Key Account Manager

Are you passionate about books and reaching new readers?

Can you take big brand names like Mary Berry, James Patterson and Richard Osman to even greater heights? How about taking gems in our catalogue and finding new places to sell them?

Our Adult Non Trade Sales team are hiring for a Key Account Manager. With our bold and ambitious plans, this is an exciting time to join the team and contribute your energy and vision to our group performance.

Our Non-Trade Sales team are responsible for selling titles from across all of our 7 Adult Publishing Houses and cover value retailers like The Works, ALDI and B&M to high street retailers like TK Maxx and Urban Outfitters.

You’ll use your creativity and enthusiasm to take on the challenge of growing sales across the sector. Your focus will be on building strong customer relationships and growing revenue by pitching product that is tailored to their needs. You will have an interest in and clear understanding of the importance of Non-Traditional sales channels and be able to develop a strategy to drive sales.

Key responsibilities:

• Act as the first point of contact for each Key Account, develop and maintain strong relationships with a wide variety of contacts.
• Maintain an in-depth understanding of each account. Selecting appropriate books from our extensive frontllist and catalogue that are suitable for specific customers, and suggesting opportunities to amend, refresh or create custom product to maximise sales 
• Working closely with colleagues across the business and maintaining excellent relationships and processes e.g. Production, IM, Finance, Editorial, Business Managers, trade sales teams
• Championing Penguin Random House, forging new links, generating leads and contacts and raising our profile within the Non-Traditional / Promotional retail space
• Prioritise and present key titles to customers on a monthly and quarterly basis or when appropriate
• Negotiating unit costs, customer discounts, author royalties and contracts in line with Group policy
• Continually review opportunities specific to key seasonal moments and current market trends
• Work closely with publishing houses on key author/title opportunities and targets

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria:

• Solid commercial background in sales or retail
• Proven experience managing customer relationships and accounts, ideally within a retail or publishing environment.
• Strong presentation skills. The ability to influence.
• Commercial acumen and sales analysis skills  
• An attention to detail

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on Monday 28th April.  

Please ensure you include a cover letter, as it is a crucial part of our assessment process. The cover letter offers an opportunity to show how your experience and interests align with the role requirements. Typically, we expect the cover letter to be no more than one or two pages in length.

Salary

Up to £36,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

What you can expect from us

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, free and discounted books

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 work from our office in London three days per week.

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.

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 offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the ‘What you’ll bring’ section. There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot 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: Penguin Books Limited 

Country: United Kingdom 

State/Region: London 

City: London 

Postal Code: SW11 7BW 

Job ID: 279377