Redesigning Sales Territories with Real Visit and Geofence Data

Territories usually start as a conversation: "you take the east side, he takes the market area." Over time shops open and close, a new dealer appears, one officer becomes brilliant and another struggles, and the original lines no longer fit. The result is overloaded routes, ignored pockets and arguments about who owns which shop. gamitrack records the raw material for a better design: where shops are, where officers actually went, how long they spent, and where they did or did not sell. This guide turns that into a redesign process. For a complementary introduction to the concepts, see geofencing, territories and regions for sales teams.

What data you have

Before redesigning, know what the system gives you:

• Parties with locations. Every dealer and shop has a saved location. New outlets arrive with GPS from the field and go through approval.
• Geofenced visits. A visit is checked against the shop's location, with flags for visits outside the geofence, very short visits and visits without a photo.
• Day movement map and time at stores. Background tracking during the working day shows the path and the minutes spent at each store.
• Orders linked to visits, so you can tell productive visits from unproductive ones.
• Territories and regions, drawn on a map and used to group parties and target messages.
• Day comparison, which shows each officer's day against their own 30-day average and the team average.

Step 1: Describe the current situation

Start with a one-page picture for each route and officer. Use Team, Routes and Visits & flags:

Question	Look at
How many stops per day does the route plan?	Routes
How many are actually visited?	Visits
How much time is spent travelling vs in shops?	Day movement and time at stores
What share of visits end in an order?	Visit outcomes and orders
Where do geofence flags cluster?	Visits & flags

Be fair about the findings: a route with a low visit count may be badly laid out, not badly worked.

Step 2: Find the imbalance

Typical patterns:

1. Overloaded route. Planned stops exceed what can be visited, so the tail is never reached.
2. Underloaded route. The officer finishes early with a high conversion; consider adding stops.
3. Zig-zag route. The movement map shows crossing paths; reorder the stops.
4. Dead zone. Parties with locations but no recent visits; nobody owns them.
5. Flag cluster. Many outside-geofence flags in one area often mean wrong shop coordinates, not dishonest staff.

Fix data errors first. If a shop is saved 300 metres from where it really is, every visit will be flagged. Correct the location and the noise disappears.

Step 3: Set design rules

Before drawing anything, agree rules, and write them down:

• a target number of stops per day per route (and a ceiling),
• a maximum travel time share,
• visit frequency by outlet class (for example, high-value shops weekly, others fortnightly),
• dealers' areas respected, so secondary orders flow to the right dealer,
• a minimum viable territory size for one officer to earn a fair income.

The rules protect you from redesigning to please one loud person.

Step 4: Redraw territories and regions

Open Territories and draw the new areas on the map. Use natural boundaries: rivers, highways, ward lines, market areas. Avoid weaving lines through a market; split the market by lane only if it truly needs two people. Then use regions to group territories for reporting and for broadcasts to a region.

In via-dealers mode, the morning report determines the dealer from the geofenced area, so check that each territory lines up with the dealer's intended area.

Step 5: Rebuild routes inside each territory

In Routes, create or update the beats: an ordered list of stops. Order stops to follow a sensible path, with farthest shops first or last depending on the day. Check that planned stops are within your design limit. Assign each route to its officer.

A tip: keep a few "flex" slots in the day for follow-ups and new outlets. A route with zero slack breaks on the first rainy morning; see monsoon route and delivery planning.

Step 6: Communicate the change

Territory changes can feel like a pay cut, so handle them carefully:

1. Show each officer the data behind the change, not a verdict.
2. Give at least one to two weeks' notice.
3. Decide how shops that move between officers are treated for commission in a transition period, and say so in writing. Commission is calculated on secondary orders, so someone will care about which orders belong to whom.
4. Send a broadcast to the affected region when the change starts.
5. Introduce the new officer to key shops with the previous officer when possible.

Step 7: Monitor the first month

After go-live, watch the same measures as in Step 1, weekly. Expect a dip in the first two weeks as officers learn their new shops. Look for:

• stops completed per day against the design rule,
• flags in the changed areas,
• orders per visit compared with the previous period,
• shops with no visit since the change.

Hold a short review with the officers at the end of the first month and adjust. Share the findings in the weekly sales meeting.

Common mistakes

• Redesigning from a map alone. Use real movement data.
• Ignoring shop quality. Ten small shops are not the same workload as ten large ones.
• No transition rules. Officers lose trust fast.
• Changing everything at once. If you can, pilot in one region first.
• Forgetting new hires. A new salesperson needs a balanced start; see ramping up a new salesperson in 30 days.

Redesign checklist

Step	Done
Shop locations audited and corrected
Imbalance list written per route
Design rules agreed and written
Territories and regions redrawn
Routes rebuilt with slack
Officers briefed, transition rule stated
First-month review scheduled

Next steps

Territories, routes and tracking are part of the field operations modules. See the plans on the pricing page, and use the team-tracking articles in the Help centre for step-by-step drawing and route instructions.