Most advertising sales agents work in the information sector at media firms including television and radio broadcasters, cable broadcasters, or print and Internet publishers. They typically sell space in magazines and newspapers or on television (or billboards or anywhere else there is paid advertising, such as Yellow Pages). Your customers are usually media departments at companies and advertising agencies. There are also media-buying companies. Sales (which means listening) skills are obviously paramount as are communication, friendliness, and service. You would also need to know various forms of office software, and be fairly proficient at math.

Average Salary: The median annual salary is around $45,000, including commissions. This industry pays performance-based pay, which includes salaries, bonuses and commissions. They are also reimbursed for entertaining clients and for other business expenses, and receive benefits.

Top Salary: $93,600 per year including commissions is paid to the top ten percent.

Average Hours (per week):

Most agents work long hours. There’s typically lots of travel and entertaining clients which can easily add up to a week of fourteen-hour days. You do, though, have some flexibility in making your own schedule. This position requires agents to also work on weekends and holidays.

Union:

Even sales people who work for union newspapers would not be part of their union.

Certifications: Seminars and courses abound in leadership, sales, marketing, communication, business, and advertising.

Training Period:

A high school diploma may be sufficient for an entry-level advertising sales positions, however most employers prefer applicants with a college degree, particularly for sales positions that require meeting clients than half of advertising sales agents have their bachelors. Another quarter, though, have some college. Courses in marketing, communication, business, and advertising are good bases. Most training is on-the-job, by the sales manager.

Strongest Market(s):

The big employers happen to be in the same cities as the big media-buyers: New York, Chicago, and L.A., though they have sales agents throughout the country.

Entry Level Salary:

Some sales positions are commission-only, though usually not in advertising sales, where you will be working for a major media outlet. Entry-level positions hover around $21,000 but have performance incentives (commissions and bonuses).

Top Salary:

The sky is definitely the limit with most sales positions, where performance-based pay that includes commissions, bonuses, incentives for bringing in new clients, etc. can make the deserving go-getter the highest paid person in the company. The highest ten percent of advertising sales agents earned more than $92,000 per year.

Job Growth Forecast:

There were held about 166,800 advertising sales agent jobs in 2008. Workers appear to be concentrated in three industries: 33 percent – advertising, public relations, and related services; about 32 percent – directory, newspaper, periodical, and book publishers; while 17 percent were in television and radio broadcasting.

There are employment opportunities around the U.S. however jobs in radio and television stations and large, well-known publications, advertising agencies and media representative firms are concentrated in metropolitan areas.

The official forecasts stand at 7 percent growth for advertising sales agents over the next ten years, but that doesn’t account for sales of Internet, or new media, or social media, which figures as high as 20 percent growth. There is also fast growth in the number of cable channels, online advertisers, and other advertising media will create many new opportunities which is offset by the decline in traditional advertising, and this will decrease positions for ad sales agent positions in those areas.

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