• Meet the Department

Making a Mega-Multitasker: Meet the Sales Department! | January 25, 2017

by Elizabeth Lynch, HarperCollins Children's Books

1) In brief, what does the Sales team do?

The main focus of a Sales Person’s job is to represent the company for your account and represent the account for your company. We balance the needs and focuses of both for each other with the intent of maximizing sales for all of our titles.

2) What are some personality traits or skills that make a person well-suited to working in Sales?

 Attention to detail and the ability to MEGA-MULTITASK! Often you are being pulled in multiple directions at once with internal questions from different departments, all of which might be equally important so you need to know how to prioritize. Another trait that is important for Sales is the ability to “elevator pitch,” or describe a book in 20 seconds or less.

3) What is one thing that people generally get wrong about your department? Or one thing that you wish other departments knew?

One thing that people don’t clearly understand about our department is that Sales Reps actually do little parts of all departments within a company.  For the account we are working with, the Sales Person is also the Publicist, Marketing Director, Inventory Control and first go-to for all things about your company.

4) What is the most difficult thing about working in Sales? And the best thing?

The most difficult thing would be keeping up with what month/year it is! At any given moment, I’m monitoring backlist and new releases, selling the upcoming season, planning/pitching promotions for the next season, and reading manuscripts for a third season on top of trying to read competitors titles to stay on top of what’s buzzing. I’m often asked for book recommendations and have to pause to remember what is actually on sale at that moment. And the best thing? Pretty much the same thing!