Sales Planning Manager, Americas

The Sales Planning Manager is responsible for managing the sales and operations planning processes for the Americas Commercial team. The key mission of this role is to create, execute, and optimize reporting and analytics, enable performance management, and develop industry leading service standards for our distribution partners (DTC, DTD, Distributors).

This individual will support the overall needs of the Commercial organization by providing data analysis, go-to-market planning, and will act as a liaison between all cross functional teams. 

The successful candidate will be a strategic member of the Gibson cross functional team who will drive significant impact as we mature our regional capabilities. This role will report directly to the Dealer Service and Sales Operations Director.

Essential Functions 

Reporting, Planning, and Forecasting

• Supports the overall needs of the Commercial organization by providing data analysis, GTM planning, and acts as a liaison between all cross functional teams. 
• Prepares region reporting surrounding budget, revenue, NPI, product lifecycle, order-to-cash, sell through, and presenting results to key stakeholders. 
• Design scorecard and track against targets aligned with global Gibson Brands strategy to elevate and achieve the brands’ service levels and to distribution partner service experience. 
• Provides insights into allocation planning, and consistently reviews inventory for fulfillment and distribution optimization. 
• Aids in development and target setting for KBD/KPI metrics. 
• Owns annual SKU level and revenue forecast by territory, key account, and business unit. 
• Conducts monthly review of forecast vs. sales performance.
• Responsible for analysis of industry, dealer sell-through, strategic price and category reviews, product introduction performance, and orderbook sufficiency.

Go-To-Market (GTM) Coordination

• Follows the Go-to-Market (GTM) specific “Commercial Calendar” cadence and meets calendar milestone deadlines.
• Collaborates with product, brand, and operations to ensure that new and exclusive product launches, seasonal sell-in, and other GTM activities are timely met. (allocation, mix, quantities, and shipping).
• Provides proactive tracking and analysis to secure the orderbook in full and on time against set revenue targets and policies.
• Frequently analyzes inventory coverage levels against orderbook, releases inventory to available status when needed, and proactively manages overstock to maintain optimal coverage levels.
• Creates sales opportunities, presents options and tools to drive revenue. 

Sales Planning

• Builds robust sales planning methodology and business intelligence practice.
• Scope (Americas):

1. Annual, semi-annual, quarterly revenue and margin plan by business unit, category, distribution channel, dealer type, and BDM 
2. SKU level forecasting
3. Creates channel right assortments by BU (merchandising)
4. Orderbook evolution management
5. Sell-through analysis and reports
6. Commercial reports (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, yearly)
7. Market insights (macro and industry intelligence)

• Supports Key Americas GTM Milestones (e.g.: preline meetings, prepare to sell, prepare to ignite, etc.), as well as presentations to the ELT & GLT. 
• Provides distribution and product merchandise analytics and reports to track key performance indicators (KPIs), monitor business performance, and derives actionable insights to drive execution and continuous improvement.
• Prepares impactful presentations.
• Other duties as assigned relevant to job duties.

Required Skills/Abilities 

• Shows evidence of clear analytical thinking; gets to the heart of complex problems and issues.
• Demonstrates excellent analytical skills in analyzing service, orderbook, sales, and margin metrics; thinks in terms of profit, loss, and added value.
• Follows up on clearly defined objectives. 
• Develops dashboard to track and report progress against objectives (KPIs).
• Monitors performance against deadlines and milestones.
• Identifies business opportunities and maximizes growth and business development. 

 Customer Service

• Puts dealers and distributors first.
• Demonstrates an interest in and understanding of our customer’s service needs.
• Understands the lifetime value of partners.
• Sets high service standards.
• Listens, consults, and communicates proactively.
• Uses direct communication appropriately to enhance relationship with partners.
• Makes a strong personal impression on dealers and distributors.

Leadership

• Formulates strategies and concepts and drives execution excellence.
• Makes clear decisions, which may involve making tough choices.
• Takes initiative and responsibility for actions, projects, and people.
• Develops game plans (playbooks).
• Demonstrates excellent process, project, and business planning.

• Leads through the Gibson values.

Required Education and Experience 

• 3-5 years relevant work experience in leading sales planning, commercial analytics, orderbook management, order to cash process / allocation, account master management, CRM, B2B, after sales service, and working with ERP.
• Good understanding of GTM process and working within stage/gate calendars and meeting key milestones.
• Proficiency with the Microsoft office suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Teams), data analytics and visualization platforms (Alteryx or similar), and cloud-based CRM platforms (Salesforce or similar).
• Bachelor’s degree in business, operations, or related field preferred.

Essential Knowledge 

• Results oriented, demonstrated business acumen and achieving clear, measurable goals. 
• Problem solving, ability to understand a problem and create a plan to resolve and partner with team members who will help execute.
• Collaboration, demonstrated skills in building cross-functional and cross-cultural/international relationships.
• Analytical thinker, excellent analytical skills in processing, analyzing, and reporting data.
• Demonstrates ability to derive actionable insights from data and make informed decisions and improve business performance. 

Personal Qualities  

• Personable, team oriented, and ignites a positive work atmosphere
• Passionate about working and winning in a team environment.
• Customer centric mindset, enjoys the pursuit of delivering the industry-leading omnichannel customer experience.
• Self-sufficient, proactive, service and results oriented.
• Able to multitask, to prioritize and to identify solutions in timely manner.
• Works with a sense of urgency and a desire for excellence in performance and customer satisfaction.
• Ability to remain objective and exercise good judgment, decision making, diplomacy and discretion.
• Passion for music and sharing our brand.

Travel Requirements 

Periodic travel between Gibson Brands locations, to commercial events, and Key Partner meetings may be required.

Physical Demands 

• Standard office environment (sitting, standing, etc.) 

Nota Bene:

The company’s job descriptions are not intended to be a complete detailed account of all expected/anticipated activities. We operate in a fast-moving and competitive global environment and therefore need employees to be flexible.