Unlocking the Power of Clustering: Create Optimized Territories from Points for Business Success

Authors: Max Bahar and Stewart Berry

Unlocking the Power of Clustering - Map of clustered points in a city

5 December 2023

As a business development professional, one of your primary goals is to ensure that your sales efforts are targeted, efficient, and ultimately successful. This requires careful planning and organization, especially when it comes to defining territories for your sales representatives or managing customer relationships. This is where the power of clustering comes into play.

What is clustering?

Clustering is a powerful spatial analysis tool that organizes your customers, stores, technicians, or locations to create compact, optimized groups of points. There are various criteria that you can specify when creating these clusters, such as choosing the maximum capacity for a cluster or balancing each cluster based on sales volume.

By clustering your data with Maptitude mapping software, you can create compact, optimized groups that allow for more effective territory management. This not only improves the efficiency of your sales team but also ensures that customer needs are met, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

Benefits of using clustering to create territories

Utilizing clustering to create territories offers a range of benefits that can significantly impact your business development strategies:

Putting customers first: By clustering your existing customer base, you can create territories that are customer centric. This approach allows you to understand and manage your clients' needs effectively, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Strategic sales deployment: Clustering prospective customer locations helps to ensure that your sales territories are fair and balanced. By strategically deploying your sales representatives to areas with higher potential, you can maximize sales opportunities and optimize resource allocation.
Optimized resource management: Clustering your physical store or depot locations allows for the creation of territories that are balanced based on inventory, sales, or other metrics. This ensures that your resources are properly distributed across territories, minimizing waste and increasing operational efficiency.

How to create territories using clustering

Now that we understand the benefits of using clustering to create territories, let's explore how to implement this powerful analysis tool.

Before trying the steps below, you can request a free trial of Maptitude mapping software then download and install Clustering Add-in for Maptitude.

Step 1: Map your locations

Download a free mapping software trial of Maptitude Desktop or use your existing Maptitude Desktop license.
From the Maptitude Home screen, you can select New map of my data/table/spreadsheet.
Select the tabular data you want to map and follow the prompts to locate your data by Street Address, ZIP Code, or City.
For more guidance on mapping your locations, please follow the steps in the Maptitude tutorial video on mapping your own data.

Step 2: Cluster your locations

After mapping your locations, run the Clustering Wizard by going to Tools>GIS Developer's Kit>Add-Ins>Clustering.
In the wizard, use the drop down to select the locations you've mapped as the layer to cluster. Click Next.
You can specify how you want Maptitude to group your points. For example, you can impose a limitation that all the locations in a group must be no more than 500 miles apart in drive distance. In this case, select the Route option, select Shortest from the drop down, and specify to Skip routes longer than 500 miles.
Finally, you can enter the number of clusters you want and choose how to balance the clusters. For example, you can choose to create 10 clusters with no maximum capacity and balanced by the number of points. In this case, enter 10 in the Number of Clusters text box and choose the Number of Points radio button.
Click Finish to create your clusters.

Maptitude map with clustered point locations

Step 3: Create your territories

After creating your clusters, run the Territory Wizard by going to Map>New Territory Layer.
Choose From my existing point layer and choose your locations layer. Click Next.
Change the Geography Layer dropdown to the area you want your territories based on. For example, if you want to create territories based on ZIP Codes, select 5-Digit ZIP Codes in this dropdown.
Change the Territory Field dropdown to [Seed ID].
Optionally, add Tracking Fields to track demographic information or your data at the territory level.
Click Finish to create your territories.

Maptitude map with territories created from clustered point locations

By following these simple steps, you can harness the power of clustering to create well-defined, customer-centric territories that enhance your business development strategies.

Unlock the potential of clustering for your business

Whether you're a sales manager striving to allocate resources effectively or a customer relationship manager looking to enhance client satisfaction, clustering is a valuable tool for optimizing your territories. With Maptitude mapping software and its Clustering Add-in, you have the power to transform your data into actionable insights and drive business success.

Don't miss out on the benefits of clustering for territory creation. Request a free trial of Maptitude mapping software today and start unlocking the potential of optimized territories for your business development team.