What is a Business Planning Role?
You will be responsible for your business’s growth and development over a long period of time. This means you will be working closely with the sales team who sell the products the company provide. You will also be implementing the best opportunities for the business to grow and plan around marketing strategy.
Increasing sales, revenue and profit for a line of products is the most important part of the job. As well as this, it is important to plan ahead and analyse the market you are working in. Getting ahead of the competition and predicting where the market is going has big opportunities to bring in new customers. You will be looking for opportunities to sell more products, selling at a higher margin or introducing new products to existing customers. You will also analyse prospective customers so you can reach them with specific products that competitors or rival companies have not yet identified.
Routes into a Business Planning role:
- Any business focussed studies or qualifications can help including; A-Level or BTEC Business.
- High-level / higher-level apprenticeship
- Applying directly
- University degree
- Training with a professional body such as MDS
Skills and Knowledge
Within business planning roles, the skills you will need can be broken down into soft and hard skills. Soft skills are more transferable skills, whereas hard skills focus more on technical ability. There are many kinds of soft and hard skills but we will break down the most common ones.
Soft Business Planning Skills
- Coordination
- Planning
- Communication
- Teamwork
Hard Business Planning Skills
- Data Analytics
- Leadership
- Quality control/assurance
- Customer Service
- Strategic planning
- Some roles will require knowledge of sector-specific software
What will the Person Do?
With there being so many different sectors of marketing, no two employees will have the same day-to-day tasks and responsibilities.
A marketing employee will plan and coordinate marketing activities, look at consumer trends to develop a marketing plan and perform tasks required to meet the marketing objectives. A marketing manager can identify new customers and nurture existing relationships, develop campaigns and then track the analytics afterwards.
In the food industry, you will have to gather an understanding of buying behaviour and identify possible promotional opportunities.
Career Path and Progression
There are a lot of career prospects for Business Planners and you can be employed across a variety of areas. These include but are not limited to:
- Planner
- Supply Chain Manager
- Material Planner
- Production Manager
