National Sales Manager, PreK-12

Company Description

Playaway Products is a company built on a simple belief: that everyone should have access to the joy of stories and learning, without barriers.

For more than 20 years, we’ve created thoughtfully designed technology that connects people to high-quality content from the world’s best publishers, developers, and studios. What started with a single pre-loaded audiobook player has grown into a family of products built for institutional circulation, where reliability, ease of use, and trust matter as much as innovation. We design for real-world conditions and make deliberate tradeoffs to prioritize access, durability, and ease of use over flash or novelty.

Today, we serve public libraries, schools, the military, and other institutional circulation markets. The work we do shows up every day in the lives of readers and learners, often in places where equitable access to technology and learning matters most.

As our products and partnerships grow, so does the opportunity to shape what access to learning looks like next. At Playaway, discovery begins with curiosity, and our culture values ownership, collaboration, and responsibility. This is a place for people who care about impact, are comfortable navigating ambiguity, and want to help build what comes next.

https://www.playaway.com

Job Description

The National Sales Manager, PreK-12 will lead Playaway’s next stage of disciplined growth across the K-12 school market by building a high-performing sales team, deepening relationships with school librarians and district leaders, and expanding Playaway’s reach across school libraries, classrooms, and districts nationwide.

This leader will build on Playaway’s strong brand and product portfolio to strengthen and scale the K-12 business, driving new account acquisition, stronger repeat purchasing, greater school-level presence, and cross-product expansion across Playaway’s K-12 portfolio.

The National Sales Manager will spend time in market with sales representatives, including regular national travel for customer meetings, district visits, field coaching, major K-12 and library conferences, and relationship-building across the K-12 school library, classroom literacy, and district literacy market.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Own and execute the national K-12 sales strategy, with accountability for revenue growth, pipeline development, territory performance, and expansion across Playaway’s school market.
• Expand Playaway’s presence across school libraries, media centers, classroom literacy initiatives, and district-wide instructional.
• Partner with executive leadership, marketing, and product teams to identify emerging K-12 market opportunities, customer needs, channel strategies, positioning, and long-term growth initiatives.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing K-12 sales team, including recruiting, onboarding, performance management, field coaching, and ongoing sales development.
• Build strategic territories, set clear revenue and pipeline expectations, and use market data to prioritize high-growth accounts, districts, and regions.
• Coach representatives on school library engagement, classroom and district selling, account expansion, discovery, objection handling, and closing strategy.
• Drive new account acquisition, repeat purchasing, broader school penetration, and cross-product growth across Playaway’s K-12 portfolio.
• Translate K-12 budget cycles, procurement timelines, curriculum priorities, instructional initiatives, and library funding patterns into practical sales plans.
• Travel nationally approximately 50%+ of the time for field rides, customer meetings, district visits, trade shows, and major K-12/library conferences, ensuring field activity converts into measurable pipeline and sales opportunities.
• Build strategic relationships with school librarians, district library coordinators, literacy leaders, curriculum stakeholders, state library associations, and other K-12 influencers.
• Establish a culture of disciplined execution, accurate forecasting, CRM accountability, customer insight, and measurable sales performance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of sales experience in K-12 education, educational publishing, library media, literacy solutions, edtech, or a related market.
• 2+ years of experience leading, coaching, and performance-managing quota-carrying sales representatives.
• Deep understanding of the K-12 school library market, including how school librarians, media specialists, and district library coordinators evaluate, fund, purchase, and implement student-facing resources.
• Working knowledge of school district procurement, budget cycles, curriculum priorities, purchasing approvals, and funding pathways.
• Proven ability to build and lead high-performing sales teams that consistently meet or exceed revenue goals.
• Strong analytical ability, including experience using territory data, pipeline health, market trends, and account performance to guide sales strategy.
• Experience developing territories, prioritizing accounts, and executing go-to-market plans in a growth-focused sales environment.
• Strong executive presence, communication skills, field coaching ability, and customer-facing credibility.
• Willingness and ability to travel nationally approximately 50%+ of the time.

Preferred Experience

• Experience selling physical library products, audiobooks, literacy materials, classroom media, school library technology, or student-facing learning resources.
• Existing relationships within the K-12 school library, literacy, educational publishing, or library technology ecosystem.
• Strong understanding of the role school libraries play in reading engagement, accessibility, equity, independent reading, and literacy development.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to lift boxes up to 40# and set up booth space for trade shows attending.

Additional Information

Working Conditions

• Requires approximately 50%+ national travel for field rides, customer meetings, district visits, trade shows, and K-12/library conferences.
• Works closely with a geographically distributed sales team through in-person field coaching, virtual meetings, pipeline reviews, and territory planning.
• Requires flexibility to support K-12 buying cycles, conference schedules, sales campaigns, and occasional evening or weekend travel.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Full-time and qualified part-time employees are eligible for our comprehensive benefits program. Our range of benefits include, but are not limited to, Medical/Prescription drug insurance, Dental, Vision, Health Care/Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account, Health Savings Account, Pre-Tax and Roth 401(k), Short and Long-Term Disability Insurance, Life/AD&D Insurance, Student Loan Repayment Program, Educational Assistance & generous paid time off.

Playaway Products is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House.  Playaway Products and Penguin Random House values the array of talents and perspectives that a diverse workforce brings. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status.