Ad Sales: Military Spouses Welcome?
By Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer
Spring 2008
A September 2006 job placement ad included one line not often seen in a career ad: “Military spouses may work remotely from a home office.”
If you are a military spouse considering advertising sales as a mobile career field, reading further in the ad can provide an idea of the skills and experience important for this field:
Seeking National Account Executive with primary duties to sell magazine display advertising space to Fortune 1000 businesses across the country. Specific duties include:
- Prospect for and sell display recruitment advertising in our magazine titles primarily via inside sales/phone/email communications.
- Manage long-term advertiser relationships with a focus on renewals.
- Some travel may be required, perhaps an average of 4-6 times a year.
- Military spouses may work remotely from a home office.
Qualifications:
- Positive interpersonal skills and ability to talk and build rapport with customers on the phone and in person.
- Strong organizational skills.
- Strong computer usage skills; proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, web searches and email.
- Strong public speaking and networking skills.
- Sales experience preferred but are willing to train the right candidate.
- Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred.
- Prior military experience preferred.
Other:
- We are seeking a person committed to staying with the company long-term.
That last line, coupled with the highlighting of the term “military spouse,” indicates that it is worthwhile to consider advertising sales as a highly mobile career. Like many career fields, ad sales can indeed accommodate your mobile military lifestyle, but you must understand the business and strategize your own career path within those parameters.
Ad salespeople are needed in many different industries. The publishing world includes ad sales for magazines (trade publications and consumer publications), newspapers, and Yellow Pages and other directories. Other traditional industries include radio and TV ad sales. Online ad sales are growing daily. There are other potential venues, of course – just think of any place where you see advertisements!
Military Spouse is an example of a magazine that offers the potential to sell ads on a national scale rather than regional or local.
Air Force spouse Ann Krebs has earned a degree in marketing and gained media experience working for an ad agency. Last July, she happened to read Military Spouse magazine for the first time and e-mailed to ask for a job. “I had the experience, and it was a great fit,” she says. Although she has yet to move with the job, Krebs says, “As long as I have Internet and a phone, I can do my job with success.”
Krebs also boasts experience from the other side of the desk, in ad agency media planning. “I understand the media planning and advertising agency world… as most companies work through advertising agencies (rather than buying their ads directly)” says Krebs. “I am the person I used to hate, calling to request consideration for advertising… it’s kind of funny to look back on it now.”
Building Relationships
The discipline necessary to conduct constant cold calling, accept rejection and demonstrate persistence in developing relationships is key to any kind of ad sales.
Advertising sales is highly dependent on building relationships. This may work for national accounts even when the sales rep must relocate; it may not work so well for local and regional publications.
For locally-based companies, “three years may be seen as too short a time, since so much of ad sales is about developing relationships,” says Helen Berman, an experienced sales trainer for advertising professionals. Her book, Ad Sales: Winning Secrets of the Ad Pros, is one of the few targeted to this niche.
“Many publications give you a regional territory that could be hard to transfer,” Berman adds. “The key would be to find out if the publication is comfortable with their reps working ‘out of the building’ virtually from their homes… You won’t know if they expect their reps in their company headquarters or working from home unless you ask.”
Jim Birschbach, president of MediaRecruiter.com (www.mediarecruiter.com), the Internet’s largest listing of media positions nationwide, says, “I can teach TV or radio. I can’t teach the passion or the work ethic. The fact is that if someone understands advertising, it gives them an excellent background to sell across any media, whether it’s national, regional or international.”
Spouse Skill Set
You can use a local or regional sales position to learn the skills. Even if you can’t transfer the specific position, you take skills that you can sell to an employer in the next location.
Coast Guard spouse Maureen Washburn, for example, started in the advertising career field as an account executive for The Delahaye Group in
Washburn illustrates what industry experts often overlook about military spouses: When you move with the military, you learn to dive into a new location quickly and get to know everything possible about it. Military spouses know they have limited time and are open to everything. They don’t assume they know what’s available, so they read, ask around and research quickly – all excellent skills for an ad sales rep.
You should consider compensation issues, of course. Some positions pay a straight salary, others pay straight commission, and many are in-between (base salary plus commission or base draw against commission). Commission potential may vary widely. National media typically pays more than regional or local media.
“Some companies pay for your phone, cell, computer and Internet,” adds Birschbach, “and others don’t.” He says newer media tends to offer a salary or base because “they are trying to attract good salespeople to an unproven field with no track record.”
Seniority also comes into play. “The more senior you are, the more fixed your income (for example, 70 percent fixed and 30 percent commission),” Birschbach adds. “The less senior, the more you’re on commission (such as 30 percent fixed and 70 percent commission).”
Birschbach says Google, one of his biggest clients, “is looking for salespeople in the top 30 markets.” A recent ad for a Google account coordinator asks for candidates with “great versatility, enthusiasm and tenacity” and “We’re looking for analytical, detail-oriented self-starters who possess strong project management skills and the ability to deal with clients with grace and confidence.”
Sounds like a military spouse!
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Military spouses Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer are public speakers and co-authors of the recently released second edition of “Help! I’m a Military Spouse – I Want a Life Too: How to Craft a Life for YOU as You Move with the Military.” For more information or to request a presentation at your community, go to www.militaryspousehelp.com or send a message to kathie@militaryspousehelp.com
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