Sales is a numbers game. This catchphrase is often associated with sales activities, implying that the more actions a sales rep makes, the higher chance they have of closing a sale. But it also speaks to the numerical nature of sales itself.
From revenue to pipeline, quota to commission, sales is a numbers-driven business. These numbers drive most decisions and can make or break your sales strategy. The caveat? Numbers alone don’t tell the full story — that’s where heat maps come in.
Let’s explore how (and why) today’s top sales teams use heat maps to uncover more opportunities and make a bigger impact on their bottom line.
A heat map is a visual representation of data. It uses color gradients to highlight different areas of concentration within your data, like leads, revenue, account activity, or company size. High concentrations are usually represented by warmer colors like red or orange while less concentrated areas are shown in cooler hues of blue or green.
Think of it like a weather map. Just as a radar shows where a storm is forming, a heat map shows where your hottest opportunities — or coldest gaps — reside.
This simple yet powerful visual can help you drive focus in the right direction and arm your sales team with the confidence to succeed.
Sales heat maps can be tailored to fit your team’s specific goals. Tools like Geopointe, for example, allow you to generate heat maps based on:
You can also layer your heat map with other data like territory boundaries to get deeper insights about gaps or trends on the map.
Whether you’re managing territories on a national scale or optimizing your local outreach strategy, heat maps can show you where to go next.
Heat maps are popular for a reason. They bring data to life and make it easier for sales teams to spot trends and make strategic decisions. Here are four major benefits of using heat maps for sales.
Visual clarity: humans are visual by nature. Rows of black and white spreadsheet data might show us the hard and fast numbers, but it’s not the whole story (or the most effective way for us to absorb information). Heat maps paint a clear picture of what to focus on without any guessing games.
Trend spotting: how much time do you spend crunching numbers and combing through spreadsheets? Heat maps can help you reclaim this time with color-coded shapes that make it easy to instantly understand performance trends. These visual insights give your team the information they need to know where to focus — without needing to be a data scientist.
Territory planning: heat maps are invaluable for territory planning and management. By visualizing customer density and potential revenue on the map, sales leaders can build balanced territories that optimize coverage and reduce overlap.
Resource allocation: a wide open territory might seem like a good thing, but it can be overwhelming to staff. Heat maps can help you identify which areas have the most opportunity and enable you to strategically place your sales reps. Big Ass Fans, for example, uses Heat Maps within Geopointe to identify high-value areas and allocate internal resources accordingly.
You might understand the benefits of heat maps, but how do they fit into your sales strategy? Popular use cases of heat maps for sales include:
Heat maps can also be used in other departments to gain clarity and inform decisions. Marketing teams can use heat maps to target specific accounts for regional events or proximity-based campaigns. Executives can use them to see the big picture at a glance, and customer success teams can visualize at-risk accounts or support ticket volume by region.
If you’re tired of sifting through spreadsheets, it’s time to give heat maps a try.
Heat maps can help you see beneath the surface and drive strategic sales strategy. Whether you’re optimizing territories, prioritizing leads, or evaluating performance, heat maps can turn your raw data into visual insights for bigger impact without additional work.
Ready to heat things up? Get in touch to learn how Geopointe can transform your Salesforce data into powerful visualizations.
