Advertising Media Salesperson

Also known as:

Media Salesperson, Advertising

Introduction

Advertising salespeople sell advertising space and time for newspapers, magazines, and on radio and television. Much of their work is done through negotiation by telephone or email.

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Work Activities

Advertising salespeople are employed by national, regional and local newspapers, magazine publishers, radio and television companies etc, to sell advertising space and time. Buyers of advertising space include members of the public, individual companies, or advertising agencies.

Jobs range from selling classified advertisements in free newspapers to more prestigious and better paid work selling display adverts in the national media. The work varies to some extent between the different media.

Advertising salespeople may canvass for new customers, get in touch with previous clients, and negotiate the terms of contracts, all of which involves a great deal of telephone work. They have to persuade potential advertisers that their particular medium reaches the target audience. This involves keeping up-to-date with the information provided by their own market research section.

Advertising salespeople may advise customers on the most appropriate length and design of the advert, and need to be able to make rapid calculations of cost. They negotiate the price to be paid for the space or time, the number of times the advertisement is to appear, its position in the newspaper or magazine, or the time of day it is on radio or television.

Advertising salespeople working for local radio or local newspapers may write the advert themselves. Part of each day must be spent on paperwork arising from sales made.

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Personal Qualities and Skills

Advertising salespeople need to be self-confident, outgoing, self-reliant, resilient, articulate and enthusiastic. You need to be able to get on with all kinds of people in all situations. You must also have good presentation and organisational skills.

Excellent negotiation skills, especially on the telephone, are essential.

You should also have good numeracy skills. Working under pressure, to targets, and often being responsible for finding your own contacts, means you need to be self-motivated and keen to succeed.

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Pay and Opportunities

The pay rates given below are approximate.

Advertising media salespeople earn in the range of £18,000 - £25,000 a year, rising to £30,000 - £36,000. Higher earners can make around £45,000 a year.

Advertising salespeople usually work a basic 39-hour week, Monday to Friday. However, irregular hours may sometimes be required.

Employers are national, regional and local newspapers, consumer magazines, trade and professional periodicals and television and radio companies.

There are more vacancies with newspapers and periodicals than with television and radio companies. Jobs on national newspapers are as sought after as those in television.

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Adult Opportunities

It is now illegal for any organisation to set age limits for entry to employment, education or training, unless they can show there is a real need to have these limits.

Some entrants have developed relevant skills by working in, for example, retailing or business. Some have clerical or secretarial skills gained in the advertising industry. Others have developed relevant skills by dealing with the public, in telephone sales work or customer care.

National newspapers and television and radio companies usually recruit graduates.

If you don't have the qualifications needed to enter your chosen degree course, a college or university Access course (eg, Access to Media) could be the way in. These courses are designed for people who have not followed the usual routes into higher education. No formal qualifications are usually needed, but you should check this with individual colleges.

• 23% of people in occupations such as advertising media sales work part-time.
• 6% have flexible hours.
• 2% of employees work on a temporary basis.

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