The advertising sales representative is a particular type of salesperson that tries to generate client demand for advertising in print, media, and electronic venues. While some advertising sales reps may choose to work in one sector of advertising sales, others choose to work with several different forms of advertising, often creating campaigns that incorporate Internet advertising with more conventional print and television elements.

Like all sales professionals, the advertising sales representative seeks to convince clients that the resources he or she can bring to the advertising task are the ideal fit for the needs of the customer. The proactive advertising sales representatives will accomplish this goal by choosing to demonstrate the additional or unique service options that are offered in comparison to leading competitors for the business. This will require the sales representative to know the competition very well. However, an ethical advertising sales representative will never make negative comments about a competitor when seeking to secure new business. Instead, this sales professional will note that he or she can offer certain strategies and services that cannot be found with other companies and proceed to articulate how those assets will make a huge difference for the client.

A competent advertising sales representative will take the time to research a potential client in advance. Understanding the public relations campaigns that the customer has used in the past, and the impact those campaigns generated will help the advertising sales representative come up with ideas to pitch to the potential client. Knowing what has worked in the past will help the representative to develop ideas that carry the client to the next level work. This approach works best when the representative understands the core business of the customer, the type of advertising the client has successfully used in the past, and what sectors of the consumer base the company wants to reach today.

An advertising sales representative may work as part of a company, or as an independent contractor. When the representative is employed with a firm, there is usually a base salary with a percentage based commission program in effect. For independent advertising representatives, it is more common for income to be based on a percentage of sales that are generated from the campaign.