• by Ari Rosenberg , Op-Ed Contributor, September 6, 2007

A friend of mine works on Wall Street trading commodities in the "pit" (think "Trading Places" with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd). He is one of those guys yelling and making hand gestures that culminate in a trade of gas or electricity or some other thing that can be traded at a higher price then what was originally paid.

The money my friend earns comes in fractions of percentage points layered over the cost charged for the commodity traded, which is neatly stuffed into his pocket as a fee for brokering the trade. He said the biggest difference between those in the pit who make money in these exchanges, and those who lose, resides in the speed of their math skills. The ability to calculate fractional percentages faster than the other guy is like the advantage a race car driver enjoys because his pit crew changed tires a fraction or two faster than his competitor.

As media continues to race faster toward being bought and sold like a "commodity," math skills will continue to play a more vital role in determining the winners and losers of those selling it. And that's a problem for most of us. If we were great in math, we would probably not be working in advertising.

So what can we do? Brushing up on the calculus course we never took is not an option. Retraining the left side of our brain at this point is not going to happen either -- but there is something within our control we can use to feel more comfortable and more confident selling online advertising: a vintage application at this point, called Microsoft Excel.

The ability to dominate this tool, and the fear of learning it, separates those who sell online well and those who don't. That's because every online deal, regardless of the size or the level of complexity, lands on a spreadsheet. For those unfamiliar with the process, online RFPs are always in an Excel format and are either emailed out, or the salesperson is invited into the protective walls of online buying programs such as Atlas or MediaVisor -- and that's where media sellers new to online get completely lost.

Navigating an Excel spreadsheet can be as daunting as finding a friend's beach house in the Hamptons for the first time at midnight. Unless you have driven there before, you quickly lose confidence in your navigation skills.

When you ask someone if they know their way around Excel, you often hear "yes" in the key of a question. We think we know Excel but are unsure of how well we know it. The simple answer is, you can't know it well enough.

Knowing how to manipulate cells and insert formulas or content is the first step, but the steps continue to ascend as you figure out better ways to showcase your creativity both internally and externally, so your spreadsheets sing louder and, more importantly, clearer to those who open up your file.

How important is Excel? My guess is that future interviews for positions that include selling online inventory will include a test of your Excel skills -- and once that starts happening, you can no longer hide this deficiency if you own it.

This past weekend, while at a beach house in the Hamptons I obviously had trouble finding, someone outside of our business asked me to explain what it is I write about for MediaPost. I tried to explain using this very column as an example, and they were left bored and unimpressed.

They're right. This is one of those really boring issues that has been ignored or nervously laughed away for years -- as if Excel is only for those who like to "do numbers." Today's successful media seller "does numbers" far more then he/she does lunch. I urge any of you who lack the confidence in Excel to sign up for a class. This is one of those things where not knowing what you don't know is holding you back from excelling.