Managing Medical Representatives in Nepal: Call Cycles, Verified Visits and a Fair First Month
MRs work wide territories on relationships and trust. Here is how to plan call cycles, verify visits without suspicion and support your field force from day one.
gamitrack team · · 6 min read
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A medical representative's day looks simple on paper: visit clinics and chemists, keep products available, report back. In reality an MR in Nepal might cover a district headquarters, two highway towns and a hospital cluster, juggling doctor availability, chemist rush hours and distributor stock that is never quite where it should be. Managers, meanwhile, see a call report at month end and have to trust it. This guide is for the sales manager of a pharma company or distributor who wants a fairer, clearer system: call cycles that make sense, visits that are verified without treating people as suspects, and a first month that wins the team over. It does not give regulatory advice; follow the rules and guidance that apply to your products and company.
What an MR's week really looks like
Before designing any system, write down a realistic week. A hypothetical example for an MR covering a terai town and its surroundings:
| Day | Morning | Afternoon |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Hospital-area chemists | Clinics near the hospital |
| Monday | Town centre chemists | Distributor visit: stock and dues |
| Tuesday | Highway town A | Highway town A clinics |
| Wednesday | Town centre clinics | Chemists in new colonies |
| Thursday | Highway town B | Return, follow-ups |
| Friday | Key accounts, pending follow-ups | Weekly report, short day |
Two lessons come out of this exercise. Doctors and clinics have narrow windows, so clinic visits cluster at certain times; chemists are better visited outside their rush hours. And travel days to outer towns are expensive, so they must be planned, not squeezed in when the MR has spare time.
Building a call cycle
A call cycle is the list of accounts an MR must cover and how often. Keep it simple enough that the MR can remember it.
| Account type | Suggested rhythm | Purpose of the visit |
|---|---|---|
| High-prescription clinics | Weekly or fortnightly | Relationship, product awareness within your policy |
| Chemists near hospitals and clinics | Weekly | Availability of key products, orders to the distributor |
| Neighbourhood chemists | Fortnightly or monthly | Availability, new product placement |
| Hospital pharmacies | Monthly, by appointment | Supply, terms, returns |
| Distributor or stockist | Weekly | Stock position, pending orders, dues |
In gamitrack, each MR gets routes with ordered stops, and territories are drawn on a map as geofenced areas. The MR starts the day in the app, which records attendance and begins the GPS trail, visits each business with a geofence check and photo proof, and ends the day. Use visit outcomes and notes to record what happened: product available or missing, order booked, no order and the reason.
Verifying visits without treating MRs as suspects
Every pharma manager has heard of call reports written at a tea shop. The fix is not more suspicion; it is evidence that protects honest MRs.
gamitrack flags visits for manager review when:
- The visit was recorded outside the business's geofence.
- The visit was very short.
- There was no photo.
Each MR also gets a daily integrity score. Treat it as a conversation starter. An MR with flagged visits at one clinic may simply be meeting the doctor in the hospital next door; fix the location or note the exception. An MR with flags everywhere needs a different conversation.
Share the same view with the MR that the manager sees. When people know the rules and can see their own numbers, most of the gaming stops on its own. For more on this, see stopping fake visits in field sales.
The chemist availability check
The most valuable thing an MR does at a chemist may be the least glamorous: checking that the products doctors prescribe are actually on the shelf. When they are not, the patient buys a substitute and the prescription is wasted.
At each chemist visit, check:
- Are the key products in stock, in the strengths and pack sizes that move?
- Is anything near expiry on the shelf?
- Has the chemist's order to the distributor been placed and delivered?
- Any returns or complaints pending?
Record what is missing in the visit notes or closing stock. MRs can book orders for chemists in the app, priced from your price lists. Where a distributor serves the chemist, the MR books a secondary order and the distributor fulfils it through the dealer app, so you can see whether supply actually followed the visit.
Behind the MR: stock, batches and dues
An MR's credibility depends on the back office. If stock runs short or a chemist's return sits unsettled for months, the MR hears about it at every visit.
- Batches and expiry. Receive stock into batches with expiry dates in each branch. Movements are append-only, so the history is clear. Review expiring batches monthly and plan clearance before they become returns.
- Returns. Agree near-expiry and damaged return terms in advance. Approved returns go into a branch with a credit note; a chemist's return through a distributor goes to that distributor to accept or reject.
- Dues. Record payments by cash, eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay, bank or cheque, allocated oldest-first. Party statements, aging and weekly collection plans show who to follow up, and due days run from dispatch.
- Distributor stock. Monthly dealer stock reports compare expected and actual closing, showing which distributors are short or overstocked.
Supporting MRs, not just monitoring them
MRs stay when they feel the system is fair. Give them:
- Monthly targets with daily pace, visible in their own app.
- Clear commission rules and a month-end pay summary they can check.
- Field expense claims with receipt photos and a quick manager approval, so travel to outer towns is not out of their own pocket for weeks.
At month end, print the monthly agent report for each MR and go through it together: visits against plan, orders booked, collections, targets reached and expenses approved. When the MR sees the same report the manager uses for decisions on commission and pay, month-end stops being a negotiation and becomes a review. Keep the tone practical: which territory needs more days, which distributor is letting the MR down, which chemists should move to a different rhythm.
Run a weekly one-to-one that starts with coverage gaps, moves to availability problems and ends with what support the MR needs.
The first 30 days for a field force manager
- Days 1 to 5. List chemists, clinics and distributors for one territory. Confirm each location on the map.
- Days 6 to 10. Pilot day start and end, geofenced visits and photos with one or two willing MRs. Fix wrong locations as they appear.
- Days 11 to 20. Add availability checks and order booking. Hold the first weekly one-to-one using the data.
- Days 21 to 30. Turn on expense claims and targets. Review flagged visits together with the MRs, then extend to a second territory.
Start small and be patient with the first flagged visits; most are wrong map pins, not wrongdoing.
Lines you should not cross
Keep your field system for operations. Whatever your company policy and the applicable rules say about promotion, samples and doctor interactions, make sure MRs know them, and keep compliance records where your compliance team expects. Do not record patient information in visit notes.
Related reading
Field sales tracking in Nepal, surgical and medical supplies distribution, veterinary medicine distribution, and the pharma distribution industry page.
Pilot with one territory and two MRs for a month. See pricing for plans, or contact us to plan the rollout.
Frequently asked questions
Does gamitrack record doctor calls and detailing?
It records visits to businesses with GPS, photo, outcome and notes. There is no dedicated doctor-detailing or sampling module, so use visit notes for call context and keep compliance records where your company requires.
Does gamitrack handle pharma regulations?
No. It supports operations such as routes, orders, stock, batches and collections. Licensing, promotion and storage rules are your responsibility, and your regulators' guidance applies.
Will MRs feel spied on?
That depends on how you use it. Explain clearly what is tracked during the working day, share the same numbers with the MR that the manager sees, and use flags for conversations, not punishment.
What happens when an MR is in an area without signal?
The GPS location trail is kept on the phone and synced later. Visits, orders and payments need a connection, so the MR records them once signal returns.
Can I protect clinic and doctor-related notes?
Internal notes on a business are never visible to dealers. Admin access is role-based, so decide who in your team needs it.
Put this playbook to work
gamitrack gives your salespeople, delivery staff and dealers one app — and you one place to see sales and stock.