Sales Planning - Project Delivery SME

Overview To act as the senior domain authority for Sales Planning across the engagement — owning the “how it should work” for quota setting, territory/module design and hierarchy management, guiding the analyst squads, and safeguarding accuracy, timeliness and governance across the annual planning cycle and in-year changes. Responsibilities Quota management — own the end-to-end quota-setting and allocation process: translate finance/budget targets to account and seller level, run zero-sum and over-assignment logic, and issue target letters accurately and on time. Territory & module design — design, assign and rebalance territories/modules using opportunity, capacity and coverage inputs; protect seller continuity while improving balance and fairness. Hierarchy management — maintain the sales hierarchy (account-to-seller alignment, overlays, parent rollups) through joiners, leavers and reorganisations, keeping downstream systems consistent. Capacity & coverage modelling — analyse coverage, white space and account load vs capacity to inform planning decisions with data rather than intuition. In-year adjustments — govern mid-year quota modulations, relief requests and re-alignments through a disciplined, auditable change process. Planning cycle governance — run the planning calendar to plan; drive on-time quota finalisation and reduce post-lock change volume. Issue & ticket resolution — resolve escalated planning queries (missing sales, alignment, hierarchy) and drive down recurring demand through root-cause and prevention. Reporting & insight — produce attainment, coverage and forecast-to-actual reporting; ensure reporting accuracy, not just timeliness. SME guidance & knowledge — coach and unblock the analyst squads, author and maintain SOPs/runbooks and the exception library, and lead knowledge transfer during transition. Requirements 8–12 years in Sales Planning, Sales Operations or Sales Performance Management (SPM), with deep hands-on quota and territory expertise. Strong command of quota-setting methodologies, territory/module design, hierarchy management and capacity/coverage modelling. Hands-on familiarity with SPM / planning tooling (e.g., Varicent, Anaplan, Xactly, SAP, or equivalent) and territory-optimisation tools. Advanced data skills — Excel to an expert level; comfort with large datasets, reconciliation and BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI). Proven ability to standardise fragmented, manual processes into governed, repeatable operating procedures. Strong stakeholder management — able to work with Finance, Sales leadership and cross-functional partners, and to represent the function credibly to the client. Excellent analytical, documentation and communication skills; comfortable being the escalation point for complex planning questions.