Sales Strategy & Planning, Senior Channel Manager

Sales Strategy & Planning, Senior Channel Manager

The Sales Strategy & Planning, Senior Channel Manager is responsible for developing and executing the commercial growth strategy across channels and customers to drive sustainable revenue, market share, and profit growth. This role serves as a strategic partner to Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, and Executive Leadership by translating company objectives into actionable channel and customer growth plans.

This position leads the development of go-to-market strategies by channel and customer, identifying opportunities to optimize Distribution, Pricing, Shelving, and Merchandising while maximizing revenue, margin, and customer retention. The role owns key elements of Strategic Revenue Management (SRM), annual operating plans, customer growth strategies, profit optimization initiatives, forecasting assumptions, and commercial planning processes.

Through a deep understanding of consumer behavior, retailer dynamics, category trends, competitive activity, and financial drivers, this individual develops data-driven recommendations that accelerate growth while improving profitability and strengthening strategic customer partnerships.

The role is a critical link between long-term business strategy, annual planning, portfolio management, pricing strategy, trade investment optimization, and commercial execution.

Primary Duties:

• Partner with Sales and Brand leadership to develop comprehensive channel and customer growth strategies that drive sustainable revenue, profit, market share, and customer retention.
• Own strategic roadmaps and long-range commercial growth plans for assigned channels and customers.
• Develop and execute go-to-market strategies by channel and customer, aligning commercial priorities with company growth objectives.
• Identify whitespace opportunities across assortment, distribution, innovation, merchandising, and customer expansion initiatives.
• Develop customer-specific recommendations that improve distribution, assortment productivity, shelf productivity, and merchandising effectiveness.
• Establish measurable objectives, success criteria, and performance indicators to evaluate execution against strategic plans.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to customer teams, influencing decisions that strengthen retailer partnerships and create competitive advantage.

Strategic Revenue Management, Pricing, and Profit Optimization:

• Lead Strategic Revenue Management (SRM) initiatives across pricing, trade investment, promotions, assortment optimization, mix management, and price-pack architecture.
• Evaluate market conditions, retailer dynamics, and consumer behavior to develop strategies that improve profitability through optimization of price, volume, mix, and cost levers.
• Identify and execute gross margin expansion opportunities through pricing actions, gross-to-net optimization, promotional effectiveness, and product mix improvements.
• Partner with Finance and Supply Chain to assess cost changes and recommend strategic actions to protect profitability.
• Lead evaluation and optimization of customer investments including promotions, off-shelf programs, rebates, fixed fees, and trade spending.
• Develop financial business cases and recommendations supporting key commercial decisions and customer negotiations.
• Guide strategies for managing aging, excess, and obsolete inventory while maximizing financial recovery.

Commercial Planning, Forecasting, and Integrated Business Planning:

• Partner with Sales, Finance, Marketing, and Supply Chain teams to support Integrated Business Planning, S&OP, and forecasting processes.
• Develop and refine demand assumptions for innovation, promotional activity, distribution changes, and customer growth initiatives.
• Build data-driven forecasts using POS, syndicated, shipment, customer, and market data.
• Identify risks and opportunities to forecast, budget, and operating plans while developing actions to improve business performance.
• Drive alignment between commercial objectives, operational capabilities, and financial commitments.

Category Insights, Analytics, and Business Performance Management:

• Leverage category management principles, consumer insights, shopper behavior, syndicated data, market intelligence, and retailer trends to develop actionable growth recommendations.
• Analyze business performance across revenue, profit, distribution, velocity, market share, assortment productivity, promotional effectiveness, and trade investment returns.
• Monitor competitive activity, pricing dynamics, category trends, and emerging opportunities to inform strategic decision-making.
• Translate complex data and analyses into compelling, actionable recommendations for sales teams, customers, and executive leadership.
• Drive development of reporting, analytics, tools, dashboards, and processes that improve organizational decision-making and commercial effectiveness.

Core Competencies:

• Analysis
• Communicative
• Strategic Thinking
• Commercially Focused
• Profit Minded
• Leadership
• Insight
• Problem Solving
• Reasoning
• Collaborative
• Creative

Qualifications Required:

Education/Experience:

• 5+ yrs experience in a related role with experience working on brand and sales activities.
• Category management exposure and understanding of retail levers, motivations and needs.
• BS/BA business related degree
• Experience in consumer-packaged goods (CPG) and/or retail industries.
• Exposure working in TPM systems preferred

Specific Skills:

• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with a proven track record of delivering against multiple priorities and multiple product lines in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• Strong business account and customer relationship management skills. Demonstrated ability to work closely with internal customers, across all levels including executives
• Demonstrated ability to anticipate business partner needs and proactively develop and discuss potential solutions
• Ability to move easily between big picture thinking and managing relevant detail
• Strong financial & commercial acumen
• Utilize strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills to develop channel, pricing and promotional strategy.
• Identifies data requirements, often beyond the standard, and collects all relevant data needed to analyze a complex problem, situation, or issue.
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of a broader set of business economics, intelligence, and analytical techniques.
• Demonstrates comprehensive, depth and breadth of retailer and consumer growth levers.
• Understands and can anticipate the implications/impact of market conditions as well as retailer, competitive & consumer response to inform strategies.
• Experience assessing and optimizing trade funds including fixed fees & promotions.
• Reviews and synthesizes analysis into succinct recommendation for senior management and sales organization.

Company Values:

• Have fun, be passionate and show it!
• Act with integrity and respect in all relationships.
• Communicate openly and appreciate the effort of others.
• Embrace knowledge, growth and change.
• Strive for excellence in what we do every day!