Media buyers are like small business owners. The best of them are great number crunchers and highly personable. They manage hundreds of thousands of dollars every week. It is a position that requires unique personal character.

Media buyers must be tough as nails negotiators. Media time is a commodity whose price is subject to supply and demand. Buyers use negotiating tactics that can often reduce prices as much as 30% from the initial rate card.

Buyers not only need strong business skills, but a deep understanding of the marketplace. They have to know who’s watching television and listening to radio. Buyers need to be familiar with demographic facts, such as number of households watching television and what age demos are listening to which radio stations.

But most importantly, buyers must have personality. They are constantly selling station sales managers on why they should obtain a station’s best rate. They establish sincere, memorable relationships with stations, so that when media becomes available, the station calls them first.

In the world of advertising, there is not a more challenging job than that of a broadcast media buyer.