What is sales in Publishing?

Sales role can vary in different ways – you can be doing an office-based sales role or it can also be home working with a company car where you drive to meet clients on site.  Sales in publishing is often a very friendly environment and it is more of a warm selling because bookseller/wholesalers knows what sells the best for them.

Are sales roles all about cold calling?

Not at all!  A Business Development role, which in most cases means cold-calling and developing new client relationships.  However, Key Account roles is more of a relationship-building role with your designated clients/regions.  For Sales Representative roles, you will be most likely travel a lot, from arranging meetings to face-to-face, you will get to visit your region a lot.

The perks? Travelling!
Sales role, especially international sales means there are unlimited opportunities to travel with the role.  I once talked to a candidate who looks after international sales who has travelled from the UK to Singapore, then Australia and back.  When I was working in publishing sales back in Hong Kong, I was also very excited to have trips travelling to Frankfurt for the book fair and then Shanghai and Beijing too.  If you love travelling, you will not be disappointed!

So just to sum up:

• The secret to successful sales is all about having passion for what you are selling
• Friendly, observant and knowledge (of the market) will help you go a long way
• Sales is the bridge between the customers and the publishing team. You will often bring back market feedback to the editorial and marketing team so you can all bring more success to the list
• Budgeting and planning trips are usually included in the job too, so good numeric skills will definitely help

-Advice from our Publishing Recruitment Consultant, Clare Chan

If you want some more information then check our other blog!