Visiting every account every week is the rookie move. It burns your bandwidth, annoys buyers who don't need to see you that often, and prevents you from putting real attention on the accounts that actually move the needle.
Account management isn't about visit frequency. It's about the right frequency for each account tier, and the clarity to know which tier each account is actually in.
Tier 1 accounts: every two weeks.
These are your most important on-premise relationships. High volume, strong brand alignment, active placement on a cocktail menu, a buyer who sells through product and reorders consistently. You're visiting every two weeks because there's always something to work on: a training to run, a seasonal menu change coming, a competitor trying to move you off the menu. Tier 1 accounts justify the time and deserve the attention.
What happens on a Tier 1 visit: check current placement and inventory, advance one specific objective from your brief, spend time with bar staff if they're on shift, confirm the next step before you leave the building.
Tier 2 accounts: monthly.
Solid placements, reliable but not exceptional volume, buyers who are responsive but not developing the relationship proactively. Monthly is enough to stay in front of them without becoming background noise. Use these visits to advance one thing: a training, a cocktail update, a feature push. Monthly visits done with clear intent outperform weekly visits done out of habit.
Tier 3 accounts: quarterly.
Small volume, passive placement, or accounts you're nurturing toward a Tier 2 relationship. Quarterly check-ins keep you present without wasting time on accounts that aren't yet producing. If a Tier 3 account upgrades its program or a new buyer comes in who's more engaged, re-evaluate the tier.
Review your tier assignments quarterly. An account that's been Tier 3 for two years without movement is either permanently Tier 3 or it's time to decide if it belongs in your book at all. An account that's growing fast should move up before your competitor shows up there more often than you do.
Keep the tier list in whatever system you use to track your accounts. Tier assignments without documentation are just intentions, and intentions don't show up in depletion reports.
The visit cadence matters less than the quality of what happens during the visit. A focused monthly visit at a Tier 2 account beats three unfocused check-ins every time.