[Eril-l] Library Sales and Support position opening at Project MUSE

[Melanie Schaffner]

Project MUSE has an opening for the newly-created position of Inside Sales and Library Support Specialist, based in our office at the Johns Hopkins University Press in Baltimore, MD. The ideal candidate will have an excellent understanding of how scholarly electronic resources are selected, acquired, managed, and made discoverable by libraries, and possess a strong service orientation along with impeccable interpersonal communication skills and an aptitude for data and numbers. Full position description below, and more information at https://jobs.jhu.edu/job/Baltimore-Inside-Sales-and-Library-Support-Specialist-MD-21218/536705100/. All applications must be made via the JHU Jobs site via the link above.

Position Summary:
The Inside Sales and Library Support Specialist contributes directly to the sustainability of Project MUSE by assisting the Sales team with a wide variety of activities targeting new sales opportunities, customer retention, and growth of business with existing customers. The position is responsible for customer onboarding and customer success, and supporting specific customer needs and concerns unique to the library/institutional environment. Collaborating within the MUSE Sales & Marketing team and across other departments, the position will ensure MUSE's current and prospective library customers have the tools and information they need to maximize their investments in the platform while receiving superior service and value. The ideal candidate will have an excellent understanding of how academic electronic resources are selected, acquired, managed, and made discoverable by libraries, and possess a strong service orientation along with impeccable interpersonal communication skills and an aptitude for data and numbers.

Key Responsibilities:

*         Assist prospective customers with basic product price quotations, product information, features and benefits, and basic licensing inquiries.

*         Compile usage and pricing information and provide analysis to assist customers with product selection and purchasing decisions, make product recommendations and increase sales through identifying cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.

*         Provide first-line library customer support and receive escalated inquiries from customer service for questions related to access/authentication, metadata, cataloging and discovery, usage statistics, permitted usage, instructional use of content, personalized tools provided by Project MUSE, and content error and website bug reports; escalate issues to technical team, publisher relations, or others as needed and coordinate on resolving customer concerns.

*         Assist new customers with post-purchase onboarding, including management account set-up, maximizing user discoverability of resources, provision of promotional and instructional materials, assisting with questions/issues, and related outreach.

*         Create and maintain a standard library of informational correspondence to support prospective customers participating in product trials; systematize deployment of emails and materials.

*         In collaboration with customer support and sales team, identify needs/opportunities for new or improved instructional and support materials, write/edit content for these materials, and work with marketing on deployment of information through appropriate channels and media (video tutorials, printed or digital guides, Powerpoint presentation, web site, social media).

*         Write/edit messages for customers concerning product or policy updates, new features, service outages or planned maintenance, and related topics; coordinate with marketing team to deploy messaging through appropriate channels (email, web, social).

*         Assist MUSE sales team with a variety of projects including preparation of individual institutional and consortium/system-level price quotations (research on participating institutions, past purchase and usage patterns, and application of standardized discounting structures); preparation of responses to RFP/RFQ/RFI's; preparation for customer meetings/visits; and other research/reporting tasks as directed.

*         Assist MUSE sales team with annual renewal efforts, including creation and dissemination of pricing spreadsheets for consortia/system customers, updating renewal correspondence templates, responding to follow-up questions.

*         Assist MUSE sales team and external sales agents with requests for sales and instructional materials, trial requests and orders, credentials and access for product demonstrations.

*         For customers with continuous purchase programs (i.e. Evidence-Based Acquisition), support ongoing selection and order processes, review and assess orders for irregularities, resolve order issues,  and track through workflow to completion.

*         Collaborate with customer support in surfacing common customer issues, identifying emerging trends in support needs, and barriers to success in current processes; make recommendations for resolution or improvement.

*         Provide product demonstrations and customer training/support at library-facing events/exhibits, via individual customer visits, and using webinar and screen-sharing technologies.

*         Maintain contact information for key consortium and institutional accounts, external sales partners, and others critical to supporting customer success.

*         As primary liaison between sales/marketing and customer support, ensure information flow between departments, analyze and recommend process and workflow improvements.

*         Maintain excellent customer service and customer relationships to encourage renewals, new and repeat sales.

*         As part of Sales and Marketing team, continuously evaluate organization's competitive advantage and unique selling position strategy, contribute ideas and feedback for marketing messaging and campaigns.

*         Participate in organizational growth through creative thinking, generating new ideas for customer relationship management, sales support and customer service.

Education and Experience Required:

*         Bachelor's degree and three years related experience.

*         Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for required education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Required Skills and Knowledge:

*         Excellent written and verbal interpersonal communication skills (phone, email, and chat).

*         Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook (experience with Excel pivot tables and lookups a must).

*         Experience writing technical and/or training documents.

*         Familiarity with common web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari), PC and MAC environments, and use of online electronic resources for research and education.

*         Understanding of library cataloging and discovery systems, tools, standards, and terminology, including MARC, KBART, RDA, LCSH.

*         Familiarity with institutional access and authentication and common remote access methodologies, including IP authentication, Shibboleth, referring URL, proxy servers.

Personal Skills:

*         Superior customer service orientation.

*         Excellent analytical, organizational and problem-solving skills.

*         Demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a team.

*         Ability to quickly learn new subjects in a fast changing environment, and absorb new information.

*         Ability to plan, organize, and manage multiple priorities effectively and efficiently.

*         Professional, positive, and enthusiastic attitude.

*         Ability to travel on an occasional basis.

Preferred Qualifications:

*         An ALA-accredited master's degree or a comparable graduate degree from a non-U.S. university.

*         Previous experience working in the higher education, library, educational technology, or academic publishing communities.

*         General understanding of campus-level technical infrastructure and tools used by students and faculty.

*         Consultative sales skills and previous technical support experience a plus.

*         Strong technical acumen with ability to articulate features and benefits, support and demonstrate a digital product to non-technical professionals.

For more information and to apply: https://jobs.jhu.edu/job/Baltimore-Inside-Sales-and-Library-Support-Specialist-MD-21218/536705100/


Melanie Schaffner
Director, Sales & Marketing
Project MUSE
mbs at press.jhu.edu<mailto:mbs at press.jhu.edu>
p 410-516-3846 (Eastern Daylight Time)
she/her/hers

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