We are pleased to announce an opportunity for a Sales Director to join our dynamic team at Michael Joseph on a fixed-term basis for 12 months.
Maximise your chances of a successful application to this job by ensuring your CV and skills are a good match.
As a key member of the team, you will have a valued voice in the strategic development of our division, influencing both title-by-title sales and imprint development. You will work closely with our Editorial team to define the ambition and scope of new acquisitions. Leading a team of talented sales professionals, you will leverage your market expertise to identify new growth opportunities and drive our division to even greater commercial success.
Michael Joseph specialises in commercial fiction and non-fiction, publishing bestselling titles in the genres of women’s fiction, crime, thriller, cookery, memoir, and lifestyle. We are home to authors including Stephen Fry, Raynor Winn, Nadiya Hussain, Dr Julie Smith, Marian Keyes and Jodi Picoult.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Ensure the group-wide strategic objectives and goals are achieved and that the divisional sales team is working in pursuit of these aims.
2. Develop strong retail partnerships and relationships to maximise the publishing house and Penguin Random House sales.
3. Create and drive an innovative strategy to grow and sustain publishing house sales across all formats and retailers.
4. Lead, challenge, motivate, and engage your sales team to deliver maximum performance for the publishing house.
5. Ensure the sales team are active participants within the publishing house and fully engaged within the wider sales team.
6. Work inclusively with group sales colleagues to ensure they’re informed and focused on delivering the publishing house’s goals.
7. Collaborate closely with international colleagues, appreciating the varying demands of the global market.
8. Equip the sales team to support the publishing company with market insight and communicate an understanding of all elements of the UK retail environment.
9. Serve as a leading voice within your team and publishing house, working in close partnership with the publishing team on all aspects of the publishing business.
10. Interpret the UK market, bringing a voice of retail and the wider consumer base to the publishing process.
11. Demonstrate a talent for working collaboratively while being comfortable challenging processes and decision-making when appropriate.
12. Bring a progressive and commercially minded viewpoint to all acquisition and publishing decisions.
13. Be instrumental in determining and carrying out the publishing house’s future strategy from a sales perspective; devising ways in which the business can grow, innovate, and become even more commercially successful.
14. Own the UK sales budget and work with your sales team to develop processes to reach financial targets.
15. Develop a working partnership with editorial, marketing, and publicity teams to ensure a seamless publishing vision that delivers a clear consumer proposition.
16. Responsibility for your team – this includes all aspects of people management, including ensuring the quality of their work, ensuring they are properly trained and developed in line with their abilities, and ensuring all team members receive regular feedback and effective PDRs.
What you’ll bring:
1. Proven experience of managing customer relationships and accounts, ideally within a publishing or creative environment.
2. Extensive negotiation experience and the ability to manage retail relationships.
3. A strong understanding of the publishing industry and how to work in partnership with an innovative publishing team.
4. The ability to build and own an ambitious sales budget with growth potential.
5. Extensive people management experience and skills.
6. First class communication skills – both verbal and written.
7. Excellent influencing skills along with the ability to build long-term relationships.
8. Superior negotiation skills combined with a personable manner.
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 24th March. 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.
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:
1. Financial – income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance
2. Wellbeing – healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks
3. Lifestyle – enhanced parental leave, tech scheme, free and discounted books
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 at least 3 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.
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: 278321
Date: 10 Mar 2025
Location:
London, LND, GB, SW11 7BW
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