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The differences between customer support representatives and sales support representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-12 months to become a customer support representative, becoming a sales support representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a sales support representative has an average salary of $38,310, which is higher than the $37,404 average annual salary of a customer support representative.
The top three skills for a customer support representative include technical support, windows and customer inquiries. The most important skills for a sales support representative are sales support, phone calls, and POS.
| Customer Support Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $37,404 | $38,310 |
| Hourly rate | $17.98 | $18.42 |
| Growth rate | -4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 243,140 | 319,292 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 55% |
| Average age | 40 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 4 |
A customer support representative is responsible for answering calls and correspondence, providing customer assistance in various technical issues, concerns, or difficulties. There are also instances when they must make calls to follow-up on the issues, or even sell products and services. Most of the time, a customer support representative has a certain quota to reach and works under a manager's supervision. Furthermore, it is essential to keep accurate records and report to managers or supervisors should there be any problems.
A sales support representative is responsible for assisting the complex operations of sales departments, performing administrative duties under the supervision of a direct manager. Sales support representatives' tasks include acknowledging and encoding customers' orders in the system, processing payments, responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about the products, writing sales reports, and updating the customer of the shipment details. They also support the sales representatives on selling goods and services to potential customers by creating marketing materials and communicating with customers over the phone and e-mail to generate revenues and increase profits.
Customer support representatives and sales support representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Support Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Average salary | $37,404 | $38,310 |
| Salary range | Between $29,000 And $47,000 | Between $30,000 And $48,000 |
| Highest paying City | Boston, MA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Alaska | Washington |
| Best paying company | University of California, Berkeley | NetApp |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer support representative and a sales support representative in terms of educational background:
| Customer Support Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 50% | Bachelor's Degree, 55% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred |
Here are the differences between customer support representatives' and sales support representatives' demographics:
| Customer Support Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 47.0% Female, 53.0% | Male, 39.9% Female, 60.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.9% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 20.1% Asian, 7.3% White, 55.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% | Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 6% |