Sales Finance Business Partner

Purpose of Role

The finance Sales Business Partner (BP) leverages efficient digital tools to partner with Sales and Strategic Revenue Management teams in driving profitable customer growth in line with a 3-year strategy. The BP works closely across the Market organization, and other key finance and non-finance stakeholders outside the Market, to steer value creation across our brand and customer portfolio.

The Sales BP is part of a pool of finance partners shared across brands and events to impact positively the business performance on the areas where the highest value is created, and is measuring this performance as per KPIs that are relevant to the Market’s accountability and Management P&L.

The Sales BP is guided by a “North Star”:

• being a catalyst for change by bringing the outside in and, the financial perspective, and framing the issue,
• being a strategic investor by providing holistic and innovative insights, displaying forward looking and long-term analyses, and anchoring an ROI mindset in the organization, and
• being modern to the times by empowering uses with digital tools, working cross functions, and visualizing data & story telling in an engaging way.

Principal Accountabilities

• Partner with Sales to develop Customer and Channel strategies. Transform these strategies into integrated value creation plans. Identify levers and priority initiatives to deliver value creation goals
• Provide insights into financial performance, proactively identify and analyze business issues and opportunities and drive actions to meet financial commitments. 
• Communicate risks and opportunities against delivery of plan and propose corrective actions. 
• Bring perspective by analyzing trends, performance indicators and connect Customer/Channel performance with overall business performance.
• Serve as trusted advisor to the Channel Sales VP and partner with VP and Channel Leadership Team to deliver Channel business objectives including, growth, profitability, value creation and share.
• Lead the Periodic Trade reviews to evaluate risks and opportunities, drive trade-off decisions and ensure Channel Trade Strategy supports overall business objectives.
• In collaboration with Sales Revenue Management (SRM) and Sales teams develop annual Channel and Customer financial plans and key activities to execute these plans.
• Proactively analyze and manage Customer P&L with close attention to MAC to deliver optimal sales and profit. 
• Champion ROI/MAC mindset across all account teams. This Includes developing best practices, training, and application of tools.
• Actively participate in trade-off conversations and ensure robust financial evaluation of all major decisions, including Trade, Shopper, Display & Equipment, Customization.
• Ensure strong financial controls are embedded across Sales operations.
• Drive digital agenda, Improvement of analytical tools and simplification of processes.
• Support ad-hoc requests and projects

Key Supporting Competencies:

• Financial acumen
• Optimized work processes
• Collaborates
• Ensures Accountability
• Communicates Effectively
• Strategic mindset
• Decision quality
• Business insights
• Cultivates innovation
• Manages conflict
• Drives engagement
• Customer focus
• Plans and aligns

Functional Competencies/Knowledge

• Strong analytical capabilities and in-depth understanding of business/financial interrelationships between sales strategies, pricing, volumes, and cost structure.  Understanding of internal financial measures of cash flow and profitability management.
• Cost Accounting and Budget Management - understanding of Mars, Incorporated internal cost structures and practices. Understand the relationship between different costs and cost drivers.  Ability to drive cross-functional teams to deliver cost reduction programs.
• Analysis and Evaluation of Business Activities - Advanced expertise in the areas of Competitor Analysis and Benchmarking, Trend Analysis/Modeling and Evaluation, and Scorecards / Metrics.
• Statutory Accounting - The knowledge and application of Mars, Incorporated Accounting Policies and Principles, U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, applicable local government regulations, and Mars, Incorporated transaction processing systems to meet business reporting requirements to provide timely and accurate reporting of financial results.
• Financial Control - The knowledge and application of business processes, internal control concepts and practices, and auditing techniques to ensure cost effective protection of business assets and approval of business activities at the appropriate level in the organization.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in finance or related field
• 5 years (T2 BP) or of diversified financial management experience, including forecasting and planning.
• Experience in functional areas other than finance or relevant business experience.
• Demonstrated analytical and insights capabilities

#LI-Hybrid

Mars is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.