Sales Planner

The New York Times is looking for a Sales Planner to join their Advertising team in London, where you will work in partnership with our International Advertising teams to provide thoughtful and compelling programs that deliver successful outcomes for our advertisers. You will be knowledgeable of digital and print advertising platforms, tools and products, and advise our advertiser and agency partners with solutions that meet their goals. You will engage with our customers to ensure excellent customer care. This position reports to the Senior Manager, Sales Planning.

As a Sales Planner, you will primarily be responsible for the pre-sale process and will ensure quality service to our advertisers from reservations and media plan creation, as well as some post-sale activity on digital and print campaigns. The successful candidate will become knowledgeable in all aspects of the sales process and will serve as a team liaison with advertising agencies and clients, as well as with internal groups.

Main responsibilities:

• Support development of RFP (Requests for Proposal) process utilising the full scope of NYT ad products that strategically address the advertiser’s needs and campaign objectives for both print and digital.
• Coordinate the digital and print process workflow from RFP to IO in partnership with Sales and liaise with key approval stakeholders in AdOps and Ad Solutions, Revenue Analytics, Legal, Ad Product, T Brand Studio, Insights and Strategy. Communicate detailed and specific account information to Sales and Operations management.
• Build and revise media plans, check avails, reserve fixed placements and update associated fixed placement calendars, negotiate Terms & Conditions. Enter final plans into online proposal systems.
• Update Ad Point, Salesforce and Monday.com throughout the sales process with necessary account information, including ensuring accurate Opportunities, Rate Adjustments, etc.
• Coordinate handover of digital campaigns to Ad Ops and Ad Solutions to ensure pre-sale/post-sale continuity.
• Attend all Product trainings and develop a deep understanding of the full suite of NYT products across all platforms to ultimately become a Subject Matter Expert in one or two chosen fields.
• Build and revise print plans, update various print databases, request reservations and positions, create IO’s for reservations and rate approvals for billing, ensure no credit holds. Work with our Customer Order Fulfilment (COF), Rate Cards and Finance Teams, Ad Production Departments to ensure accurate billing and material contacts.
• Build competitive decks for various business categories.
• Provide excellent customer service to both internal and external clients.
• Work with the Yield team to ensure rate integrity and maximisation of revenue.
• Adhere to process controls and ensure all approvals are accurately secured.
• Maintain proper documentation of all IOs, T&Cs and Campaign activities for the assigned accounts.
• Help with campaign kick-off call organisation and ensure kick-off material is accurate.
• Field customer complaints and work with the appropriate department to resolve them.
• Respond to servicing and information requests from team members and clients: work with various internal teams to gather information for customers and fulfil requests.

Ideal candidate:

• Proven relevant experience in Digital advertising (Print or Programmatic experience an added bonus)
• Great attention to detail and organisation
• Working knowledge of online proposal systems such as Lineup (AdPoint) is desirable
• Proficiency in Microsoft and Google office applications; sales and data management tools such as Salesforce are also desirable
• Motivated self-starter, quick learner and with ability to work efficiently when faced with time constraints.
• Collaborative, responsive and accountable
• Excellent communication skills both with external clients as well as internal stakeholders
• Innovative and creative approach to building proposals in consultative partnership with Sales
• Excellent relationship-building skills and the ability to work effectively in a team environment
• Strong ability to communicate end-to-end planning process and effectively bestow that onto other Planners
• International mindset to communicate effectively within the business and with international colleagues
• Educated to degree level or equivalent