Dear Rachel, 
I am currently on the agency side (planning) and am considering going into the sales side (internet/digital). Are there any advantages or disadvantages of having sales experience if I wanted to return to an agency in the future? How hard would that transition back into the agency world be?-- Swaying Soul 

Dear Swaying,
Smart of you to ask before making the move. Not everyone who makes the switch to sales ends up enjoying it. 
 
Unless you'd be coming back as a buyer, your sales experience would be of slight value in terms of a higher salary, though it certainly would not be a liability.

Key here is just how important money is to you. 

Say you jump over and get used to that much fatter pay envelope that comes with sales (along with all the headaches). Having gotten used to the higher income, would you be capable, financially and emotionally, of moving back into an agency job?

“The biggest problem sales people have when they join an agency is salary," notes one New York media veteran.

“Frankly, sales pays better--often much better. And since sales experience is not exactly enhancing your media planning experience (other than knowing how the reps think), your value to an agency won't be much higher than when you left to go into sales."
 
You can pretty much see where this is heading, and you are right. You'd take a sizable pay cut to return to planning.

But my suggestion is to think real hard about why you want to move before you do anything else, and certainly before you make the jump.

Yes, it's nice to know that if you don't like sales you can always return to planning, and it's nice to be prepared in your head to accept the cut in pay that would come with it.

But think about it for a second. Think about all that time and energy wasted jumping jobs, then jumping again.

Better to be real sure in your head that sales is truly what you want before making the move.

Examine what you really want out of your life and your career. Do you really want the stress that often comes with selling? Is money really that important to you?

You can talk to others, but only you really know what you want. The answer is always somewhere inside. You just need to look for it.