How To Become A Business Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a business representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Kim Chatani

Working in practically all forms of industries, a business representative stirs sales in a company by representing its products or services to a clientele. To achieve this, business representatives must be experts in their company's products or services. As a marketing tactic, they make the client aware of the company's warranties, special deals, or discounts.

Flourishing in the business representation world all depends on the amount of experience one has, especially in meeting sales targets. In exchange for their expertise, business representatives earn an average annual salary of $47,952. The minimum level of education required for this position is a high school diploma. Most business representatives have experience as cashiers, customer service representatives, and sales associates.

To be a successful business representative, one must be primarily passionate about customer service and possess the following skills: knowledge of PowerPoint, outbound calls, financial services, business development, and math skills. To keep the company's cash flowing, business representatives are tasked with the following responsibilities: developing sales strategies, processing payments, contacting new client opportunities and businesses, negotiating contracts, and offering assistance to clients while they are filling their forms.

What general advice would you give to a business representative?

Kim Chatani

Assistant Professor, Concordia University Irvine

The career path for graduating students is full of unpredictability, as we have seen during this COVID 19 pandemic. In addition to academic excellence, graduates will face challenges that will test their core principles and beliefs. My advice is to view each challenge you meet with a long-term perspective while addressing the immediate concerns in a balanced way. Your career will span decades, and what you may face during the first several years will only be a fraction of your professional career. View how your immediate decision may impact you in the long-term.

ScoreBusiness RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

4.0

Avg. Salary $51,604

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 6.85%

Black or African American 11.77%

Hispanic or Latino 21.22%

Unknown 5.43%

White 54.08%

Gender

female 54.51%

male 45.49%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

5.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a business representative

Explore business representative education requirements

Most common business representative degrees

Bachelor's

58.4 %

Associate

18.2 %

High School Diploma

12.3 %

Start to develop specific business representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	13.33%
Patients	11.74%
PowerPoint	7.61%
Business Development	6.98%
Financial Services	6.49%

Complete relevant business representative training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New business representatives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a business representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real business representative resumes.

Research business representative duties and responsibilities

Manage customer relations with internal personnel, group administrators, brokers and members as related to Medicare insurance.
Verify ICD-9 to physician's diagnosis; insure correct CPT codes and level of service are going out on claims.
Handle incoming calls to investigate and troubleshoot network and hardware concerns that align with company expectations of quality.
Utilize multiple internal information systems and applications to troubleshoot hardware issues.

Prepare your business representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your business representative resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a business representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable business representative resume templates

Build a professional business representative resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your business representative resume.

Apply for business representative jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a business representative job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do business representatives rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Business representative reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2021

Pros

Cultivating relationships with customers and accessing customers needs , I like solving their problems with the product or service that I am pre selling to them before passing the lead to a sales executive.

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2020

Pros

Marketing products from a traceable companies to consumers and providing a good service to the clients .

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2019

Cons

Non caring employer's , standing on my feet all day, working weekends, low pay