6 Questions for Alan Mordue

Continuing on with Independent Bookshop Week, we chatted with our sales director Alan Mordue about unexpectedly successful books, sales conferences, and his favourite part of being a sales rep. 

I have worked in theological books for 30 years, I started out in a number of roles in Durham University Bookshop eventually taking the role of Deputy Manager and academic buyer in all academic subjects. I had a special interest in theology which is a major discipline in Durham and spent a number of years curating a world class theological dept. I then moved to Durham Cathedral Bookshop in 1997 as the manager where I had the privilege to work in the 14th century monastic buildings and be near the tombs of St Cuthbert and Bede who I greatly admire and the new SPCK shop was re-sited and opened by Tony Blair Prime Minister. I then worked at Darton Longman and Todd as Sales and Marketing Director from 2001 to 2005 and I learned a lot about the differences in publishing and bookselling at the sharp end and gained a wider understanding of the Catholic Church in the UK. I then re-joined SPCK as Sales Director in 2005 and I still continue to enjoy the challenge of the role, although the UK sales market has changed out of all recognition in that time, the merger with IVP being the obvious big change. We have worked hard to be very agile in adapting to those changes and still successfully sell titles from our own lists and the huge number of partner publishers we represent in the trade.

1. How do you stay ahead of the curve, understanding what customers buy and want to read

This is one of the most interesting parts of being in sales, over the past 20/25 years we have seen a real difference in the way people view theological books. In the past people were tribal and only wanted to read titles that they were comfortable with/agreed with. Today the reverse is true and we find that the majority of people will read authors across the spectrum and are happy to be challenged by new ideas whether they agree with them or not. What we need to do in sales is keep up to trend and we get a lot of our information from the bookshop customers and their own customer base. All of us in sales have a very good idea of what is going on as we have such a diverse portfolio of lists to sell, from conservative through to liberal and evangelical to catholic which does inform our understanding.

2. What are the benefits of selling titles to an independent bookshop versus a chain?

I think the main benefit is that they are free to buy what they are impressed with in the independent shop and they are more willing to follow the enthusiasm of the sales person. They have more autonomy and can buy larger numbers of titles for the individual shop. You also build up a personal rapport and relationship with the book buyer at branch level and you only get this at a central level with most chains..

3. How do you use sales conferences to plan out future projects?


We use the sales conferences as a brainstorming session between the sales team and the partner publishers and learn a lot from each other in both respects. We can look at the lists and see which are the key titles and look at which of our key customers would “go” for a book and then think through the sales potential on the given product. It really helps us to sell the titles in the various markets we have.

4. Why might a title do well in one country and not in another?


This really relates to the cultural and theological differences between the UK and the US primarily. We have a lot in common in the English speaking world and usually the main titles do sell in all the countries but there are some titles that have a country specific sales potential.

5. Tell us about a title you weren’t sure would do well that ended up being successful. What do you think made it work?


I think it has to be “A Better Story” from IVP. The book deals with human sexuality and heavily endorses the traditional Christian position that sex should be in marriage and should be opposite sex couples. This is in direct contrast of the prevailing mores today the wider world and I was surprised at the sale of the books success, although I know there are a lot of Christians who hold to the traditional teaching of the church. I didn’t realize that there was a strong need for this kind of book in this section of the church.

6. What’s the best part of being a sales rep?


I would say meeting people and learning from them. We go into the widest range of accounts and deal with people of many Christian faith traditions and also many people who don’t have a faith commitment. We pride ourselves on meeting people where they are and presenting the rich diversity of the Christian faith to them in the titles we carry from SPCK< IVP and out publishing partners titles.

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