Title: Inside Classified Sales Specialist
Join The Plainview Herald, to help deliver impactful media campaigns for our customers, leveraging our rich history, extensive audience reach and best-in-class advertising solutions!
Location: Plainview, TX
Company: Hearst Newspapers / The Plainview Herald
Are you a driven sales professional with a passion for media and a talent for connecting with customers? If so, we want you on our team!
Role Overview: We are seeking a dynamic Inside Classified Sales Specialist to join our growing sales team. In this role, you will be the voice of our classified advertising department, helping private parties and commercial clients achieve their advertising goals across both print and online platforms. Your mission? To drive revenue growth, exceed sales targets, and deliver exceptional service that keeps our customers coming back for more!
Key Responsibilities:
- Engage with Customers: Quickly answer incoming calls, minimizing wait times and providing top-notch service to sell classified advertising. You'll input ad copy, schedule ads, and approve online submissions, ensuring every customer has a seamless experience.
- Build & Maintain Relationships: Sell and manage current advertisers in our business and service directories. Handle traditional classified ads, announcement ads, and special pages. Conduct "callbacks" to ensure ads are renewed before they expire.
- Drive New Business: Identify and prioritize new business leads and categories with management. Your proactive approach will bring in fresh opportunities and keep our sales pipeline thriving.
- Collaborate Across Teams: Coordinate sales activities with internal departments, maximizing resources to meet customer needs and exceed expectations.
- Achieve Sales Targets: Consistently meet and exceed monthly and quarterly sales goals, demonstrating your commitment to excellence and growth.
- Stay Tech-Savvy: Keep up-to-date with research marketing tools, computer applications, and contact management systems. Leverage your digital knowledge to enhance your sales strategies.
- Continuous Improvement: Participate in annual sales training to refine your selling techniques and stay ahead in the ever-evolving media landscape.
- Adhere to Procedures: Follow rate schedules, production procedures, accounting protocols, credit policies, and deadlines to maintain a high standard of service.
What We’re Looking For:
- Experience: 2+ years of sales experience, preferably in media or advertising.
- Digital Proficiency: High level of digital knowledge with experience in MS Office (Word, PPT, Excel). Familiarity with Salesforce.com is a plus.
- Communication Skills: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills are a must.
- Adaptability: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing media environment.
- Education: A degree in Advertising, Marketing, or a related field is preferred but not required.
Why Join Us?
- Be part of a vibrant, innovative team that values creativity and collaboration.
- Enjoy a competitive salary, uncapped commission opportunities, and comprehensive benefits.
- Grow your career in an exciting, dynamic industry with endless possibilities.
Ready to make an impact? Apply today to join our team as an Inside Classified Sales Specialist and help us continue to lead the way in classified advertising!
About Hearst Newspapers:
With 2,500 employees across the nation, HNP represents a network of 24 daily and 52 weekly publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and Albany Times Union, several top digital-only news and lifestyle sites, marketing services businesses, and entertainment businesses such as King Features Syndicate. At HNP, we are investing in new and innovative ways to tell stories–growing newsrooms, diversifying tools, evolving platforms–to support the millions of people who trust us each month to help them make decisions, take action and be inspired.
Be a part of something bigger–Your Headline Awaits
#LI-BV1
Skills Required
- 2+ years of sales experience
- Experience in media or advertising
- Proficiency with MS Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
- Familiarity with Salesforce.com or contact management systems
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to adapt and work in a fast-paced environment
- Degree in Advertising, Marketing, or related field
Hearst Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Hearst and has not been reviewed or approved by Hearst.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive, including medical plan choice, full in-network preventive coverage, dental and vision, telemedicine, prescription coverage, and fertility resources. Mental-health resources and other wellbeing services (e.g., therapy sessions, crisis support, virtual physical therapy, and chronic-condition programs) further strengthen the health offering.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support is positioned as meaningful through a 401(k) plan with company matching and Hearst covering plan administration fees. Performance bonuses are also noted as available in some roles, adding an additional rewards component beyond base pay.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off benefits include paid holidays, paid sick days, and vacation time with a commonly cited annual range, alongside paid parental leave and family medical leave. A remote work program and flexibility signals are also included as part of the overall rewards experience.
Hearst Insights
What We Do
Hearst is a leading global, diversified media, information and services company with more than 360 businesses. Its major interests include ownership in cable television networks such as A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime and ESPN; global financial services leader Fitch Group; Hearst Health, a group of medical information and services businesses; transportation assets including CAMP Systems International, a major provider of software-as-a-service solutions for managing maintenance of jets and helicopters; 33 television stations such as WCVB-TV in Boston and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, which reach a combined 19 percent of U.S. viewers; newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union (Albany, New York); more than 300 magazines around the world, including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Men's Health and Car and Driver, and digital services businesses such as iCrossing and KUBRA; and investments in emerging digital entertainment companies such as Complex Networks.
