Demand & Sales Analyst - Japan

Entity:

Customers & Products

Job Family Group:

Sales Group

Job Description:

Job Purpose    

The role involves forecasting demand across all product items and developing short- and medium-term demand plans by product and packaging. A key responsibility is to ensure a stable supply of critical products to major customers through highly accurate demand forecasts, thereby contributing to the sales team’s top-line objectives.
Key responsibilities include:
•    Aligning sales targets set by the sales team with demand forecasts for each product.
•    Conducting gap analyses versus targets and developing proposals to close those gaps.
•    Facilitating consensus-building with market leaders and business units.
•    Incorporating the impact of sales promotions and campaigns into forecasts using advance information from the sales team, including market trends, bulk order planning, and large-scale shipments to customer networks.
•    Coordinating closely with regional sales managers and representatives to gather and integrate critical market and customer insights.
•    Acting as a liaison with the domestic supply chain team to support product transfer and distribution to relevant warehouses.
•    Sharing relevant information with the Japan and Korea S&OP Manager.
•    Evaluating the effectiveness of sales promotions, analyzing product distribution and penetration using secondary sales data by customer and market channel, and reviewing sales trends for each power brand as a sales team analyst.

Key Accountabilities    

1.    Participate in monthly sales meetings with sales managers, regional sales managers, and key account managers to review and discuss sales forecast progress. Adjust and align demand planning as needed based on these discussions.
2.    Analyze sell-in and sell-out data, including secondary sales information from wholesalers and distributors, to enhance forecast accuracy and support data-driven decision-making.
3.    Manage product lifecycle activities such as new product launches, revisions, discontinuations, transitions, and supersessions. Oversee order control on a periodic basis as required.
4.    Monitor daily product inventory levels, proactively identify potential stockouts or shortages, and communicate timely updates to the sales team. Provide shipment resumption information promptly in the event of backorders.
5.    Accept and process bulk customer orders based on pre-forecasted demand submitted to the Global Supply Chain (GSC). Coordinate delivery schedules with customers and ensure data is processed for execution by the Customer Service Unit (CSU).
6.    Analyze product sales trends by branch and customer, identify patterns and gaps, and propose timely countermeasures and recommendations based on gap analysis.
7.    Continuously track sales trends of major products and brands by sales channel and key customers. Conduct in-depth analysis of long-term sales and market trends, and report significant deviations or insights.

Education

• A degree level education, ideally with a business focus.
• Further formal education in business, finance and/or marketing would be advantageous.

Experience

• A minimum of 3+ years of sales or sales operation experience or comparable sales planning skills and talent, ideally in the consumer product area.
• Experience or expertise in sales planning, including demand forecasts for consumer goods products, is even more desirable.

Skills & Competencies

• Be a strategic thinker, combined with a bias for action and practical operational skills.
• Data base management skill
• Excellent business sense, with a strong understanding of a P&L and financial metrics.
• Excellent interpersonal, engagement and networking skills, and able to lead others in creative thinking.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, verbal and written.
• Highly PC skill (MS Access, Excel, PowerPoint, word, JDE/AS400, and other data management tools)
• Desirable to have conversational and written skills in English in addition to the local language.

Travel Requirement

No travel is expected with this role

Relocation Assistance:

This role is not eligible for relocation

Remote Type:

This position is a hybrid of office/remote working

Skills:

Channel Management, Customer promise execution, Customer Segmentation, Customer Service Design, Delivers an effortless customer experience, Demand Management, Digital Fluency, Internal alignment, Negotiating value, Offer and product knowledge, Operational pricing, Sales forecasting/demand planning, Sector, market, customer and competitor understanding, Using insights dashboards

Legal Disclaimer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity/neurocognitive functioning, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with an accessibility need may request an adjustment/accommodation related to bp’s recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an adjustment/accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us.

If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre-placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.