Associate Director Business Planning

Associate Director Business Planning

Location: HSR Layout, Bengaluru

Working Days: 6 Days, In Office

Key Responsibilities:

This role focuses on comprehensive revenue planning rather than cost planning, overseeing the entire conversion journey

Summary:

• Mapping out the lead-to-admission pipeline, from lead generation to sales qualification, initial sales interactions, walk-ins, and finally, admissions
• Strategically planning lead generation efforts and allocating the marketing budget based on conversion rates and channel-lead ROI
• Integrating marketing and sales budgets to optimize resource and capital deployment
• Developing and implementing course/product strategies and go-to-market (GTM) interventions
• Establishing sales excellence models and performance tracking systems
• Conducting root cause analysis (RCA) on planned vs. actual performance across channels, lead sources, and conversion rates (CVR) to identify and implement corrective actions
• Ensuring in-depth, detailed visibility of each stage in the funnel

Responsibilities

A. Revenue, Sales & Marketing Planning (70%)

1. Annual Operating Plan (AOP) & Monthly Business Planning

• Co-own the AOP process with the Business Head, Category Leads, Sales, Marketing, and Finance — from revenue target setting and funnel assumptions to final plan sign-off.

• Break annual targets into monthly, weekly, and channel-level plans; own the cascade of targets across all stakeholders and functions.

• Run structured Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs) — tracking plan vs. actuals, identifying gaps early, and aligning corrective action owners with clear timelines.

• Maintain a live monthly planning tracker across leads, conversions, revenue, and costs — updated and shared proactively.

2. Revenue Funnel Planning & Tracking

• Own end-to-end visibility of the lead-to-revenue funnel: lead generation → marketing qualified leads (MQLs) → sales qualified leads (SQLs) → trials/demos → conversions → renewals.

• Plan lead volumes, conversion rate benchmarks, and revenue outcomes by course, category, channel, and cohort — and hold each stage of the funnel accountable.

• Build and maintain dashboards to track funnel health in real time; surface early warning signals before they translate into a revenue miss.

3. Sales & Marketing Channel Strategy & Budget Planning

• Partner with marketing leads to build channel-wise lead budgets grounded in CPL, channel CVR, and ROI — ensuring spend is performance-linked, not just historical.

• Evaluate and recommend reallocation of marketing budgets across channels — scaling high-ROI sources, rationalizing underperformers.

• Work with Sales Head to build sales productivity models: revenue target per head, funnel throughput per rep, and team sizing vs. plan.

• Integrate marketing and sales budgets into a unified revenue plan — no siloed planning.

4. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) — Plan vs. Achievement

• Lead structured RCAs whenever revenue deviates from plan — dissecting by channel, lead source, category, funnel stage, cohort, and time period.

• Translate RCA findings into corrective actions with named owners, timelines, and success metrics — not just diagnosis, but recovery planning.

• Present RCA outputs to Sales Head, Marketing Leads, Category Leads, Academics Head, and Business Head — with solutions, not just slides.

• Maintain a living tracker of open RCA actions and their status across functions.

5. Course & Category-wise Revenue Strategy

• Partner with Category Leads and the Academics Head to build course-level revenue targets, pricing strategies, and GTM intervention plans.

• Track category performance: enrollments, revenue per student, dropout rates, renewal rates, and course-level contribution margins.

• Build business cases for new course launches or pricing changes, including market sizing, competitive benchmarking, and projected ROI.

6. Performance Reporting & Business Intelligence

• Own the performance reporting cadence — daily/weekly/monthly — with clear accountability mapped to each KPI.

• Build and manage dashboards across revenue, sales productivity, marketing efficiency, and funnel health.

• Prepare crisp, insight-driven decks for Business Head and senior leadership reviews — distilling complexity into decision-ready outputs.

B. Cost, Headcount & Investment Planning (30%)

7. Headcount Planning & Resource Budgeting

• Plan and track headcount requirements across sales, marketing, and operations — aligned to revenue targets and per-head productivity benchmarks.

• Collaborate with functional heads to build hiring plans, role-level budgets, and cost-per-hire models for the AOP cycle.

• Flag headcount risks proactively — over-hiring against a revenue shortfall, or under-hiring against an aggressive plan.

8. Marketing Spend Governance & Efficiency

• Own marketing budget tracking — planned vs. actual spend by channel, campaign, and period; update in real time.

• Monitor marketing efficiency ratios (CAC, CPL, ROAS, payback period) and call out inefficiencies with recommended actions.

• Flag budget overruns or reallocation opportunities in real time — do not wait for month-end reviews.

9. Course-wise P&L Tracking

• Maintain course-level P&L visibility — revenue, direct variable costs, contribution margins, and profitability trends by cohort.

• Identify underperforming courses or categories early; propose strategic or operational interventions to course heads and BH.

• Ensure P&L data is granular, trusted, and decision-ready — not a backward-looking report, but a forward-looking signal.

10. New Investment Evaluation & ROI Tracking

• Evaluate business cases for new investments — course launches, technology tools, marketing experiments, and team expansions.

• Build financial models and ROI frameworks to support go/no-go decisions; set clear return expectations and payback timelines.

• Track post-investment outcomes vs. projections; close the loop with stakeholders and inform future investment decisions.

11. Risk Identification, Call-outs & Contingency Planning

• Proactively identify financial and operational risks across revenue and cost — and present solutions alongside the flag, not separately.

• Develop contingency plans for high-probability scenarios: demand softness, channel saturation, CAC inflation, cost overruns.

• Maintain a live risk register with impact assessments, probability ratings, and mitigation owners — reviewed at every MBR.

Qualifications

● Bachelor & Master degree from tier 1 college

● 2+ years of experience in revenue planning, growth planning , conversion/sales strategy business planning, financial analysis, or strategic planning roles.

● Strong financial modeling and data analysis skills, with experience in using advanced analytics tools and software.

● Proven track record in developing and executing business plans in a corporate environment.

● Excellent communication and presentation skills with experience presenting to senior leadership.

● Strong project management skills, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple initiatives.

● Strategic thinker with excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.