Key Account Manager - Children's

Can you help make some of the world’s biggest children’s brands even bigger? Are you excited about seeking out new opportunities in the dynamic UK market? If you’re driven, ambitious, and looking for your next role in sales, we might have the perfect opportunity for you.

The UK children’s trade team is excited to welcome a proactive, commercially aware individual to join us as a Key Account Manager. Reporting to the Head of Sales, this role involves implementing strategic sales initiatives and identifying new opportunities for some of the biggest retailers in the UK. You will work across the Puffin, Ladybird, and Penguin lists for Penguin Random House Children’s (PRHC), managing renowned names in children’s publishing including Tom Fletcher, Katie Kirby, and Bluey.

Your mission will be to manage key relationships with retailers, maximize turnover through skilled negotiation, and bring a market-focused perspective back to the business.

Relationships are central to this role. You will collaborate with publishing and communications colleagues within PRHC, as well as other UK account managers, to proactively drive sales opportunities and connect our customers with our authors, brands, and books.

What you will bring:

• Proven experience in a sales role or similar, with demonstrable customer relationships and accounts management experience, ideally within a creative environment. Direct experience working with supermarkets is advantageous but not essential.
• A track record of strong negotiation skills, which you’ll use to secure the best space for PRHC’s books at retail.
• Genuine interest and passion for children’s books and sales; you will be an advocate for the children’s division within the wider UK sales structure.
• The ability to persuade and communicate confidently. You’ll be working closely with a wide variety of stakeholders internally and externally, so this will drive success in this role.
• A knack for numbers, data, and analytics will add rigor to your conversations. You will regularly share market data with our publishing teams, so analytical ability is important.
• An eye for detail, with experience of working with a physical supply chain advantageous.
• Strong organization and time management skills, with the ability to work autonomously and use initiative.

If this role sounds like the next career step for you, we would love to welcome you to our team!

About Penguin:

We’re the UK’s largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you’ll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success. Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.

How to apply: Please apply with your CV & Cover Letter by 23:59 on Wednesday 2nd October

Salary: Up to £38,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits

Competitive benefits package: Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition.

Our benefits include:

• Financial – income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance
• Wellbeing - healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks
• Lifestyle – enhanced parental leave, tech scheme

For our full benefits list please visit: https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/what-we-offer/

Hybrid working:  While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you will come to our office in London 2 days a week.

The recruitment process: You can read about our recruitment process at https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/how-we-hire/

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we're part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't take all eligible candidates to interview.

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your request.

Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.

Company: The Random House Group Limited 

Country: United Kingdom 

State/Region: London 

City: London 

Postal Code: SW11 7BW 

Job ID: 273969