Are you a consultative salesperson with a genuine interest in, and enthusiasm for, the educational content, publishing and technology industry? Do you enjoy offering exceptional service to customers and have first class communication skills? If this is you, and you are ready to shape a new role in a growing company, Oriel Square offers you an exciting opportunity. Oriel Square is an equal opportunity employer. We want to contribute to a diverse and equal workforce in educational publishing and we encourage applications regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality or any  other protected characteristic.

As part of our commitment to diversity, we aren’t asking for a CV and covering letter to start with when applying for this role. Instead, we want to find out more about why you’d be great at this specific job. To do that please answer these questions. Applications for the role close on Monday 25th July 2022.

This job is predominantly office-based in Oriel Square’s office in central Oxford, with frequent UK travel and 2-3 international trips annually. Oriel Square is a four-day week employer, committed to productive full-time employment. We are currently trialling hybrid working. During this trial, employees can choose to work up to two days a week away from the office.

The role
The Key Account Sales Executive/Manager will be part of the sales and marketing team, reporting to the Business Development Director. The purpose of the role is to close fully costed and deliverable business proposals with our clients and to sustain and develop good relationships with key clients. You will establish and maintain positive relationships with key contacts at each of our top 5-10 clients. As part of those relationships you will identify, develop and submit around 5-20 bespoke fully costed business proposals each month, consisting of a detailed costing sheet and a compelling sales narrative, working closely with the editorial and design team to ensure that each proposal is fully deliverable on a profitable basis. The role will have clear targets to close a high percentage of those proposals and to bring a specific and significant amount of revenue as new business into our delivery pipeline. You will also support the Business Development Director in finding and establishing new customers from time to time. Your relationship-building and communication skills and the ability to work well across various teams will be key to successful achievement of your objectives.

Your responsibilities
● With support from an administrator and input from expert colleagues in editorial, build costing spreadsheets for approval that meet profit targets and which are deliverable by the editorial and project management teams
● Create account growth plans for major clients and work with other colleagues in sales and marketing and publishing to deliver those plans
● Write compelling sales narratives that set out how we will deliver each project for our clients within time, the proposed cost and to the right level of quality, using the expertise of editorial colleagues as appropriate
● Close a high percentage of proposals each month to at least match our current performance
● Close sales worth a specific amount of revenue over the year
● Manage relationships with 5-10 key accounts and many other smaller relationships
● Spot opportunities to upsell and cross sell services, putting together proactive proposals when you do
● As required support new business development projects and tasks, for example supporting international sales trips, UK sales activities, working closely with marketing and sales.

Your skills
● Proven consultative selling skills; you will enjoy providing an exceptional and efficient service to our customers, including the ability to manage a longer-period complex sales cycle involving multiple key stakeholders
● A genuine interest and an enthusiasm for the educational publishing and content industry, the EdTech industry or another commercial aspect of education; ideally you will have direct experience of selling products or services to that industry, and existing contacts within it
● Exceptional time management and organisational skills with the ability to oversee and support a broad range of accounts each with a complex decision-making unit
● The ability to be proactive in finding new sales opportunities through networking at industry events and online interactions
● Effective communication skills, with the capacity to build strong relationships and work efficiently with both internal and external stakeholders
● A desire to work both autonomously and as part of a team to reach and exceed sales targets
● The ability to build complex bespoke quotes for clients and to write compelling narratives and deliver compelling presentations to those clients
● Ideally but not essentially you will have experience writing and managing bids or tenders through a formal tender process.

Conditions and pay
Oriel Square believes in productive hours, not long hours. This informs our 28 hour full-time policy. Our working week is shorter than that of many employers, but we get at least as much done without sacrificing quality. We believe there are huge benefits both at work and at home from keeping to regular, focused working hours.
● Full time (28 hours/4 days)
● £30-38K p.a., depending on experience
● 20 days’ holiday (equivalent to 5 weeks) + public holiday allowance
● Workplace pension

About Oriel Square

Oriel Square delivers high-quality publishing services to the schools and ELT publishing sector alongside strategy and research services. From large prestigious courses to bespoke work for small institutions, we bring resource, skill and creativity wherever it’s needed in educational content development. We’re located in central Oxford,  and have well-established links with the major global educational publishers, here in Oxford and elsewhere. Our company is growing and you should expect this role to develop as we do.