Success is usually achieved with teamwork. An African proverb puts this best: “If you want to run fast, run alone. If You want to run far, run together.”
This also applies to the Supply Chain and the demand planning process. Achieving an effective demand planning process involves getting different parts of the organization together. As a result, this calls into question the disbursement of roles and responsibilities.
We’ve discussed the role of a demand planner in creating and maintaining an accurate plan. However, there are other actors such as sales / commercial managers – among others – who come into action as well. This includes understanding customer demand, sales forecasting and other strategic planning decisions.
It’s understandable that sales / commercial managers play a crucial role in setting the stage for the demand. This is because demand planning is a bridging function between commerce and supply chain. But, what is the exact role of sales/commercial managers and where do they step in?
Sales / Commercial Managers’ Responsibilities in the Demand Plan
Sales managers are the ones feeding the funnel for business so they should validate the demand plan during a demand review meeting. This should occur within the sales and operations planning or integrated business planning (IBP) cycle.
Sales managers are responsible for the final number that will serve as a base point for relevant supply response. Moreover, they’re the ones who need to meet key targets to ensure the on-going success of the business.
They need to offer informed decisions on meeting customer demand. They are also important stakeholders that must execute business strategy. These sales goals could include the acquisition of potential customers to align with business growth goals.
Gain Buy-in From Your Sales Managers
To gain buy-in from sales/commercial managers in your organization, you should make sure the following are implemented:
- Process: There should be an agreed upon approach to meet your business requirements. This sets the stage for sales to agree to the demand plan process.
- Technology: You’re working with complex business structures. Leveraging technology where possible can streamline processes and enable your employees to do the job required of them.
- Organization: Establishing an organizational framework that aligns with the process, tools, and strategy while also fostering accountability for measuring success.
- Forecasting: Sales should provide input on items of high importance and variability but shouldn’t be tasked with statistical techniques. Forecast accuracy is not within their remit.
All For One to Ensure Success
By clearly defining where sales/commercial managers come into play when developing a demand plan, you can ensure the success of the approach.
Having these sales-oriented roles keeping an eye on the demand plan, you anticipate possible risk. Thus, you are able to mitigate it or even take it out of daily operating decisions. In the end, demand planning is all about forecasting your customer demand for your product or service while minimizing excess inventory and stock-outs. Having different teams on-board helps to ensure the success of your business. After all, you are ultimately working towards the same goal — effective customer service and the foundation of an adaptive and agile supply chain.
Want to know more about Demand Planning? Check out other valuable resources:
- What is Demand Planning?
- The Demand Planning cycle
- Why is Demand Planning important?
- Roles and Responsibilities of Demand Planning
- Demand Planning Key Features
- What is a Collaboration and Demand Review?
- Responsibilities of a Demand Planner
- QAD Announces the Next Release of Digital Supply Chain Planning (DSCP)
- Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in New Era of Predictive Analytics, Demand
- Planning, Business Forecasting
- Extending Sales and Operations Planning Throughout the Supply Chain
