UK sales support assistant

Closing date: 16 December 2024

Salary: £27,000 (+bonus +benefits)

Location: London

Contract: Permanent

Are you passionate about education and ready to support a dynamic Sales team in delivering impactful resources to schools and colleges across the UK?

Hodder Education is the home of accessible, future-proofed educational resources where we put students, teachers and parents at the heart of everything we do. Our goal is to help every teacher and learner across the globe to succeed by creating and delivering high-quality content and support.

Hodder Education is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 12 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

What you'll be doing

You will be the key contact for supporting the work of our UK Sales team, who are working with schools, colleges, distributors and retailers every day. Your role will provide the frontline support for a large team of Sales Consultants, making sure that they have everything they need to be as effective as possible in their work with our customers.  

Key responsibilities

• Ensuring that the Sales team is fully equipped to promote and sell our resources to UK customers: schools, colleges, distributors and retailers.
• Making sure that every Sales Consultant (and the Trade Sales Manager) has the materials and support they need to sell to our customers: sales information, business cards, stationery, etc.
• Supporting our work at conferences and exhibitions by ensuring that the Sales Consultant has the kit, display materials and stock that they need to display our products and services to best effect.
• Liaising with the Marketing team to ensure that the latest product information is stored on our Sales Hub.
• Being the main contact between the Sales team and other business functions, including IT, in problem solving and providing equipment.
• Assisting with the organisation of UK Sales events and team meetings (virtual and in-person).
• Supporting ‘back-office’ work with Sales team involvement in product webinars.
• Support tasks involving our CRM system, including work after conferences and exhibitions.
• Managing updates to our CRM system as they relate to the Sales team.
• Support tasks in generating and providing data for the Heads of Sales and Sales team.

Who we are looking for

This role will suit any candidate who enjoys being part of a busy and energetic Sales team and wants to play a part in making that team be as effective as possible. You’ll feel equally comfortable with tasks ranging from making sure that our Consultants have the equipment they need, to researching some customer or sales data.

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Exceptional written and verbal communication
• Customer service, including with senior leaders in schools and colleges
• Multi-tasking and prioritisation of conflicting tasks
• Attention to detail
• Solid IT skills, across MS Office packages
• Ability to deal with customers and colleagues at all levels
• An enthusiasm for education
• A pro-active and energetic self-starter
• Enjoy working as part of a busy team
• Good communicator
• Highly organised

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

The role will be based at our London office, Carmelite House, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Our commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org

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