Sr. Manager, Sales Planning

Rich's•Buffalo, NY

About The Position

The Sr. Manager, Sales Planning leads Sales Planning across Foodservice and In-Store Bakery Retail, translating business and commercial priorities into clear plans that drive profitable growth. The role partners closely with Sales and cross-functional teams to use customer, market, and performance insights to identify opportunities, set priorities, and improve sales effectiveness. This is first and foremost a people-leadership role, focused on developing and empowering a strong Sales Planning team. The Sr. Manager brings thought leadership, curiosity, sound judgment, and a bias for action, proactively identifying needs and opportunities, making decisions, and driving work forward. The role also challenges current practices and explores new ideas and technology to improve the team and sales organization. The position leads sales planning, performance measurement, cross-functional alignment, sales onboarding and upskilling, and business enablement for Salesforce. It also identifies and champions tools, AI, technology, and ways of working that can improve seller effectiveness, adoption, and productivity. Travel up to 25% as needed.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Analytics, or a related field.
8+ years of progressive experience in sales planning, sales strategy, commercial planning, sales operations, analytics, or related commercial roles.
Ability to lead, coach, develop, and enable others, with a commitment to building an engaged, high-performing team.
Strong analytical capability and ability to synthesize customer, market, and performance data into actionable insights and recommendations.
Strong business and financial acumen, including understanding of sales growth, profitability, product mix, customer investment, and ROI.
Understanding of customer segmentation, account prioritization, opportunity targeting, and sales coverage strategies.
Ability to partner cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Customer Marketing, Finance, Revenue Management, Sales Operations, and other commercial functions.
Leadership, coaching, and talent development capabilities, including demonstrated experience leading direct reports.
Excellent communication, presentation, and facilitation skills; ability to simplify complex information, present a clear point of view, and communicate with a range of audiences.
Planning, project management, and process improvement capabilities.
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to navigate complexity and balance priorities across multiple businesses and sales channels.
Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic, and highly collaborative environment.

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree.
Experience within Foodservice, Retail, CPG, or similar industries.
Experience with CRM platforms, Power BI, Databricks, and emerging technologies.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain an engaged, high-performing Sales Planning team grounded in trust, humility, accountability, and development.
Lead, coach, and develop Sales Planners and Sales Analysts, empowering them to take ownership, make decisions, and grow their capabilities.
Establish clear priorities and expectations and foster collaboration, new ideas, and continuous improvement.
Identify team and individual needs and take action to strengthen capabilities and performance.
Lead annual and ongoing sales planning across Foodservice and In-Store Bakery Retail, translating business, channel, and commercial strategies into sales priorities and actionable plans.
Use customer, market, and performance insights to identify growth opportunities and inform customer prioritization, prospect targeting, sales coverage, and resource allocation.
Establish consistent planning methodologies, tools, and operating rhythms while adapting to customer and go-to-market needs.
Partner with Sales and cross-functional leaders to align objectives, priorities, and success measures, connecting business strategy to sales execution.
Identify needs, risks, and opportunities; bring forward recommendations; and move decisions and priorities into action.
Establish KPIs, scorecards, and measures of success to assess sales plan execution and effectiveness.
Monitor performance, identify risks and opportunities, and translate data into actionable insights and recommendations.
Lead regular performance reviews and drive alignment on actions and adjustments based on results and changing business priorities.
Serve as a trusted thought partner across Sales, Customer Marketing, Marketing, Finance, Revenue Management, Sales Operations, and other commercial partners.
Constructively challenge thinking using data, business acumen, and commercial insights, and build alignment across differing perspectives and priorities.
Lead Sales Planning's role in sales onboarding and ongoing upskilling in partnership with teams across the organization.
Serve as a key business lead and subject matter expert for Salesforce, ensuring Sales teams have the knowledge, training, and support to use the platform effectively.
Act as a liaison between Sales and Salesforce partners, bringing forward business needs, feedback, and improvement opportunities.
Identify and champion new tools, AI, technology, and ways of working to improve seller effectiveness, adoption, and productivity.