How to plan a route day around job sites

A field rep has a fixed number of hours and a territory that does not care. The difference between a good day and a wasted one is mostly decided before the truck leaves: which sites, in what order, and why each one.

Pick an area, not a list

The common mistake is to rank sites by how promising they look and then drive to the best five, wherever they are. That turns the day into windshield time. Pick one part of the territory and work what is in it, including the sites that are only fairly promising. A second tier site five minutes from your last stop costs almost nothing to visit.

Put the stops in driving order

Once you have the area, order the stops so you never double back. Start at the far end and work home, or run a loop. Either beats zigzagging between whatever comes to mind next.

Know what each stop is for

• A first visit: find out who runs the site and who buys what you sell.
• A follow up: you were told to come back when a phase started, and it has.
• A check: the filing is recent and you want to see whether work has begun.

A stop with no purpose tends to end in a wave from the truck. A stop with one ends in a name.

Leave room

Job sites do not keep appointments. The superintendent may be in a meeting, in a trench, or on another site entirely. Plan fewer stops than fit on paper, and keep a few nearby sites in reserve for when one turns out to be a dead end.

Log it at the gate

Write down who you met and what they said before you start the engine. By the fourth stop the first one has blurred. A note taken on the spot is what makes the next visit a follow up and not a second cold call.

Where Huff fits

In Huff, Routes puts the stops you pick into driving order and hands the day to the maps app on your phone. Visits are logged against the job and the company, so the next rep to pull up to that gate knows what was said.