Postcode sectors that lie — and how we flag them
Thin invoice counts in a sector can look like a cold market. Here is how BrookPoint Desktop marks low-confidence zones on a sales heatmap.
A pale sector on a geographic sales heatmap is easy to read as “no demand.” Sometimes it simply means few invoices landed with usable postcodes.
What we check first
Before shading, we count rows per sector and compare against neighbouring sectors of similar outlet count. When volume is thin, we hatch the sector or label it “low confidence” rather than painting a decisive cold colour.
Truncated and vanity postcodes
Extracts occasionally arrive with truncated outward codes or marketing “vanity” strings. We repair what we can, list what we cannot, and keep those rows out of the density calculation until they are fixed. The written briefing states the share of rows excluded.
Talk to the territory lead
A sector that looks cold on paper but feels busy on the road deserves a conversation. Sometimes the sales sit under a depot code rather than the customer postcode. Fixing the extract beats arguing with the map.