A commercial operations analyst is responsible for performing sales analysis in order to assess how well the company is doing in the commercial market so decisions can be made regarding the staff, sales practices and the purchasing of marketable goods. Commercial operations analysts are responsible for finding new markets and determining when it is appropriate to expand into these new markets.

Function

The commercial operations workers must assess whether or not the current sales strategies are sufficient for meeting company sales goals. When a company is not meeting sales goals, the commercial operations analysts must determine the root causes of this failure to meet sales goals. The director of commercial affairs provides leadership to a company. This director is responsible for building the staff in the commercial operations department by training new employees and assigning duties, according to Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Conditions

The work conditions for the commercial operations department mostly are a clean and comfortable office environment. Those in the commercial operations department sometimes have to travel to industrial production facilities to get a sense of how soon products will be available in order to plan sales operations. They also have to travel to meetings where they present sales forecasts and other reports to upper management. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these analysts tend to work 40 hours a week as of July 2010.

Skills

The educational requirement for a commercial operations analyst is usually a bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance or economics, according to People Click. An MBA is usually preferred, especially for management positions. Those in commercial operations must have good interpersonal skills, since they must work with various individuals in order to acquire sufficient information about the company’s commercial operations and must also work well as a team. The commercial operations analyst must have great problem-solving and analytical skills in order to assess problems with commercial operations. The commercial operations analyst must have thorough knowledge of the industry the company works in, and must also have a knowledge of sales force sizing and sales optimization.

Outlook

The need for management analysts such as commercial operations analysts is expected to grow by 13.5 percent through 2028, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This growth is driven by the desire of companies to stay on top of the sales processes their companies go through.

Earnings

In 2020, the median annual earnings for commercial operations analysts and other management analysts were $86,200. The highest 10 percent earned more than $144,330, while the lowest 10 percent earned less than $48,050.