Why is a beat plan necessary in sales and distribution management?

by Sahil Aggarwal

An effective beat plan or a personal journey plan is one of the most significant parts of sales and distribution management since it forestalls wastage of time and effort. Unmistakably distinct territories guarantee there is no overlap between field force executives and that they are aligned to concentrate on their outlets and generate business which is the end goal of the organisation. This beat plan or personal journey plan should be insightfully planned to such an extent that business objectives properly fit in with resource capabilities to achieve revenue scores.

It is very often to see that a field sales executive misses the sales target even when the best resources and support is given to them. On breaking this down further we find that sales managers recognise PJP or personal journey plan as one of the causes that needs to be revisited.

Unolo offers the option of assigning the personal journey plan to the field executive or even a field executive can upload a PJP and request the manager to approve it. Unolo makes sure that the PJP is strictly adhered to by tracking the location of the field executive along with geo verified tasks. The PJP helps the field executives to optimise their visits and cover larger business regions in a similar business time. We at Unolo have got the experience of working with various kinds of businesses and hence believe the following must be taken care while designing a PJP:

Divide your business region - Organisations, depending upon their nature of business, divide retail stores either dependent on location, client profile, same item needs or size of the retailer.

Route Planning – Once the region distribution is finished, managers can dispense time to every one of their field visits and build up a powerful route map for the week that covers the whole rundown of outlets to be secured.

Delegate - While making the route map, managers must consider special abilities of each field executive and match them to the regions that are progressively reasonable for them. This includes their network with the retailers, past retail experience and individual qualities. In an event that if they have created solid connections in a specific domain, their route map must mirror the same.

When creating a new PJP always learn from the mistakes of the past:

  1. Under-utilised salesmen/marketing executives  – They could be much more productive within the same working hours
  2. Long and cumbersome Beats  – A sales executive walks for a significant time in his beat hence its unfair to expect high productivity at all times
  3. Overlap in salesmen routes  –  With overlapped routes, salesmen were walking more than they had to. The time spent in transacting at every outlet was taking a hit resulting in potential revenue loss.

A good PJP guarantees maximum efficiency levels from the field sales executives while optimising travel and time costs. The above said guidelines would help build an effective PJP and there would be obvious improvements in employee productivity, sales and customer satisfaction.

Make sure your PJP is adhered by your field force executives.  Sign up today with Unolo and get a 14-day free trial. No credit card required.