The rep's round of shops

For a distributor selling rice, dhal, milk powder and biscuits to small grocery shops, the rep is the business. He rides the same round every week, knows every shop owner by name and takes most orders on credit. The risk is just as personal: a friendly shop that keeps ordering while its balance keeps growing. This tour follows a rep's round on the phone, with the account in front of him before every order.

Step by step

1. Open the day's visits. At eight in the morning the rep's planned visits are on his phone, each with the shop, its address, the planned time and the purpose. Six shops today. There is no book to collect from the office and no list to copy out.

2. Start an order at the first shop. Arriving at the first shop, he opens a new order and picks the shop. The visit and the order are separate records: the visit is the plan to call, the order is what the shop buys.

3. Read the account before the stock talk. He checks three things: what the shop owes, the credit it has left and when it last ordered. In the tour's sample, the shop owes Rs 184,000 against a limit of Rs 300,000, so Rs 116,000 of credit is left. Its oldest bill is 12 days past due. That changes the visit. Before talking about new stock, the rep can ask, politely, about the overdue bill.

4. Take the order on the phone. The shop wants rice, dhal and cream crackers. The rep adds the products and the quantities. Prices come from the shop's own dealer price list, so he does not need a printed rate sheet, and two reps visiting two shops on the same list quote exactly the same price.

5. Watch the total against the credit left. As lines go on, the total builds beside what the shop already owes. Credit is checked when the order is confirmed, against the Rs 116,000 left. In the sample the order fits. If it did not, the order would be refused on confirming, and the rep would know now, standing in the shop, and could cut a line or ask for a cash payment towards the balance.

6. Confirm it and mark the visit done. One tap confirms the order. It reaches the office with the shop, its price list and its credit already on it, ready to be picked tomorrow. In the visit planner he taps Mark done on the visit, so the office can see the round moving without phoning him.

7. Ride to the next shop. The rep moves on with nothing to write up at night. By the time he reaches the second shop, the first order is already in the office.

The order in the tour's sample

With Rs 116,000 of credit left, the order goes through and leaves Rs 17,100. If the business uses a discount scheme, the trade, middle and cash discounts are taken off afterwards, so the net value on the invoice is lower than this gross figure.

A harder visit: when credit is nearly used up

Now take a different shop on the same round. It owes Rs 97,350 against a Rs 120,000 limit, so only Rs 22,650 is left, and its oldest bill is 38 days past due. The shop owner wants the same rice and dhal order. On paper, a rep might write it and let the office sort it out. On the phone, he sees at once that the order is four times the credit left.

The useful conversation is in the shop: collect a payment towards the old bill now, which frees up credit, or take a smaller order that fits. Either way, the lorry does not leave tomorrow with goods the office then has to hold back, and the shop is not surprised. Our guide to customer credit for wholesalers covers how to set limits and terms that reps can actually keep to.

Collecting payments on the round

Many distributors' reps also collect cash or cheques when they visit. That is where the account screen earns its place a second time. If the rep can see the overdue bill, he can ask for it before the order, and a payment taken today raises the credit the shop has for the next order. The important part is what happens after: every rupee collected has to be handed in and recorded against the right bill the same day. A payment that sits in a rep's pocket overnight still shows as owed, and tomorrow's reminder goes to a shop that has already paid.

Tips for reps on a round

• Mark every visit done, even with no order. A visit with no sale still tells the office the shop was seen, and a note on the visit can say why nothing was ordered.
• Raise the overdue bill first. It is easier before the order than after.
• Watch shops that have gone quiet. If a regular has not ordered for three weeks, ask why. Another distributor may be offering better terms.
• Confirm the order before leaving the shop. An order in the office by mid-morning makes tomorrow's lorry; one typed at night may not.

Common mistakes

Writing orders in a book and sending them later. Every copied line is a chance for a wrong quantity, and the office gets the orders hours late.

Quoting last month's price. Dealer prices move with the market. Let the price list on the phone do the pricing.

Taking orders over the limit and hoping. An order over the limit is refused when it is confirmed, and the shop owner will blame the rep.

Leaving visits open when the round is running late. That is exactly when the office most wants to know which shops were seen, and an unclosed visit shows as missed.

What to do next

The orders from today's round become tomorrow morning's pick waves, one per order, and the lorry's load. Shops that are falling behind on payments appear in money owed by age, oldest first. For practical ways to shorten the time between delivery and payment, read how to get invoices paid faster. If you are planning or redrawing rounds, van sales and route orders covers how often to visit each shop and how to set a minimum order per drop.