Geographic Territory Assignment via Touch Interface
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Solution Overview
Problem
Door to door sales management faces inefficiencies due to reliance on paper records, which are difficult to read, time-consuming to maintain, and often inaccurate, leading to subjective and fabricated reports that hinder sales productivity and data reliability.
Innovation Solution
A computer-based sales management tool that visually divides geographic areas among sales teams, allowing users to interact with maps to define boundaries and assign territories, providing a digital interface for tracking contacts and sales data, ensuring data accuracy and motivation through incentives like rewards for correct reporting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If paper records are used to track contacts, then salespeople can maintain simple records, but the records become difficult to read, time-consuming to maintain, and inaccurate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical paper-based record-keeping system with an electronic database system accessible via mobile devices. This substitution eliminates the physical handling, storage, and manual compilation of paper records, thereby improving both ease of maintenance and data accuracy through digital automation and centralized management.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates digital copies of sales data that can be instantly accessed, updated, and shared across the organization. Instead of relying on physical paper copies that are difficult to distribute and update, the electronic system allows real-time replication and distribution of accurate sales information to all stakeholders.
2Productivity
If salespeople focus on making sales rather than paperwork, then sales productivity increases, but record accuracy and completeness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables salespeople to self-update their sales records in real-time during customer visits using mobile devices. This eliminates the need to separately complete paperwork after sales activities, as the system automatically captures and stores data during the sales process itself, maintaining both productivity and accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The electronic system provides immediate feedback and confirmation when sales data is entered, ensuring accuracy at the point of capture. The system can validate data entry, provide prompts for complete information, and instantly update records, thereby maintaining high measurement precision while allowing salespeople to focus on sales activities.
3Loss of information
If management compiles individual salesperson records, then useful information can be generated, but the process is time-intensive and vulnerable to fabrication
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges all individual salesperson records into a single centralized electronic database that is automatically updated in real-time. This eliminates the need for manual compilation of individual records by management, as the aggregated data is continuously maintained in the system. The centralized database provides immediately accessible, reliable information without time-intensive processing.
4Ease of operation
If salespeople are given new neighborhoods after completing current areas, then motivation to sell is maintained, but continuity of sales data and customer follow-up is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The electronic database system serves multiple functions simultaneously: it tracks current sales activities, maintains historical data, enables follow-up on previous contacts, and supports salespeople as they transition between neighborhoods. The system's universal accessibility ensures that sales data continuity is maintained across different geographic areas and time periods, while still allowing salespeople to move to new territories.
Data Source
AI summary
A door to door sales management tool utilizes a computer system for visually dividing geographic areas among sales teams. The system can be configured to display on a digital interface a visual depiction of a map. The system can also be configured to receive one or more indications defining boundaries of a first geographic area within the map. The system can assign a first user to the first geographic area. Assigning the first user to the first geographic area can comprises receiving a physical association of a visual indicator representative of the first user with a visual indicator representative of the first geographic area through a touch interface.