Regional Sales Manager, South West (8 month FTC)

We are looking for a motivated sales professional with a passion for books and a desire to make a significant impact in the independent bookselling community. This role is responsible for delivering the annual sales targets for a broad account portfolio and requires creative account management, working across all HarperCollins divisions. The Regional Sales team are outwardly focused, driven and widely acknowledged within HarperCollins for the key contributions they make to the business’ overall success. The account portfolio is comprised of a dedicated list of customers across independent businesses and bookshops throughout the southwest of England as well as our portfolio of museums and galleries. Managing both new and established relationships is essential to our success, as well as juggling multiple priorities internally and externally. You will collaborate with colleagues across the HarperCollins business, gaining knowledge and harnessing the potential for sales from the exceptional depth of publishing, via our backlist, heritage brands and new releases.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and manage relationships with a variety of independent bookshops and businesses.
• Promote and sell titles from across all HarperCollins divisions.
• Identify and onboard new customers to expand our market presence.
• Collaborate with customer service and our Distribution Centre to ensure efficient order processing and account management.
• Foster positive relationships with internal teams, including sales, editorial, marketing, and PR.
• Travel to customer locations to present titles, take orders, and nurture relationships.

Your first six months

• Maintain and continue to grow our account portfolio’s performance, building strong relationships with Customer contacts.
• Develop close working partnership with HC business functions, such as Production and Distribution, learning how they operate and aligning with customer requirements to offer excellent service.
• Becoming an expert on our extensive HarperCollins publishing list and how it aligns with the wide range of customers.
• Meet all customers and develop strong relationships.

Experience required

• Experience of account management.
• Knowledge or understanding of the independent book market.
• Experience in creating and delivering tailored sales presentations that address customer needs.
• Expertise in publishing sales functions, including customer relationship management, pitching titles, and negotiation.
• A track record of working in high‑performing sales teams, effectively managing priorities while maintaining a self‑motivated approach to a high‑volume workload.
• A demonstrated passion for books and an understanding of current trends in the industry.
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities and diverse account base.
• Balancing workload with required level of travel.

Skills required

• A clean driving license is essential.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with a strong customer service focus.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to take initiative and drive for results.
• Established sales and negotiation skills.
• Proven relationship management and organizational abilities.
• Exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to thrive under pressure and meet challenging deadlines.
• Capacity to work independently to achieve goals while collaborating with team members to support group strategies.

Benefits

• Company Car.
• Enhanced pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
• Private healthcare cover and life assurance.
• Free access to HeadSpace, employee assistance programme (24 hour helpline), mental health first aiders, and a wellbeing portal.
• Employee networks: HC All In (open forum), Elevate (for ethnic minority colleagues), HarperParents, Menopause at Work, Pride at HC, Social Mobility Network and Neurodiversity at Work.
• Unlimited training on our Learning and Development portal, management courses (up to MA level) and mentoring programmes.
• Virtual GP and eyecare vouchers.
• Gym membership discount.
• Charitable donation matching and 2 volunteering days.
• We're a certified Carbon Neutral company.
• Free e-books and audiobooks, digital newspaper subscriptions and discounts on books.

At HarperCollins, we value authenticity and integrity in our recruitment process. To ensure a fair and accurate evaluation of all applications, we ask that all responses to assessment questions reflect your own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities. This allows us to fairly assess your knowledge, skills, and experience to determine how they align with the role. We value diverse perspectives and genuine contributions, even if answers are not perfect. The use of AI tools or external assistance to generate responses is discouraged unless explicitly permitted for specific tasks. If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly to stephanie.jemmett@harpercollins.co.uk with subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days. Please note, if you are interested in the role you would need to submit your application via Applied. We do not accept email applications.