Are you passionate about books and reaching new readers? Can you take big brand names like James Patterson, Soho House and Bored of Lunch to even greater heights? How about taking gems in our catalogue and finding new places to sell them? The Key Account Manager has responsibility for managing relationships across a selection of key accounts and for seeking new business opportunities, potential contract publishing, and partnerships with the likes of Aesop and Royal Shakespeare Company for the Adult Publishing Houses. In this role, you will manage sales to a diverse range of customers, expanding our reach beyond traditional book retail. This is a unique opportunity to be creative, work with iconic brands, and contribute to the success of our books through collaboration with PR, Marketing, Design, Production, and Editorial teams.
Key responsibilities:
- Collaborate closely with your line manager and the wider team to achieve team sales targets
- Manage your own accounts, building strong relationships, securing repeat business, and communicating effectively with clients
- Lead your own projects and customer meetings with confidence
- Handle requests from various teams across the division
- Provide feedback to editorial and marketing teams on book suitability and performance
- Coordinate with Production and Inventory Management on costings, print runs and deliveries
- Work with Editorial, Design and Sales to gather materials to create bespoke presentations and pitches
- Perform daily administrative tasks, including processing Purchase Orders, using industry-specific software, maintaining spreadsheets and databases, cost and invoice chasing, reporting, clearing permissions and royalties for relevant customers, and processing orders with meticulous attention to detail
What you’ll bring
Essential criteria:
- Solid commercial background in sales or buying. Experience in publishing is ideal.
- A highly motivated and enthusiastic attitude, with confidence in your abilities
- Comfort in a Sales environment and the ability to lead customer meetings
- Strong presentation and communication skills, both verbal and written
- The ability to quickly build relationships with colleagues and clients
- A passion for our books and the ability to inspire enthusiasm in others
- A can-do attitude with a willingness to learn and adapt
- Proficiency in using multiple in-house systems and overall computer literacy
- Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail
- The ability to prioritise and respond swiftly to briefs and customer requests
- A collaborative spirit, happy to support team members
- An interest in Sales, the book market and the publishing industry
