Sales Assistant, UK Special Interest Sales
The opportunity
We are looking for an enthusiastic, well organised and confident communicator with excellent time-management skills and attention to detail to work within our fast-moving UK Sales department.
Sales Assistants perform a key support role within the wider UK Sales team working across all Bloomsbury Consumer and Special Interest titles. The role will include assisting on the day-to-day administration and operations of the team and our customers. This particular appointment will support the Special Interest sales team and UK Area Sales Managers.
This is a superb opportunity to join a high performing UK Sales team of an award winning top 5 UK publisher. Based in our Bedford Square office this will be a hybrid-working position and will report to the UK Head of Special Interest Sales.
The role
Key responsibilities include:
1. General support for the Special Interest Sales Team and Area Sales Managers.
2. Processing customer, author and event orders and standing orders each month.
3. Liaising with distributor and other suppliers to ensure customer satisfaction, following up on delayed deliveries, shortages or other customer queries.
4. Arrange invoicing and direct deliveries for custom publishing projects and regular orders and ensuring deliveries meet customers’ expectations.
5. Ordering and managing the sending out of book and game samples, proofs, spinners, display racks, catalogues and other promotional material.
6. Checking cover proofs and templates for Herbert Press, Caravel, Osprey books, and Osprey games.
7. Managing stock levels for key selling titles to anticipate stock requirements for key customers.
8. Ordering of stock for office use, conferences, fairs, or other events.
9. Utilising internal and external systems to generate sales reports, including setting up and circulating daily, weekly and monthly sales trackers as well as ad hoc sales figures requests.
10. Updating internal systems, including Biblio, Sales Force and Adestra to ensure information, including customer contact details, is correct, up to date and compliant with GDPR regulations.
11. Creating and circulating order forms, promotional sales sheets, monthly newsletters and updating mailing lists for various SI lists.
12. Providing admin support to the Special Interest Sales Director, Head of Special Interest Sales, and Bloomsbury Sales team, including Area Sales Managers, when required, and running reports for publishers and M&P departments.
13. Compiling both print and electronic versions of the AI packs and any other sales material required by Area Sales Managers, agents or in-house sales staff.
14. Producing promotional sales sheets for use by Area Sales Managers and other Sales staff using Adobe software.
15. Preparing and circulating materials and presentations, managing meeting invites and booking meeting rooms for the quarterly Sales Conferences and other sales meetings.
16. Coordinating dates for sales meetings and arranging accommodation and travel for Area Sales Managers.
17. Monitoring events schedule set up by publicity and placing stock orders, as well as following up to ensure stock is received on time.
18. Absence cover for colleagues as required e.g. holidays/Flexi Fridays.
19. Looking after a selected number of customers.
20. General ad hoc admin and wider UK sales Tasks.
21. Flexibility of hours might be needed for occasional out of hours work when travel and attendance of events such as fairs is needed.
Knowledge, skills and experience
22. Excellent communicator who is confident with dealing with people at all levels, particularly on the phone and over email/video
23. Excellent attention to detail and focused on efficiency at all times
24. Excellent time-management, prioritisation and organisational skills, with a close eye for detail and keen awareness of deadlines
25. Experience of multi-tasking and prioritising a busy work-load with competing demands on your time
26. Ability to adapt to changing daily tasks
27. Strong numerical skills, excellent written and verbal communication skills
28. Strong IT skills, particularly Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Teams
29. Proficient with systems such as Biblio, Nielsen, Cognos and Vista would be helpful
30. Experience in publishing or book trade environment helpful
Additional information
The role is a full-time permanent position
Salary Pay Point: £27,000
The role is based at our London office 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP on a hybrid-working pattern of 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred) with occasional visits to the Oxford office depending on schedule. Allocated office days for this role are: Monday & Tuesday
As an Assistant role, this position is eligible for Bloomsbury’s Rental Deposit Loan Scheme. To assist candidates who want to start and to establish a career in publishing, Bloomsbury offers an interest-free rental deposit to support securing somewhere to live. The rental deposit loan can be up to £3,000 and will be paid back over 2 years.
For best results, please use a desktop to apply as some mobile browsers may not fully support the application portal.
Bloomsbury reserve the right to close the role early if we exceed the required number of applications
Bloomsbury Benefits
As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package:
Working Pattern
31. Hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)
Holidays
32. 25 days holiday
33. 3.5 days Christmas company holiday
Other Benefits
34. Two paid Personal Wellness Days
35. Flexible Fridays – take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 30 minutes earlier in the week
36. Work Anywhere Fortnight - For two weeks of any calendar year. The minimum period for Working Anywhere is one week, the maximum period is two weeks.
37. Season Ticket Loan
38. Share Save Scheme
39. AXA Healthcare Plan (Private Medical Insurance)
40. Peppy Health App
41. In-house Doctor
42. Eye Care Voucher Scheme
Company culture – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Accessibility, Mental Health, Pride, and Parents, Guardians and Carers, Multi-Faith) and 21 Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources
For additional benefits see below
Bloomsbury is a place where anyone of any background, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, or socio-economic status can thrive, feel comfortable, and be heard and accepted. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.
We are willing to make any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please flag to the recruitment team if required
Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK. Unfortunately Bloomsbury Publishing is unable to sponsor visa applications.