Many calls are not lost in the clinic. They are lost in the car.
In my experience, a route plan that looks good on a map often breaks before lunch. It ignores when doctors actually see reps and what the roads actually do at eight in the morning.
A real route plan is built in four layers.
- Map the targets: look for clusters, not scattered pins.
- Add clinic hours: when does each doctor really see reps? A map without hours is a guess.
- Add traffic: plan around school runs and evening peaks.
- Build the day: group by area, order by hours, and leave one gap for the unexpected.
The gap matters more than it seems. A plan with no room for a late doctor or a closed road collapses by eleven.
“Plan the route around the doctors' hours, not around the map alone.”
Lesson 6 of 12 in Step 1: Planning your territory, with the full guide and a checklist for this week. Discuss this lesson on LinkedIn.