Advertising Sales Agents Career Guide: Duties, Earnings and Employment Outlook
Submitted by: Gypsy Santiago
Job Overview: Advertising sales agents, also called advertising sales representatives or account executives, are responsible for selling or soliciting advertising for radio, television, newspapers, magazines, websites, direct mail, telephone directories or other outdoor advertising, such as benches, blimps or billboards. They represent the company who sells advertising, so most of their job involves speaking, negotiating and cold calling a diverse clientele.
Education, Training and Knowledge Requirements: Smaller companies may hire candidates even with only a high school diploma, but with extensive sales experience. Larger companies prefer those with college degrees in marketing, advertising, communication, business, sales or a similar field and at least 1 year experience as a sales agent in the advertising industry. Most companies allow entry-level candidates to become sales representatives, but they are often required to undergo a few weeks of training to become comfortable speaking with clients.
Skills & Abilities: The most important thing required to be a successful advertising sales agent is effective verbal and written communication skills because he/she will be interacting with clients on a daily basis. He/she should also possess strong negotiation and marketing skills, excellent interpersonal and customer support skills, among others. Other important qualities also include honesty, pleasing personality, self-motivation, persistence, independence and he/she must have a professional physical appearance.
Duties:
The task of advertising sales agents include obtaining new accounts; meeting with clients both locally and internationally; making telephone calls to speak to prospects, sell advertising time or space, arranging follow-up appointments between sales agents and prospects, and providing customer support to advertising clients. They are also responsible for preparing and delivering sales presentations to existing and new clients; explaining specific types of advertising to customers; maintaining assigned accounts; processing paperwork; delivering illustration or advertising proofs to customers; providing clients with cost estimates of advertising services or products; researching information about clients’ advertising needs, history, problems and products to provide the most effective advertising solution; and preparing promotional plans, media kits, and ad copy, among others.
Earnings & Job Outlook: Advertising sales representatives find work in media firms and other companies in the information sector. Employment growth is expected to increase as fast as average through 2018. New technologies will create more ways for advertisers to reach target audience, which will lead to an increase in demand of advertising sales agents. Salary in the U.S. ranges from $22,983 to $48,366 per year in 2010, but this estimate could increase with sales incentives or bonuses.
Gypsy Santiago is a professional resume writer and career search strategy/career branding coach with years of experience in assisting job seekers prepare for the job market. She helps create career-targeted resumes, provides useful tips about career transition, offers future career ideas and guide jobseekers about effective job search techniques.
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Word Count: 430 Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 Time: 3:59 AM
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