Job Description: Manager – Sales Planning
Location: Gurugram (Head Office)
Function: Sales Planning
Experience: 6–8 Years
Role Purpose
To drive robust production planning and car flow optimization, ensuring seamless alignment between plant output, dealer inventory, and retail demand. The role will also anchor regional performance tracking, improve WS (Wholesale) & RS (Retail Sales) efficiency, and enable data-driven decision-making across the sales network.
Key Responsibilities
1. Production Planning & Distribution
- Lead monthly and quarterly production planning in alignment with demand forecasts and sales targets
- Ensure optimal model-wise and variant-wise allocation across regions
- Monitor and control pipeline inventory, ensuring healthy stock norms at plant, transit, and dealer levels
- Drive proactive car flow management to minimize bottlenecks and improve turnaround time
2. Car Flow & Inventory Optimization
- Manage end-to-end vehicle flow from plant to dealer network
- Ensure balanced inventory across regions and dealerships to avoid stock-outs / overstocking
- Identify and resolve supply-demand mismatches through data-backed interventions
- Track ageing inventory and recommend liquidation strategies
3. Regional Performance Management
- Prepare and own weekly/monthly regional performance decks for leadership reviews
- Analyze WS vs RS trends, gaps and improvement opportunities
- Drive actionable insights on region-wise performance variance
- Support RSMs with structured inputs to improve conversion efficiency
4. Field Coordination & Efficiency Improvement
- Act as a central interface between HO and field sales teams
- Collaborate with regions to improve retail throughput and dealer productivity
- Ensure timely communication of allocation plans, dispatch schedules, and stock corrections
- Drive initiatives to improve WS billing discipline and retail alignment
5. Data, Analytics & Reporting
- Build and maintain advanced Excel dashboards for planning, tracking, and reporting
- Create high-impact PowerPoint presentations for leadership reviews
- Provide data-backed insights for faster and sharper decision-making
- Leverage analytics to improve forecast accuracy and planning efficiency
Functional Competencies
- Strong understanding of automotive sales planning & distribution dynamics
- Expertise in production planning, allocation logic, and inventory management
- High proficiency in Excel (advanced functions, dashboards, automation)
- Excellent PowerPoint and storytelling skills
Behavioural Competencies
- Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment
- High ownership and execution focus
- Strong stakeholder management (Plant, RSMs, Dealers, Leadership)
Preferred Skills (Add-on)
- Exposure to AI tools / data automation (forecasting, reporting efficiency, dashboards)
- Experience in digital tools for planning or supply chain visibility
- Auto Industry Enthusiast
Education
- MBA / PGDM (Preferred) + Graduate in Engineering / Commerce
Success Metrics
- Improved WS–RS alignment (%)
- Reduction in inventory imbalance / ageing stock
- Improvement in forecast accuracy
- Enhanced regional throughput and retail conversion efficiency
Skills Required
- 6-8 years relevant experience in sales planning or distribution
- Graduate in Engineering or Commerce
- MBA / PGDM
- Strong understanding of automotive sales planning and distribution dynamics
- Experience in production planning, allocation logic, and inventory management
- High proficiency in Excel (advanced functions, dashboards, automation)
- Excellent PowerPoint and storytelling/presentation skills
- Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset
- Stakeholder management experience (Plant, RSMs, Dealers, Leadership)
- Exposure to AI tools or data automation for forecasting and reporting
- Experience with digital planning or supply chain visibility tools
- Interest or experience in the automotive industry
What We Do
Nissan is a global automotive manufacturer that designs, produces, and sells a wide range of vehicles, including cars, trucks, and SUVs, and is a key member of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.
