Act as a cross-functional business partner to the sales team through the following:
Analyze monthly variances to estimate, plan and prior year for sales and trade spending
Drive new Sales Finance transformation of developing/managing customer level Cost-to-Serve & P&Ls to produce margin enhancing results
Provide insightful reporting for volume, sales and trade spending and distribute across field sales teams and to internal sales teams (trade marketing and customer business planning)
Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the business drivers of volume, gross sales, trade spending, net sales for the sales customer teams
Work with customer business planning to perform post promotional analysis of trade spending events by analyzing ROI and incremental lift associated with the promotion
Assist in the preparation of plan models for selling expense.
Support customer business planning and sales leads in analysis and preparation of customer business plans and impact to Corp P&L
Assist in developing management reports through functional knowledge of the following systems: Business Objects, Essbase and APO trade system
Prepare ad-hoc reports and potential assignment to special projects/teams to assist management in evaluating key opportunities for the company
Support the development of the monthly estimates and quarterly forecasts providing specific, actionable and forward-looking commentary on the various changes as well as guidance on potential risk and opportunity (R&O) items
Play an active role the customer business reviews and contribute to the financial discussions
Support the development of the annual operating plan and customer planning
Provide formal/informal training on financial concepts and systems. Share technical and process advice to the sales team
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Accounting or related field required with 5-7 years of work experience in financial analysis, preferably in consumer packaged goods industry
Fundamental understanding of generally accepted accounting principles
Ability to analyze and assimilate relevant data into key financial recommendations
Ability to deal with ambiguity, change and a dynamic business environment
History of a positive attitude; proactive and driven with intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn
Ability to build strong cross-functional relationships
Very strong interpersonal, written and oral communication skills
Excellent analytical and financial problem-solving skills
Exceptional PC skills required with proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
IRI, Nielsen and/or SPINS experience preferred
Working knowledge of JD Edwards, Hyperion Essbase, Business Objects, and Prism preferred
