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The differences between commercial sales associates and customer sales representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a commercial sales associate, becoming a customer sales representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a commercial sales associate has an average salary of $55,859, which is higher than the $38,744 average annual salary of a customer sales representative.
The top three skills for a commercial sales associate include cash handling, financial statements and treasury. The most important skills for a customer sales representative are customer service, product knowledge, and customer sales.
| Commercial Sales Associate | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $55,859 | $38,744 |
| Hourly rate | $26.86 | $18.63 |
| Growth rate | 4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 261,436 | 303,801 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 12 |
A commercial sales associate specializes in representing a company to offer products and services to businesses and organizations, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. Their responsibilities include performing research and analysis to identify business and client opportunities, pursuing leads, reaching out through calls and correspondence, arranging appointments, explaining or demonstrating products, and negotiating contracts. Aside from securing sales with businesses, a commercial sales associate must also perform clerical tasks such as producing progress reports and presentations, arranging schedules, and maintaining records of all transactions, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.
The primary role of customer service representatives is to help customers with questions and complaints. It is also their duties and responsibilities to provide customers with information about services and products, take and process orders, and process returns and modifications. They also store records of customer transactions and interactions and provide feedback on customer service efficacy. Customer service representatives must also ensure that they can give customer satisfaction and offer the best professional support.
Commercial sales associates and customer sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Commercial Sales Associate | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $55,859 | $38,744 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $111,000 | Between $27,000 And $54,000 |
| Highest paying City | Glen Cove, NY | Santa Rosa, CA |
| Highest paying state | Maine | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | AstraZeneca | Merck |
| Best paying industry | - | Finance |
There are a few differences between a commercial sales associate and a customer sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Commercial Sales Associate | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred | - |
Here are the differences between commercial sales associates' and customer sales representatives' demographics:
| Commercial Sales Associate | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 71.0% Female, 29.0% | Male, 44.9% Female, 55.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.3% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 24.4% Asian, 6.8% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 7% |