trakki
Route planning for pharma sales reps
By Manuel Ober · · 4 min read
Three things matter in pharma field sales
Cycle and opening hours decide whether a week works out. And the customer list has to stay confidential.
The cycle is the target. The A pharmacy every four weeks, the doctor's practice every six, the C customer twice a year: that is what you are measured on at the end of the quarter. Keep it in your head and you only notice someone is missing once they are already overdue.
The time windows are narrow. Pharmacies shut at midday, doctors' practices have consulting hours. A plan that does not know this sends you to a locked door at 12:45.
The customer list is confidential. Which pharmacy turns over how much, and who makes the decisions there, does not belong on an outside provider's server. Ask first where a planning app sends your list.
A week with trakki
Friday. On the map every pharmacy and practice is coloured: red overdue, yellow due soon, green fine. You tap “Plan week”. trakki spreads the visits over the days by due date, with drive times, opening hours and your lunch break.
Monday, seven o'clock. “Today” shows the first visit, the drive time to the next one and when the plan has you home in the evening. To set off, trakki opens Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze.
Tuesday, a cancellation. The doctor is away that day. You drag the visit to Thursday and see straight away what detour that makes. For the slot that frees up, trakki suggests customers nearby.
At a locked door. You tap “Nobody there”. The customer does not count as visited, stays due and comes back into the plan after a few working days.
After the visit. One note is enough: when, with whom, what was discussed, what to bring next time. On the iPhone you dictate it in the app, on an Android phone with your keyboard's microphone. You pass your visits on as an Excel file and filter it down to the quarter in Excel.
How the weekly planning works in detail is in the guide Route planning in field sales.
What trakki brings for pharmacies and doctors' practices
- Cycle: every 30 days or six times a year, the same for all or set per customer. The segments A+ to D suggest one.
- Opening hours and consulting hours with several time windows a day, lunch closure included. trakki only plans inside those windows.
- “By appointment only” customers: trakki never schedules them on its own. Once they are due, they appear in the “Arrange appointments” list.
- Phone call as a visit: for customers you would rather ring, a phone call counts as a visit if you switch that on.
- Categories such as pharmacy, doctor's practice or chain, each with its own colour on the map.
- Tasks on the customer: “Bring samples” shows up at the next visit.
- Overnight stay for large territories: the next day starts at the hotel.
- Customer list from Excel: the template in the app shows you which columns you need. Name and address are enough.
What stays with you
trakki has no server holding your customer list, and you need no account. The list sits on your phone. If you use sync, trakki puts a file in your own cloud (Google Drive or OneDrive) or on your NAS. That file is encrypted with your sync password. For address search and drive times, addresses and coordinates go to Stadia Maps, never your notes. If you type a customer name, that name goes too, so you get the business suggested. Keep patient data out of your notes. Whether you may load company data into an app of your own is for your employer to decide. If in doubt, ask first.
Who trakki is not for
trakki plans one person's week. There is no team view and no access for sales managers. If you run twenty reps and need an overview of all of them, this is the wrong tool. If you plan your own week and manage your own data, it is the right one. You can look at trakki in the browser with sample customers, on the home page.
Frequently asked questions
Can I bring in my existing pharmacy list?
Yes, as an Excel file (.xlsx). trakki recognises your columns, you confirm briefly. Then trakki looks the addresses up on the map and shows you which ones it only found roughly. What the list should look like is in the guide Get your Excel customer list onto a map.
Can I set different cycles for pharmacies and doctors' practices?
Yes. Every customer can have a cycle of their own: the A pharmacy every 30 days, the practice every 45, the new customer every 14.
Does trakki run on a computer as well?
Yes, as a Windows app from the Microsoft Store, alongside iPhone, iPad and Android phones. Until launch you can look at trakki in the browser on your computer, with sample customers.