Sales manager, Special Sales (maternity cover), UK Sales

Closing date for applications: Tuesday 22nd July

Salary: £39,000 - £48,000 depending on skills and experience

Contract: The role is a 12-month fixed term maternity cover position.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a ‘Sales Manager, Special Sales’ to join our Bloomsbury UK Sales Team selling to accounts across the Adult, Children’s, Special Interest and Head of Zeus lists for a period of maternity cover.

This role presents an exciting opportunity for an experienced, enthusiastic and sales/profit hungry professional, with a real passion Special Sales, to join the fast-moving and high-performing Sales Team of a top 5 UK publisher.

This Sales Manager will report in to the Head of Special Sales and will work closely with colleagues across the business to play your part in leading our best in class sales team in delivering ambitious and sustainable sales, profit and market growth.

Responsibilities

• Maximise turnover and profit for your accounts, selling across adult trade, special interest, children’s and Head of Zeus divisions whilst working towards group sales strategy and targets.
• Communicate internally and externally via regular presentations and negotiating deals that secure best possible visibility for Bloomsbury titles which feeds into overarching strategy.
• Demonstrate commercial awareness and an in-depth understanding of budgets, and deal P&Ls in order to prioritise workload and forward plan to maximise ROI for department.
• Represent the Special Sales team at relevant internal meetings, providing market insight, contributing to and shaping sales strategy, and feeding into internal reporting across all publishing divisions. Including, but not restricted to business reviews, acquisition discussions and weekly sales updates.
• Work closely with the publishing, production and operations teams to create special editions, bespoke print runs and custom products, achieving best possible margin for business.
• Entrepreneurial attitude and drive to pursue new business opportunities.
• Line management responsibilities, setting a positive and professional example as a people and account manager. Managing their workload and supporting their training and development requirements.

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Negotiation skills.
• Presentation skills.
• Able to manage a direct report.
• Highly numerate and comfortable with forecasting, budgeting and data analysis.
• Leads by example and possesses a high degree of integrity.
• Possesses a high level of resilience and drive, able to be flexible and change direction as required.
• Can juggle a busy workload and multitask.
• Excellent communicator who is confident in dealing with people at all levels, both in person and over email.
• Excellent attention to detail and focus on efficiency at all times.
• Excellent time-management and organisational skills, with a keen awareness of deadlines.
• Ability to adapt to changing daily tasks.
• Strong IT skills, particularly Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Teams.

Additional information

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). Allocated office days for this role are: Monday and Tuesday.

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.

Please apply with a CV and covering letter addressed to Human Resources (Word or PDF format only) via the ‘APPLY NOW’ button detailing how you meet the requirements outlined above for this role by Tuesday 22nd July 2025.

Please include in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.

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

• Hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)

Holidays

• 25 days holiday
• 3.5 days Christmas company holiday

Other Benefits

• Two paid Personal Wellness Days
• Flexible Fridays – take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 30 minutes earlier in the week
• 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.
• Season Ticket Loan
• Share Save Scheme
• AXA Healthcare Plan (Private Medical Insurance)
• Peppy Health App
• In-house Doctor
• Eye Care Voucher Scheme

Company culture – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Accessibility, Mental Health, Pride, and Parents, Guardians and Carers, Multi-Faith) and Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources.

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.