TL;DR A route to market strategy (RTM strategy) is the plan for how your products get from the factory to every outlet worth serving. It decides which distribution channels carry the brand, which distributors you partner with, how outlets are covered and what each route costs to serve. Route to market software runs that plan every day, with distributors, field reps and retailers on one system.
What does route to market mean?
Route to market means the way a product travels from the brand to the person who buys it. It is the sales and distribution end of the supply chain: who sells, who holds stock, who delivers and who gives credit. In consumer goods it usually runs through intermediaries. A case of juice may go from the brand to a distributor, then to a wholesaler, then to a small corner store. Each step holds stock, takes a margin and makes choices the brand cannot see.
There are three broad routes, or RTM models. Direct means your own team sells and delivers. Indirect means distributors, wholesalers or dealers buy from you and serve the outlets. Hybrid mixes the two, often direct for big chains and distributors for small stores. A hybrid route needs one rule for which channel owns which outlet, which our multichannel route to market guide covers. For channels and models in consumer goods, read our FMCG route to market guide.
How to build a route to market strategy in four decisions
A route-to-market strategy comes down to four decisions, taken in this order because each sets up the next. Get them right and the brand reaches more outlets for less. Get them wrong and you pay for visits, stock and margins that do not turn into sales.
1. Measure the route you run today
Before you redesign anything, get three numbers. First, the outlets you serve against all the outlets you could serve. Second, what it costs to serve each kind of outlet on its current route. Third, how much of your sales you can see past the distributor. These numbers are the baseline you will judge the new route against.
2. Segment your outlets
This is market segmentation for the trade. Map the outlets and target customers you could reach, and group them by channel: general trade, modern trade, e-commerce, quick commerce and B2B. Then group them by outlet type, such as grocery, pharmacy, convenience or HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and cafes). Grade each one A, B or C by value, so the best outlets get the most attention.
3. Give each segment one route
Decide who serves each kind of outlet: your own team, a distributor, a wholesaler or a van. There is no single best route to market for FMCG: choose the cheapest route that still wins each kind of outlet. A chain that wants shelf checks needs your own people, while a corner store that buys a few cases a week rarely pays back a direct visit.
| Outlets | Usual route | What runs it in BeatRoute |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarket and convenience chains | Your key account team, with merchandisers in store | SFA, retail audit, visual merchandising |
| Small independent stores | Distributors and their reps on fixed beats | DMS, SFA, route optimization |
| Scattered or remote outlets | Van sales: the rep sells and delivers on the same visit | Van sales software |
| Retailers and B2B buyers who reorder often | Self-service ordering, fulfilled by the distributor | Retailer app, B2B customer app |
Then give every outlet one named owner, because channel conflict starts in the stores two routes both serve. In BeatRoute each outlet record carries its channel, its distributor and its beat, so anyone can see which route owns a store before a second one starts selling there.
4. Sign distributors and draw the beats
Set the terms of each distributor partnership: coverage, stock norms, margins, credit and claims. Review each distributor against those terms, and split the outlets among reps so each has a fair load. A beat is the fixed list of outlets a rep visits on a given day, and the call cycle is how often each outlet gets a visit. Beats are where cost to serve is won or lost. On the BeatRoute platform, Perfetti Van Melle India increased outlet reach by 15% and cut delivery cost by 10% with route optimization.
Signs your route to market needs to change
A route drifts as outlets open and distributors change. Any of these signs means it is time to revisit the decisions above.
| What you see | What it usually means | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| Stockouts in busy outlets, extra stock in slow ones | Distributors reorder from habit | Set stock norms from secondary sales, so primary orders follow demand. The Order AI Agent suggests order baskets from past buying. |
| Distributors, direct teams and online sellers chase the same outlets on price | Some outlets have more than one owner | Keep one outlet list with each store's channel and who serves it, and set schemes for each channel. |
| You know what you sold to distributors, not what reached the stores | No view below the distributor | Record distributor billing, rep orders and retailer orders in one place. |
| Travel costs grow faster than sales | Beats were drawn once and never redrawn | Redraw beats around your A and B outlets and cut visits that rarely end in an order. |
How to tell whether your route to market works
Judge the route on what reaches the stores. Primary sales to distributors can rise for a quarter while shelves run empty, because distributors are holding stock the market has not bought. Track these by territory and channel against the baseline from your first decision:
- Coverage:
the outlets you serve against all you could serve. The gap is your white space. - Numeric distribution and activation:
the share of stores that carry your product, and the share of those that keep ordering. - Cost to serve:
what each kind of outlet costs to sell to and deliver to, against the margin it leaves. - Rep productivity:
strike rate (visits that end in an order), lines per call and value per visit. - Distributor fill rate:
how much of each order the distributor delivers in full.
Coverage and rep productivity are where BeatRoute customers have published results. On the BeatRoute platform, Perfetti Van Melle Indonesia tripled its outlet coverage with route optimization and SFA. Cremica Food Industries increased sales productivity per rep by 30% on BeatRoute.
What is route to market software?
Route to market software is the system a brand uses to run its sales and distribution network in one place: distributors, field reps, retailers and the data between them. It shows what each distributor holds and sells, what each rep did in each outlet and what each store ordered, so managers can fix gaps the same week instead of at month end.
It usually joins five parts: a distributor management system for primary orders, stock, billing and claims; SFA software for visits and orders; route optimization and visit planning for beats; retail audit for shelf checks; and loyalty management for trade schemes.
Each part can run on its own. The value comes when they share one record of outlets, products and prices, so an order a rep takes, a retailer places or a distributor bills shows up in the same report.
When you compare tools, check that secondary sales are counted once, that apps work offline, that prices and schemes come from your ERP, and that distributors will use it. You can start with DMS or SFA and add the rest later. BeatRoute's integrations sync masters with your ERP, and it can connect to a distributor management system a distributor already runs.
Is BeatRoute the right fit?
BeatRoute suits brands that sell through many distributors and want to see their stock, sales and dues in one place; a distributor buying software for its own warehouse will be better served by a lighter billing tool. More than 200 enterprise brands use it across 20+ countries. BeatRoute is subscription software, priced per user and module on annual contracts, with no free trial. Book a demo to see how it would run your route to market.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is RTM different from GTM (go-to-market)?
GTM is broader. It covers product positioning, pricing and the launch as well as distribution. RTM is the part of GTM that moves the product: once you know what you are selling, to whom and at what price, RTM decides the channels, territories and field work that get it to the shelf.
Is route to market the same as distribution strategy?
Not quite. Distribution strategy usually means the logistics: warehouses, stock and delivery. Route to market is wider. It also decides who sells to each outlet, on what terms, and how the field team covers it.
How long does it take to roll out route to market software?
Most teams go live on BeatRoute SFA in 21 days. A rollout across many distributors and territories takes longer, so it goes in phases, starting with a few distributors and their reps. PT Combiphar went live on BeatRoute SFA in two months.
