Demand Planner

In business terms, demand is the amount of product customers want. Because producing goods is a costly proposition, businesses like to have an idea of how many widgets they need to make. That’s where you come in. As a Demand Planner, you input a variety of components, and spit out an estimate of what the demand will be.

This type of planning is a huge boon for those in manufacturing and retail businesses. With an accurate forecast of future sales, planning teams can organize deliveries, production, inventory, and staffing hours.

This not only helps the company set goals, but also saves money. With the cost of running production facilities, maintaining employee pay and benefit packages, obtaining materials, and shipping and delivery, every product that is produced but not sold affects the bottom line.

These are all things that Demand Planners take into consideration when they put together a plan. In addition, Demand Planners consider the state of the economy, geographical effects on sales, seasonal merchandise, changing attitudes, sales trends, and special promotions.

The forecasts that you make are not just a stab in the dark. You gather information from a variety of sources and do a serious amount of number crunching. You use statistics, knowledge of the competition, and your understanding of the company’s procedures and costs to produce best- and worst-case scenarios for the upcoming marketing campaign, outdoor season, Christmas period, or sales quarter.