Advertising Sales Agents

Summary

Advertising sales agents contact potential clients, make sales presentations, and maintain customer accounts.

Quick Facts: Advertising Sales Agents
2010 Median Pay	$45,350 per year $21.80 per hour
Entry-Level Education	High school diploma or equivalent
Work Experience in a Related Occupation	None
On-the-job Training	Moderate-term on-the-job training
Number of Jobs, 2010	160,400
Job Outlook, 2010-20	13% (About as fast as average)
Employment Change, 2010-20	20,900

What Advertising Sales Agents Do

Advertising sales agents sell advertising space to businesses and individuals. They contact potential clients, make sales presentations, and maintain client accounts.

Work Environment

Advertising sales agents work under pressure to meet sales quotas. They work in a range of industries, including advertising agencies, radio, television, and Internet publishing.

How to Become an Advertising Sales Agent

Although a high school diploma is typically enough for an entry-level advertising sales position, some employers prefer applicants who have a bachelor’s degree. Sales experience and communication ability are essential.

Pay

The median annual wage for advertising sales agents was $45,350 in May 2010. Commissions can make up a large percentage of a sales agent’s earnings.

Job Outlook

Employment of advertising sales agents is expected to increase 13 percent from 2010 to 2020, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Declines in advertising activity in print newspapers will be offset by increases in Internet and television advertising sales.

Similar Occupations

Compare the job duties, education, job growth, and pay of advertising sales agents with similar occupations.

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Contacts for More Information

Learn more about advertising sales agents by contacting these additional resources.

What Advertising Sales Agents Do About this section

Agents may spend much of their time traveling to and visiting prospective advertisers and maintaining business with current clients.

Advertising sales agents, also called account executives and advertising sales representatives, sell advertising space to businesses and individuals. They contact potential clients, make sales presentations, and maintain client accounts.

Duties

Advertising sales agents typically do the following:

• Locate and contact potential clients to offer advertising services
• Explain to clients how specific types of advertising will help promote their products or services in the most effective way possible
• Provide clients with estimates of the costs of advertising products or services
• Process all correspondence and paperwork related to accounts
• Prepare and deliver sales presentations to new and existing clients
• Inform clients of available options for advertising art, formats, or features and provide samples
• Deliver advertising or illustration proofs to clients for approval
• Prepare promotional plans, sales literature, media kits, and sales contracts
• Recommend appropriate sizes and formats for advertising

Most advertising sales agents work outside the office occasionally, calling on clients and prospective clients at their places of business. Some may make telephone sales calls as well—calling prospects, attempting to sell the media firm's advertising space or time, and arranging follow-up appointments with interested prospects.

A critical part of building relationships with clients is learning about their needs. Before the first meeting with a client, a sales agent gathers background information on the client's products, current clients, prospective clients, and the geographic area of the target market.

The sales agent then meets with the client to explain how specific types of advertising will help promote the client's products or services most effectively. If a client wishes to proceed, the advertising sales agent prepares an advertising proposal to present to the client. The proposal may include an overview of the advertising medium to be used, sample advertisements, and cost estimates for the project.

Because of consolidation among media industries, agents increasingly sell several types of ads in one package.

In addition to maintaining sales and overseeing clients' accounts, advertising sales agents' other duties include analyzing sales statistics and preparing reports about clients’ accounts. They keep up to date on industry trends by reading about new and existing products, and they monitor the sales, prices, and products of their competitors.

In many firms, the advertising sales agent drafts contracts, which specify the cost and the advertising work to be done. Agents may also continue to help the client, answering questions or addressing problems the client may have with the proposal.

Sales agents also are responsible for developing sales tools, promotional plans, and media kits, which they use to help make a sale.

Work Environment About this section

Companies generally set monthly sales quotas and place considerable pressure on advertising sales agents to meet those quotas.

Advertising sales agents held about 160,400 jobs in 2010.

Selling can be stressful because income and job security depend directly on agents' ability to keep and expand their client base. Companies generally set monthly sales quotas and place considerable pressure on advertising sales agents to meet those quotas.

Getting new accounts is an important part of the job, and agents may spend much of their time traveling to and visiting prospective advertisers and maintaining relationships with current clients. Sales agents also may work in their employer's offices and handle sales for walk-in clients or for those who telephone the firm to ask about advertising.

The following industries employed the most advertising sales agents in 2010:

Work Schedules

Most advertising sales agents work full time. Many advertising sales agents work more than 40 hours a week; frequently involving irregular hours and work on weekends and holidays. Nine percent of advertising sales agents were employed part time in 2010.

How to Become an Advertising Sales Agent About this section

Advertising sales agents must actively seek new clients and initiate communication with current clients in order to meet sales quotas.

Although a high school diploma is typically enough for an entry-level advertising sales position, some employers prefer applicants with a bachelor’s degree. Proven sales success and communication ability are essential. Most training for advertising sales agents takes place informally on the job.

Education

Although a high school diploma is typically enough for an entry-level advertising sales position, some employers prefer applicants with a college degree. Courses in marketing, communications, business, and advertising are helpful. For those who have a proven record of successfully selling other products, educational requirements are not likely to be strict.

Training

Most training takes place on the job and can be either formal or informal. In most cases, an experienced sales manager instructs a newly hired advertising sales agent who lacks sales experience. In this one-on-one environment, supervisors typically coach new hires and observe them as they make sales calls and contact clients. Supervisors then advise the new hires on ways to improve their interaction with clients. Employers may bring in consultants to lead formal training sessions when agents sell to a specialized market segment, such as automotive dealers or real estate professionals.

Advancement

Agents with proven leadership ability and a strong sales record may advance to supervisory and managerial positions, such as sales supervisor, sales manager, or vice president of sales. Successful advertising sales agents also may advance to positions in other industries, such as corporate sales.

Important Qualities

Communication skills. Advertising sales agents must be persuasive during sales calls. In addition, they should listen to the client’s desires and concerns, and recommend an appropriate advertising package.

Initiative. Advertising sales agents must actively seek new clients and keep in touch with current clients to meet sales quotas. 

Organization skills. Agents work with many clients, each of whom may be at a different stage in the sales process. Agents must be well-organized to keep track of their clients or potential clients.

Persistence. Advertising sales agents must continue making sales calls even if rejected at first, because potential clients are often unwilling to commit on a first call.

Self-confidence. Advertising sales agents should be confident when calling potential clients (cold calls) and when following up with potential and existing clients.

Pay About this section

The median annual wage for advertising sales agents was $45,350 in May 2010. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $22,780 and the top 10 percent earned more than $96,040.

Performance-based pay, including bonuses and commissions, can make up a large portion of an advertising sales agent’s earnings. Most employers pay some combination of salaries, commissions, and bonuses. Commissions are usually based on individual sales numbers. Bonuses may depend on individual performance, the performance of all sales workers in a group, or the performance of the entire firm.

Most advertising sales agents work full time. Many advertising sales agents work more than 40 hours a week; frequently involving irregular hours and work on weekends and holidays. Nine percent of advertising sales agents were employed part time in 2010.

Job Outlook About this section

Employment of advertising sales agents is expected to increase 13 percent from 2010 to 2020, about as fast as the average for all occupations.

Media companies will continue to rely on advertising revenue for profitability, driving growth in the advertising industry as a whole. Growth in the occupation will largely follow these broader industry trends.

From 2010 to 2020, an increasing amount of advertising is expected to be concentrated in digital media, including digital ads made to be seen on cell phones, tablet-style computers, and online radio stations. This will drive increases in employment of advertising sales agents in Internet publishing.

Digital advertising allows companies to directly target potential consumers because websites usually are associated with the types of products individuals would like to buy. Targeting clients through digital advertising is labor-intensive; therefore, the role of the sales agent will not be automated. This, combined with the broader range of media outlets, will lead to a greater need for advertising sales agents.

Although newspaper print advertising is expected to decline, much of this decline will be offset as newspapers sell online ad space. Growth in traditional media outlets—such as television and radio—should remain strong.

Job Prospects

Competition is expected to be strong for advertising sales agents. Applicants with experience in sales or a bachelor’s degree should have the best opportunities.

Contacts for More Information About this section

For information about advertising sales in the newspaper industry, visit

Newspaper Association of America

For information about the radio advertising industry, visit

Radio Advertising Bureau