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Scenario 3: Users Define Route Plans

This section illustrates how end users can use the Routes views to group accounts by location and then use that information to schedule calls. It also describes how sales managers can create routes and schedule calls for the sales representatives they manage.

Your company may follow a different process according to its business requirements.

Sales Representative Creates Routes to Schedule Account Calls

A sales representative for a pharmaceutical company needs to plan his account call schedule. Because he always visits the same accounts in the same order, he decides to organize his accounts into routes so that he can efficiently schedule all account calls.

He begins by dividing up his accounts into specific geographic areas. Then, he creates a four-day route that includes all accounts in the outlying portions of his sales territory. In addition to specifying which accounts fall into what routes, he defines additional details such as the starting time and the duration of each call. Once all routes have been defined, he schedules calls to all accounts in his territory for the upcoming month.

Sales Manager Creates Routes for New Direct Report

A sales manager for a pharmaceutical company manages 10 sales representatives. One of her representatives, a new employee, is not familiar with his territory. To help her new representative get up-to-speed, she organizes the new representative's accounts into a series of routes.

Each route is divided into sections and will be visited every two weeks. The sales manager creates 10 routes—one for each workday in a two-week period. Each route includes multiple accounts in the same neighborhood. Once the sales manager has finished creating the routes, she uses them to schedule a month's worth of account calls for her new sales representative.

Once her new direct report becomes familiar with his territory, she gives him the responsibility of maintaining and updating his routes. The new sales representative can then add new accounts to a route, change the order in which routes are visited, or adjust the start time and duration of each visit.

The process for this scenario comprises four procedures:

1. Create a route. For more information, see To create a route.
2. Add accounts to a route. For more information, see To add accounts to a route using the Accounts view tab.
3. Schedule account visits using routes. For more information, see Using a Route to Schedule Calls (End User).