What is Beat Planning?

Beat planning or permanent journey plan is a day-level route plan made for field sales/marketing personnel to make visits to a number of stores at a predefined frequency. A beat plan defines whom to visit, when to visit, based on the company’s priorities on stores category/segment. Effective beat planning is essential for FMCG retailers and brands to be able to keep stores sufficiently stocked with in-demand merchandise and replenish them at regular intervals.

While sales beat planning is generally done manually, when handling multiple locations and hundreds of product categories, it poses some serious real-world challenges.

  • Fuzzy, incomplete, and incorrect addresses of the retail outlets is a major issue while planning sales beats
  • Poor communication between retail storekeepers and warehouse managers may lead to improper beat planning
  • Mapping specific vehicles to a specific category of products and specific geographical regions is also part of the planning process
  • On-ground constraint such as salesman’s geographical understanding, route restrictions, traffic congestions, etc. can affect a permanent journey plan
  • Salesmen often face the issue of unfair load balancing in terms of the number of retailer visits, distance traveled and time spent on the road.

How Locus helps FMCG retailers with efficient beat planning

Automated beat planning | Accurate rider allocation | Increased serviceability ratio | Smart routing for Permanent Journey Plans | Analytics and insights

Related Resources

How can FMCG players utilize sales reps more effectively
How can FMCG players utilize sales reps more effectively
How to optimize various legs of the FMCG supply chain?
How to optimize various legs of the FMCG supply chain?
FMCG Sales Beat Insight Report
FMCG Sales Beat Insight Report
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How can Locus help manage your logistics?

  • Locus’ proprietary geocoding engine converts the fuzziest of the addresses into precise geographical coordinates thereby helping your on-ground executives locate addresses easily.
  • Digitize all your operational variables such as fleets, delivery persons etc. to come up with the best route plan every day.
  • Track your orders in real-time with the Locus Live Dashboard. Locus’ all-mile delivery app Locus On The Road (LOTR) helps delivery partners process orders.
  • Visualize and tweak your scheduled plans via three key metrics— geography, time, & vehicle (fleet)—with a birds-eye view of your entire operations.
  • Build your own reports and analyze important parameters that you need to make key decisions.

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