Job Description

International Sales Assistant (Europe)
About the team
In this role, you will be actively managing customer relations remotely in assistance to the Sales Director and Sales Managers. You will also be providing administrative and sales management support to Sales Director and 5 Sales and Key Account Managers based in The Netherlands and Germany. This role, however, is based in our London office.
The role
Key responsibilities:
SALES MANAGEMENT SUPPORT:

• Support sales responsibilities of Sales Director and Sales Managers: run various sales reports on available tools and apps (Business Objects, Biblio, SAP and PowerBI).
• Creating and/or adapting sales material.
• Develop and maintain working relationships across a diverse internal network (Operations, Marketing, Customer Services and Credit Services).
• Create and manage various order, dues and sales reports: collating sales information, bundle and merge data in Excel (pivot tables, vertical lookup).
• Provide office cover for travelling Sales Director and Managers.
• Coordinate with Marketing Team on Order Form requests and adapt as necessary for local markets.
• Manage customer distribution database (excel) and customer mailings.
• Manage monthly mailings of publishing programme (Bestsellers and Highlights).
• Weekly packing and posting of sales materials in customer pigeonholes.
• Prepare sales materials for customer visits, book fairs and promotions; provide follow-up material and information.
• Ad hoc administrative tasks supporting the sales team, for instance manage travel arrangements, scheduling meetings.
• Weekly reporting to line manager on workload and priority tasks.

CUSTOMER FACING AND SUPPORT (phone, email, travel (5%)):

• Responding to daily email and telephone orders and queries received from customers from The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Germany and Austria. Queries relate to orders, claims, availability, returns, etc.
• Solve and answer customer related queries and issues delegated by Sales Managers.
• Manage cash sales orders (in conjunction with Customer Services).
• Build excellent relationships with, and understanding of, customers in Europe.
• Escalation point for Customer Services: liaise between customer and Customer Ops team or Customer Services Desk on ad hoc escalated issues (chasing orders, missing or damages copies);
• Escalation point for Credit Control Dept: liaise between customer and Credit Management on ad hoc escalated issues (late payments, accounts on stop).
• Support Sales /Marketing: in conjunction with Sales Managers develop weekly email customer mailings focusing on new titles/authors/ series; interact with customers by follow up on marketing mailings and take orders by telephone and email.

What you'll bring
Essential criteria:

• Demonstrable commercial awareness
• Strong personal organisation and time management skills
• The ability to multitask and manage competing priorities.
• Ability to work autonomously and to solve problems independently.
• Excellent numeric and system skills and ability to learn new systems or applications (SAP, Business Objects, Power BI, Biblio).
• Conscientious and driven to finish a task to satisfactory results.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of people and with a with a mindset for customer service.
• Demonstrable love of reading and interest in books.
• Proficient in MS Word, Excel (formulas: VLOOKUP, Pivot Tables) and PowerPoint.

Disability Confident
If you have opted into our disability confident scheme, the above are the essential criteria you must meet to be considered for our interview scheme. Please note, there may be occasions where the volume of applicants means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview.
Application instructions
Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on 13th November.

• 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.
• Please note we are looking for someone to join the team as soon as possible, but we are also happy to accommodate a reasonable notice period for the right candidate.
• We anticipate a two-stage interview process which will include a virtual first-stage interview and in-person second stage interview. We are happy to discuss this further with you throughout the recruitment process.

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team.
We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.
Salary
27,500 plus benefits.
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 the successful candidate to work from our London-based office a minimum of two days per week and offer the remaining two days to be worked remotely.
Company: The Random House Group Limited | Job ID: 284422

Skills Required