Your Opportunity as the Manager, Sales Strategy & Planning

The Manager, Sales Strategy & Planning owns the customer planning story, performance enablement, and cross-functional alignment for assigned customers or channel. This role serves as a strategic business partner to Sales, helping to identify and activate SBA opportunities into customer-specific actions, recommendations and decision-ready planning deliverables.  The position is responsible for enabling high-quality customer plans, capturing customer forecast assumptions, enabling consensus discussions, business reviews, and growth recommendations through strong process leadership and cross-functional influence.

Location: JM SmuckerCorporate Offices in Orrville, Ohio

Work Arrangements: Hybrid - onsite during core weeks as determined by the Company (estimated up to 9 days a month); adjusted as the need requires. Intermittent business travel may be required.

In this role you will:

Customer Strategy Planning

• Own the internal customer planning story for assigned customers or channels, including performance, risks, opportunities, actions, and follow-through.
• Support annual planning, Joint Business Planning (JBP), customer business reviews, customer planning cycles, and strategic growth initiatives.
• Translate SBA priorities into customer-specific actions, recommendations, and planning assumptions that connect account-level decisions to the broader SBA, channel, or business plan.
• Facilitate prioritization discussions and planning trade-offs in partnership with Sales and cross-functional stakeholders.

Business Performance Management

• Use data to explain performance, identify risks and opportunities and recommend action for assigned customers or customer portfolios.
• Support gap-solving and prepare clear updates or recommendations for planning, consensus, Stage Gate, resets, and customer decisions.
• Develop data-driven recommendations that support customer outcomes and enterprise objectives.
• Track customer scorecards, risks, opportunities, innovation performance, promotion results, and progress against plans.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Engage with partners across Sales, Brand Marketing, Category Analytics, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, Supply Chain, Marketing Operations, and other functions to solve customer or plan issues.
• Facilitate planning discussions to ensure key stakeholder alignment across customer priorities, investments, execution plans, and key decisions.
• Drive accountability for planning actions, open issues, and business commitments.
• Ensure customer planning deliverables are clear, decision-ready, and connected to business priorities.

Decision Support & Influence

• Frame alternatives, trade-offs, implications, and recommendations to enable better customer planning and Sales decisions.
• Help stakeholders navigate ambiguity, competing priorities, and changing business conditions.
• Support forecasting and planning processes by validating assumptions and escalating issues to the appropriate decision owner.
• Apply standard planning governance while adjusting recommendations to meet customer-specific needs.

Contributing to Organizational Growth & Culture

• Coach Associate Managers and project team members as appropriate.
• Share planning best practices and customer-specific learnings across the organization.
• Model planning discipline, commercial judgment, collaboration, and an ownership mindset.
• Respect all individuals, support efforts for diversity and inclusion, and recognize value in embracing divergent styles.

What we are looking for:

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree
• 5 years of experience in Commercial Planning, Sales Planning, Category Management, Customer Strategy, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, Marketing, or related business functions
• Experience in the Convenience Channel both direct and utilizing distributors
• Experience leading cross-functional business initiatives and customer planning activities
• Experience supporting business performance management, planning processes, and decision support
• Strong commercial acumen, analytical capability, communication skills, and stakeholder management skills

Additional skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role:

• Sales account ownership
• Consumer Packaged Goods experience
• Experience leading customer planning, JBP development, business reviews, forecasting inputs, or performance management
• Ability to synthesize complex information and develop actionable recommendations
• Experience influencing cross-functional partners and navigating ambiguity
• Experience with business intelligence, retailer, syndicated, or internal reporting tools

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