Resources · Glossary
What is a Beat Plan in FMCG Distribution?
The pre-defined route every salesperson runs, every day or every week — and why it is the single biggest driver of distribution efficiency.
Beat plan, defined
A beat plan(sometimes called a "beat route" or "PJP" — Permanent Journey Plan) is a pre-defined route assigned to a field salesperson, listing which retailers they will visit, in what sequence, and on which days. The beat plan is the operational unit of FMCG and dairy distribution — every salesperson runs a beat, every day, and the company's sales performance is the sum of how well those beats run.
Why beat plans matter for distribution performance
Without a beat plan, three things happen — consistently and predictably:
- Salespeople cherry-pick. They visit the easy retailers, the friendly ones, the ones that order regularly without prompting. The long-tail retailers — which often represent 30–40% of total sales — get skipped.
- Coverage erodes silently. A retailer not visited for 2 weeks orders from a competitor. By the time the head office notices, the relationship is gone.
- Stockouts compound. Without a regular visit cadence, retailers run out of stock and shoppers walk to the next shop. Recovering a lost shopper takes 3-5× the effort of preventing the stockout.
A well-run beat plan, GPS-verified and tracked daily, prevents all three. Companies with compliant beats consistently see 20-40% higher coverage, 15-25% lower stockouts, and stronger secondary sales than companies running ad-hoc visits.
Beat frequency — daily vs weekly vs custom
Beat frequency depends on product perishability and retailer demand:
- Daily beats — dairy, fresh produce, bread, perishables. Retailer needs stock every day. Beat covers 30–50 retailers/day.
- Weekly beats — packaged FMCG, personal care, packaged foods. A 7-day rotation works. Salesperson runs 6 different beats across the week, each covering 80–120 retailers.
- Bi-weekly beats — slow-moving SKUs, durables, premium categories. Retailer stocks last longer.
- Custom beats — special territory mix, hi/mid/low retailer tiering with different cadences.
What goes into a good beat plan
Route optimisation
Sequence retailers geographically so the salesperson minimises travel time. Modern SFA platforms auto-optimise based on retailer location.
Retailer tiering
Hi/mid/low retailers visited at different cadences. The 80/20 rule applies — top 20% of retailers drive 80% of sales and deserve more frequent visits.
Time slots per retailer
Some retailers prefer morning visits (kirana stores); others want afternoons (modern trade).
Day-of-week rotation
Weekly beats run Monday–Saturday with each day covering a different territory.
GPS-verified compliance
Every visit captured with location + timestamp. Compliance dashboards show today, this week, this month.
Re-routing on absence
If a salesperson is absent, the beat reassigns to another team member rather than skipping the day.
How SalesPort handles beat plans
SalesPort's Salesforce Automation module supports daily, weekly, and custom beat cadences with GPS-verified compliance dashboards. Across our 45 client companies, we have logged 2.53 Crore field activities and 21.64 Crore GPS data points — the largest beat-plan operational dataset on any Indian distribution platform.
For a deep operational dive on how to design and run beat plans well, see our Beat Plan Management Guide.
Frequently asked questions
See beat plan management in SalesPort
Schedule a WalkthroughRelated guides
Beat Plan Management Guide
Digital beat plans — compliance, route optimisation, GPS verification.
Read moreSales Force Automation module
Where beat plans live in SalesPort — with attendance and GPS integration.
Read moreFMCG distribution in India
Why beat plan discipline is the difference between scale and stagnation.
Read more