Route Planner pane, in the Type place or address box, type Los Angeles International Airport.
  3. Click Add to Route.
  4. In the Find form, on the Place/Data tab, select Los Angles International Airport, and then click OK.
  5. In the Type place or address box, type San Francisco International Airport. Click Add to Route. If the airport is not already selected, select it and click OK.

    Note

If it does not show up with a red box to indicate that it is the last stop, right-click it, and then click Add as Stop in the Route Planner pane.

  1. If necessary, on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Navigation.
  2. On the Navigation toolbar, click Select, and then drag the pointer diagonally until you've drawn a box around all of the pushpin points that you will visit, and then release the mouse button.
  3. On the Route menu, click Add Pushpins as Stops to add all customers as stops on your route.

    Note

You may need to zoom out to see all of your pushpins.

  1. In the Route Planner pane, click Optimize Stops to reorder the intermediate stops on your route so that your travel time between the start and end points is the most time-efficient (unless you have a different priority, such as using only preferred roads).
  2. On the Route menu, click Get Directions to generate your route.
  3. In the Route Planner pane, double-click a location to schedule a stop.
  4. In the Schedule Stop dialog box, enter 2 hours, and then click OK.
  5. Repeat the process for each location in the list.
  6. When you are done, on the Standard toolbar, click Save, and save the map.

You now have a pushpin map with a route and driving directions to visit the customers that you selected from Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

You can customize the route, such as by changing the order of stops, changing the departure and arrival times at stops, and changing your driving preferences. You can also add stops for recreational purposes or visiting family or friends along the way. To customize your trip, click More Options in the Route Planner pane.

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Viewing the results

In Microsoft MapPoint

Your results can be viewed in a number of ways:

  • When you have completed your entries, you will see a Summary bar at the top of the page that gives you a summary of how long the trip will take given your current choices.
  • By clicking a stop, you will see the driving directions to that stop displayed above the map. Additionally, you can view your map in various ways (for example, with terrain or data) by using the View menu.
  • If you want to check out landmarks, hotels, restaurants, or other things along your route, you can see them by right-clicking within the driving directions, selecting the Find Nearby Places option, and adding one of the choices as a stop.
  • Use the Zoom option to see your route in greater detail or to get a larger perspective.
  • For additional convenience, you can print the route and driving directions or even save them as a Web page.

Planning a sales trip is just one of the ways that using Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with MapPoint can assist you in solving business problems. Other possibilities will undoubtedly come to mind as you discover the power of these two applications.

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Related Links

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