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Successful sales of a company’s product are usually the driving force behind the company’s continued growth. As such, companies routinely find it important to set aggressive sales targets for their sales teams, and monitor individual members’ progress along these goals. There are many tools available to company owners for keeping track of how well individual sales team members are selling. However, few, if any, contain the unique advantages for tracking information found in Visual Mind Mapping. With Visual Mind Maps, company owners can easily view sales numbers for a given time period in one intuitive, colorful, and spatially formatted diagram. This diagram, because of its non-linear layout and visually stimulating components, makes processing and conceptualizing the information contained in the map much simpler. Company owners can, thus, use Visual Mind Mapping to determine strong versus weak sellers, as well as what volume of their product is being sold.

What are Visual Mind Maps and How Are They Created?

A Visual Mind Map is “a means of organizing information that allows individuals to create diagrams, pictures, and other graphic visuals in order to show the relationship between ideas or other types of information”.¹ With a Visual Mind Map, the creator makes use of colors and symbols to construct the map and represent his or her ideas in a non-linear format. When creating a Visual Mind Map, the individual usually begins by showing the key concept or main topic of the information as a graphic image, located in the center of the map. Any themes surrounding the main idea are shown on “branches” that are attached to the central topic. Subsequent themes of less importance are then attached to these branches using “child branches”, and so on. The resulting diagram is a “map” of the ideas and information presented that includes the images, visual graphics, and colors the individual associates with each of the themes and ideas.

Using a Visual Mind Map to Track Monthly Company Sales

A company owner wants to track how well his sales team is doing on a monthly basis. He decides to make a list of each team member’s actual versus target sales using a Visual Mind Map. He begins his map by first placing a graphic representing company sales in the center of the map. He then lists the names of each member of the sales team on “branches” that are attached to the central graphic. Next to each member’s name, the owner may list his or her actual vs. target sales for that month. The owner makes sure to use pictures and other graphics throughout the map to clearly designate high performing sellers from low performing sellers, as well as make the map easier to conceptualize. When the owner has completed his map, it closely resembles the attached Mind Map diagram.

Improving Company Sales With the Visual Mind Map

As a result of his Visual Mind Map, the owner now has a way to easily and efficiently track company sales from month to month. In addition, he can also see who among his sales associates is consistently meeting his or her sales targets and who is not. Every sales team member, from highest to lowest performer, as well as their respective sales numbers, is neatly mapped out for the owner in one snapshot diagram. The owner can therefore, better improve company sales through motivating his sales team with incentives for exceeding their current sales. The owner may even want to represent the incentives team members receive on future Visual Mind Maps by listing a star or ribbon next to the team member’s name. By using a Visual Mind Map, the company owner finds he is able to manage his company’s sales, assess sales team members’ performances, and improve sales numbers simply and creatively.

1. Farrand, Paul; Hussain, Fearzana and Hennessy, Enid (May 2002). “The efficacy of the ‘mind map’ study technique”. Medical Education 36 (5): 426–431.

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Presenting the findings of a research study to the client is the apex of the entire research process. Working out how to present these findings in a way that the client can easily understand, is, therefore, a crucial part of any market researcher’s job. Using a Mind Map is one way to present these findings. A Mind Map is a means of organizing information spatially, rather than linearly, by “mapping out” the information using words, images, pictures, and phrases. Because the Mind Map uses spatial, visual and image components, it is believed to engage more areas of the brain, making the information easier to process via the brain’s natural functioning. Mind Maps can therefore be an advantage when presenting research findings to clients, because they offer a visually stimulating, easily understood, representation of the results.

An Example of Research Findings Organized Using a Mind Map

Imagine a scenario in which a researcher has just finished fielding a study for his client on her new product, the Big, Beefy, Juicy Burger. The client wants to know how well her product did in a taste and naming test. After reviewing the data, the researcher discovers that the product did well taste-wise among all age groups except those18-24 years old, and poorly in terms of the product name among females in general, 25-34 year olds, and those age 50 and older. In addition, male respondents and those age 34 and younger said they were more likely to buy the product if sold than females and those 35+. All of these findings contain information that the client would want to know. How can the researcher organize these findings using a Mind Map?

The researcher might first begin by listing the main research objective, to find out how well the Big, Beefy, Juicy Burger does on the dimensions of taste, name preference, and intent to buy, in the center of the Mind Map. He next could list each of the three dimensions stated in the research objective on “branches” that are attached to the central image. The dimension fields would have “child branches” labeled “Like” and “Dislike” stemming from them. Lastly, flowing from the “Like” and “Dislike” “child branches” would be the main groupings of the respondents surveyed, the age and gender groupings, depending on how well that dimension did with the group. For instance, if 60% or more of respondents in a group liked the product name, that group would be attached to the “Like” “child branch” of the name preference dimension.

The researcher should be as creative as possible when constructing the Mind Map to make it both visually stimulating and easy to understand. Simply put, the client should be able to understand the research findings just by looking at the map, without any explanation from the researcher. Attached is a Mind Map showing the stated research example and findings “mapped out” in the manner described.

Easier Delivery of Research Findings to Clients

In the attached example, a Mind Map showing the findings of the research study was constructed using a very simple process. However, as the attached Mind Map exhibits, the findings are clearly identifiable, and are shown in colorful, visual, take-away representations. The inherent clarity and intuitive nature of the Mind Map makes it easy for the researcher to present his or her findings, and give any subsequent recommendations based on these findings. By beginning with a clearly constructed diagram of the findings, the researcher has now made the final step of delivering them to the client a much simpler process.

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So you think you have the perfect product. Maybe it’s an all-in-one toaster, rice cooker, and coffee maker. Or a telephone that auto-dials contacts at pre-programmed times, making that Sunday afternoon phone call to mom easier to remember. What about a toilet paper dispenser that automatically re-orders toilet paper from the local supermarket when the roll gets low? Regardless of your product is, one thing is certain: you will need to identify the consumer or consumers most likely to purchase it. When brainstorming to come up with your target consumer, designing a flowchart linking potential consumers to the product will, no doubt, be useful. Mind Maps are an effective and creative way to design product-to-consumer flowcharts, and they can help facilitate the brainstorming process surrounding identifying your target buyer.

Using Mind Mapping to Put Together a Product-to-Consumer Flow Chart

Mind Mapping is a means of depicting information, or “mapping out” ideas using words, images, colors, and other visual representations. Information constructed in this manner is thought to stimulate the brain’s natural learning functionality, because it makes use of several learning pathways, not just one. With Mind Maps, the brain can process not only words, but colors and images as well. This engages multiple areas of the brain, allowing thoughts to flow more easily and intuitively.¹ Mind Maps are, therefore, a natural choice for brainstorming to create marketing flowcharts that help identify buyers.

The first step in creating a product-to-consumer flow chart is to represent the product as the central topic of the Mind Map. This topic should be located in the center of the map. Next, the main uses or functions of the product should be attached to the central image, and listed on “branches” flowing from the image. Any product sub-uses that you feel are important to note should be listed next, and attached to the “branches” on “child-branches”. Lastly, decide which groups are most likely to benefit from the uses or functions that your product offers, and attach them to the uses/functions using more “child branches”. The attached Mind Map depicts a flow-chart connecting the a product called the “Video Game Cell Phone” to its potential consumer(s) in the manner described above.

Identifying Consumer Target Groups From the Mind Mapped Flow-Chart

As the Mind Map shows, consumers 18-24 are most likely to benefit from all four of the listed uses/functions. Therefore, you might decide that 18-24 year olds are the most likely target base for your product. However, 25-34 year olds appear to likely benefit from three of the four uses your product offers, making those in this age group good targets of your product as well. A marketing campaign focused on consumers age 18-34 thus emerges as the strategy most profitable to pursue. Though simplistic in nature, the attached Mind Map shows how instrumental it can be in the initial brainstorming process for identifying the target consumer. By organizing initial brainstorming ideas in the manner described, marketers can save money and time when deciding where to put the emphasis for a marketing campaign.

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When undertaking any marketing research project, the first step the market researcher needs to take is to determine exactly how the project will be carried out. Questions such as: “Will this be a computer survey or a phone survey?”, “How many respondents will be surveyed?”, and “How long will the survey be in field?” are crucial to answer before starting the research project. It is often at this point that researchers can get a bit overwhelmed; successfully organizing a research project requires the fitting together of many components. Mind Maps can provide an easy and workable way to organize a research project. By clearly “mapping out” the research project, from beginning to end, using visuals, key words and pictures, the intuitive process of finding out what the consumer thinks can naturally emerge.

An Example of Mind Mapping a Research Project

Consider, as an example, a market researcher who has been hired by her client to find out how well his fast food product rates among fast food consumers. The researcher wants to organize how the study will proceed using a Mind Map. He/She begins by listing the main research objective of the study in the center of the Mind Map, which, in this case, is to find out how fast food consumers rate Product X. Next, he or she lists the main points he or she will undertake in the study, such as “recruit panel”, and “field survey”. These steps are attached to the central objective via “branches” that flow from the objective. Here, the researcher may want to insert any pictures, colors or visuals she chooses to make the Mind Map more intuitive. For example, she may insert a graphic depicting people next to the step “recruit panel”, to represent the people in the panel.

After listing the main steps of the project, the researcher outlines the components of each step, and attaches these components to the steps via “child branches”. Thus, she attaches, “contact panel recruitment firm”, to the step regarding recruiting the panel. Again, he/she may use a visual, such as the logo of the recruitment firm he/she ordinarily uses, to enhance the listed components. He/She then continues attaching components to each main step he/she has listed, as well as lists, via more “child branches”, any sub-components of the components. When she has finished, the researcher has a Mind Map outlining the complete research project, from beginning to end, along with each step that will be taken, and the aspects that comprise these steps. Moreover, since he/she has used colors, visuals and other images to construct the Mind Map, he/she now has all of the information he/she needs to begin the project distilled down into an easily comprehensible layout. The attached Mind Map diagram represents the example research project layout described above.

Beginning the Research Project

With the all-important, and arguably most challenging, step of organizing the research project out of the way, the researcher is now free to begin the work of conducting the study. As shown in the attached Mind Map diagram, all of the steps she needs to conduct the study are clearly laid out. Compare this method of organizing a research project with the method of simply taking notes on a piece of paper. Absent the visual imagery and spatial layout of the Mind Map, the second method would likely be more tedious to comprehend, and thus, work with. The researcher now has the advantage of conducting the study using information that is easily organized and intuitively processed. The research project is ready to commence.

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