After auditing 40+ Tanzanian FMCG brands, we’ve seen the same five route-to-market mistakes kill distribution potential again and again. None of them are exotic — they’re all too common, and all too fixable. Here’s what to look for in your own business.

Mistake #1: Distributor Coverage Without a Coverage Plan

You have 12 distributors across the country. You think you have national coverage. You don’t. The reality is that 3 distributors cover Dar es Salaam, 4 of them don’t have vans, and the rest are sleeping partners in regions you don’t even operate in. Coverage without a coverage plan is just a list of names.

What to do instead: Map your ideal coverage by region and channel. Score each distributor on van count, route density, financial capacity, and historical performance. Replace sleepers, not punish them.

Mistake #2: Sales Reps With No Call Plan

Your field force is 80 people strong, but each rep is doing 30 calls a day with no segmentation, no objective, and no follow-up system. Activity is high, impact is low. This is the silent killer of FMCG growth in East Africa.

What to do instead: Segment outlets by class (A/B/C/D) and frequency (4-2-1 calls/week). Build daily call plans with specific objectives per outlet class. Track strike rate, order book, and visibility compliance — not just call count.

Mistake #3: Pricing That Doesn’t Make Trade Sense

You set your consumer price first, then work backwards to the trade margin. The result: distributors and retailers don’t have enough margin to prioritize your brand. They stock you as a filler, not a focus.

What to do instead: Work the math from the bottom up. What margin does the retailer need to make you the most profitable item on the shelf? Build the chain backwards. A 2-3% trade margin bump is usually the difference between a hero SKU and a filler.

If your trade partner doesn’t make money on you, you don’t have a route-to-market problem — you have a pricing problem disguised as one.

Mistake #4: No Visibility Discipline

Your brand has good distribution, but the shelf is a mess. Facings are inconsistent, POSM is missing, and your premium products are sitting next to your economy line. When a shopper sees your brand, they don’t recognize it as the brand you want them to buy.

What to do instead: Build a 5-point shelf standard (facings, position, POSM, pricing, freshness) and audit it monthly. Use photos, not spreadsheets. Train the field force to think like merchandisers, not just sellers.

Mistake #5: Measuring Activity, Not Outcome

Your sales dashboard tracks calls, lines per call, strike rate, and order book. None of it ties to sell-out. The result: the field force is “busy” but distribution is flat, share is declining, and nobody knows why.

What to do instead: Anchor every KPI to a sell-out metric. Numeric distribution, weighted distribution, all-channel volume, and share-of-shelf. Call count matters only insofar as it drives these.

The Common Thread

All five mistakes share one root cause: the brand is optimizing the system it has, instead of designing the system it needs. The fix is almost always the same: pause, audit honestly, redesign the system, train the team, hold the line for 90 days, and measure the outcome.

If any of these resonate with what’s happening in your business, we’d love to help. Book a free diagnostic and we’ll tell you honestly which of these is hurting you most.