Sales Executive

Hachette UK; London; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading publishing group seeks a Sales Executive for managing sales across several European countries. The position involves relationship building, customer support, and market awareness in a dynamic publishing environment. Join a team that values diversity and offers comprehensive benefits including generous leave and professional development opportunities.

Benefits

28 annual leave days per year

Generous pension schemes

Cycle to Work scheme

Wide-ranging training library

Development programmes (including mentoring)

Up to 70% off book purchases

Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays)

Qualifications

• Demonstrable sales experience.
• Good knowledge of the book market.
• Able to understand financial drivers of performance.

Responsibilities

• Develop relationships and present new titles regularly.
• Manage customer support, processing orders and handling queries.
• Maintain customer databases and co-ordinate sales material.

Skills

Strong organisational skills

Interpersonal and communication skills

Customer focused and proactive

Strong IT Skills

Tools

Excel

Word

PowerPoint

Outlook

Job description

Who we are and what we do

About Hachette UK

Hachette UK is a creative powerhouse and the UK's second largest book publishing group. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.

We're made up of 11autonomous publishing divisions and over 60 imprints with a rich and diverse history and an incredible range of authors. We're also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.

Our award-winning adult publishing divisions are Orion, which won Publisher of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards; Little, Brown; John Murray Press; Hodder & Stoughton; Headline; Quercus; Octopus, and Bookouture. They publish fiction and non-fiction in digital, audio and print format, from the world's best and most diverse authors, including Brit Bennett, Candice Carty-Williams, Martina Cole, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Stephen King, Stieg Larsson, Nelson Mandela, Stephenie Meyer, Maggie O'Farrell, Delia Owens, Ian Rankin, J.K. Rowling, Colson Whitehead, and Malala Yousafzai. Hachette Children's Group publishes a wide and vibrant range of books for children across all age ranges, while Hachette Learning is a market leader in resources for both primary and secondary schools.

Hachette UK is part ofHachette Livre, the world's third largest trade and educational publisher. As well as our headquarters in Carmelite House, London, and our state-of-the-art book distribution centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire, we have recently opened five new offices in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. The UK region also includes offices in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, the Caribbean, and Ireland.

It's an exciting time to join our business because the publishing market continues to grow and thrive. The UK remains the largest exporter of physical books in the world and book adaptations for film and TV are the foundation of the UK's creative industries.

What you'll be doing

You will report into the Head of Sales for Europe and will be responsible for sales into Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Gibraltar. You will need to develop relationships, as well as present and sell new titles on a regular basisin order to meet and exceed budgets.

You will be required to carry out regular reviews of sales to identify issues and opportunities and drive improved customer performance and profitability. You will also be responsible for planning and managing an efficient and appropriate level of travel within set budgets and efficiently using time both with customers and in the office; managing and planning book fairs, and other sales events. There will also be an element of sales support to the rest of the European team as and when required.

Day-to-day customer support, including:

• Processing all orders
• Dealing with general queries and information requests
• Processing credit claims and returns.
• Ensure accuracy of record keeping

Sales material and customer support:

• To co-ordinate all sales material for your accounts.
• To organise sales trips and carry out all follow-up activity.
• To update/maintain customer databases

Product and market knowledge:

• championing brand authors and focus break through titles
• attending regular meetings and sales conferences (including book fairs where relevant)
• reading advance information on material
• maintaining a relevant level of market and competitor awareness by active information seeking outside company (including regular visits to stores)
• Assist in the development of new routes to market

Who we are looking for

Skills/Knowledge/Personal Attributes:

• Strong organisational skills coupled with a keen eye for detail
• Good interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to build customer relationships
• An independent decision maker (within agreed parameters)
• Team player
• Strong IT Skills including Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, and strong attention to detail.
• Customer focused and proactive
• Flexible, adaptable and positive
• Able to understand financial drivers of performance, and to manipulate and analyse data to enhance sales and profitability

Experience:

• Good knowledge of the book market
• Demonstrable sales experience

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, includingGender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeingand religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

The role will be based at our London office, Carmelite House,with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Our commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visitwww.booktradeentrysupport.org