Company Description

Informa is a leading academic publishing, business intelligence, knowledge, and events business, creating unique content and connectivity for customers all over the world. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100.

Taylor & Francis is one of the world’s largest publishers of high-quality, peer reviewed scholarly journals, books, e-books and reference works. We empower learners, thinkers and doers with trusted knowledge that advances research and enriches lives. We bring together diverse people, ideas and opinions to validate and publish the experts, theories and truths that matter. And we’ve been doing this in an unbroken arc since 1798.

Our purpose is to foster human progress through knowledge.  We strongly believe that this requires us to encourage and examine different ideas and voices, so that any work that meets our exacting levels of quality deserves to be included in our publications. This requires open minds, the opportunity for robust debate, and the courage to defend perspectives that stand up to scrutiny, even if they conflict with our personal beliefs or values. Because that’s the only way to find the best obtainable version of the truth and, ultimately, foster human progress. If you agree, then we’d love to hear from you.

What we offer in return:

At Taylor & Francis we care about our colleagues, promoting work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working. You will be joining a thriving business, working alongside an exceptional group of people. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you to have the opportunity to develop your abilities, and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about.

Taylor and Francis have an exciting new opportunity to join our commercial team as a Sales Representative for Higher Education. We are currently recruiting for a Sales Representative to cover a portfolio of academic institutions in the Benelux region (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg). Managing your own territory, you will be expected to generate new and maintain existing business by selling and developing relationships with lecturers and universities to expand our growing textbook adoptions.

The key responsibilities are:

• You will be required to analyse sales figures, run reports, maintain our adoption database and communicate with colleagues in the sales, marketing and editorial departments on a daily basis.
• Relationship management of a portfolio of customers, building a deep understanding of the customer, market and specific needs to provide a tailored sales service to drive the highest levels of customer service and satisfaction
• Planning, scheduling and carrying out regular visits to key individuals within educational/institutional organisations to close adoption business and other sales opportunities within own sales region, using consultative selling techniques and offering bespoke and added value solutions to maximize sales opportunities
• Monitoring sales of key adoptions to ensure relevant sell through is achieved, highlighting any underperforming, and taking relevant action to rectify this
• Accurate and timely maintenance of CRM systems
• Liaising with colleagues in other sales teams (field-based and internal) to ensure textbook adoption information is provided effectively to achieve appropriate stockholding and sell-through
• Building and maintaining effective external and internal relationship, building profile and understanding of the Higher Education sales strategy across the wider business and externally where appropriate.
• Developing alternative routes to market, including direct sales for print and digital content as appropriate, ensuring any direct commercial deals are consistent with the overall sales strategy in the market
• Building and maintaining partnerships with field-based reps to ensure all adoption business is closed and solutions to maximise sell through are offered within a given territory
• Updating the H E Sales manager by the provision of reports on sales activities and bring to their attention any problems/challenges with recommendations for resolution
• Preparing for, attending, and contributing to UK and international sales meetings to build product knowledge, strategic awareness and to gather market relevant intelligence

This position is field based role from the Netherlands, you will be required to travel across the Benelux region. You will need to be located within a reasonable distance of an airport with good connections to the region.

All applicants must have the right to work and live in the Netherlands

Closing Date: Applications will close on 29th March 2023. Applications are shortlisted on a rolling basis, and we will be interviewing alongside advertising. We therefore encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity. 

The ideal candidate:

• Will be a self-motivated and organised individual who is happy to work in a field-based sales environment
• Have a proven track record in a sales environment
• Have excellent communication and negotiation skills
• Organisation and time management skills
• A commercial outlook with the ability to make recommendations to support sales targets
• A focus on customer satisfaction and service
• Ideally have a knowledge of book sales or worked in academia but this is not essential

Training And Professional Development:

We’re passionate about ensuring you have all the tools and resources at your fingertips to reach your short and long-term career goals. We’ll support you in your journey by working together on your own bespoke Taylor & Francis Development Plan, ensuring you have the resources, tools, support and coaching that will get you where you want to be.

Interview process:

Once you have submitted your application, we may get in touch with you for an initial screening conversation or ask you to complete a short video screening exercise to enable us to better understand your skills, experience, and motivation. Following this, you will be invited to attend a competency-based interview, either virtually or in person. Typically, we’d then finish the interview process with a final, 2nd stage interview before extending an offer to the successful applicant.

Taylor & Francis Group an Informa Business

We want all our candidates to shine in our recruitment process. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to ensure you are able to show us your best self. This could include having the application form in a different format, more time for questions, or anything else – please ask us, we are happy to be flexible! Please contact [email protected]

Here at Taylor & Francis, we know that many times the 'perfect candidate' doesn't exist, and that people can feel discouraged about applying for a job if they don't fit all the requirements. We encourage you to apply if you're excited about working for us and have some of the skills or experience we're looking for. We believe in the notion that many skills and experiences are transferrable, and you could be just what we need! Taylor & Francis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We strongly believe in the value of diversity in people and thought. We strive to foster a supportive and inclusive environment where our colleagues can learn, develop, and succeed, all while feeling comfortable with being their true self. We embrace all walks of life regardless of race, colour, ancestry, national origin, religion, or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, citizenship, or any other protected characteristic under local law.

We genuinely care about our colleagues, promoting work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you to have the opportunity to develop your abilities, and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about. To find out more about our business and the great career opportunities please go to our Careers Site: http://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/careers

Or better yet check out our LinkedIn ‘Life’ Page, highlighting our accomplishments, employees, and company culture. It’s also a good way of meeting our recruitment team, who will be happy to advise you on your journey here at T&F.