Sales Rep Route Planning: A Practical Guide

A rep who plans the day well fits in two or three more visits than one who doesn't. How to plan sales routes by hand or with software, and what route optimisation really adds.

Published 27 July 2026 · 3 min read

A field sales rep's day is decided before they leave home. A rep who drives back and forth across the city gets through five visits. One who plans the route well gets through eight, using less fuel and with less stress.

Start with areas, not stops

Split the territory into areas that can each be covered in a day. Put every customer in an area, then plan which days each area gets visited, say the north on Monday and the centre on Tuesday. Most of the saving comes from this step, before you put a single stop in order.

Fixed appointments first

Put visits with fixed times into the day first: a buyer who is only free at 10, or a clinic that only sees reps after 2. Then fit the flexible visits in around them.

Order the stops

Within the day:

Start near home or near the first appointment, rather than going to the office out of habit.
Work outwards and back instead of zigzagging.
Put long visits, such as a key account or a large store, where there's time for them.
Leave a gap for the unexpected.

With eight to twelve stops, a sensible order worked out by hand usually comes within a few minutes of the mathematically best one.

Estimate travel honestly

Straight-line distance underestimates driving in a city. Use it to plan the order, and let the maps app handle the actual navigation with live traffic.

When optimisation helps

Route optimisation software works out the best order for a large number of stops using road networks and traffic. It's worth it when:

reps have fifteen or more stops a day
the stops change every day
lots of vehicles share the same pool of stops.

Most sales teams have a stable customer list and a handful of visits a day. For them, a good area plan and a sensible order by hand get most of the benefit.

Review the plan against reality

Every week, compare the visits planned with the visits actually made. If reps keep missing the same stops, either the route is too long or the order is wrong.

In Movtro

In Movtro, a manager or the rep builds a route for one person and one day from their visits and sets the order of the stops. Movtro estimates the distance and travel time between stops as a straight line at an average speed, shows an arrival time for each stop, and opens each stop in the phone's maps app for navigation. Visits are jobs at the customer's site, so starting one records where the rep was.

Movtro Dispatch on a phone for one day of pharma rep calls, with each rep's doctor visits, call times and a Plan route button.

Movtro does not optimise the order for you, and its estimates don't take roads or traffic into account. It doesn't have territories or beat plans.