Executive sales representative vs account executive

The differences between executive sales representatives and account executives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an executive sales representative has an average salary of $78,858, which is higher than the $69,618 average annual salary of an account executive.

The top three skills for an executive sales representative include patients, product knowledge and oncology. The most important skills for an account executive are customer service, CRM, and healthcare.

Executive sales representative vs account executive overview

	Executive Sales Representative	Account Executive
Yearly salary	$78,858	$69,618
Hourly rate	$37.91	$33.47
Growth rate	4%	5%
Number of jobs	226,902	205,561
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 79%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Average age	47	44
Years of experience	2	-

What does an executive sales representative do?

An executive sales representative researches and recommends business opportunities. They analyze sales alternatives and help build business relations with clients and prospects. They must keep updated on business trends and potential competitors to best recommend new product ideas. They must be open-minded, risk-takers, adaptive, and innovative to be able to develop successful marketing strategies. It is also necessary for them to be highly skilled at business analysis to distinguish selling opportunities and create an immediate action plan.

What does an account executive do?

An account executive is responsible for supporting existing clients, closing client deals, and developing sales strategies to increase the company's sales and satisfaction. An account executive must be competitive enough to keep up with the constant changes in the sales industry, including the high demands of digital marketing, a different approach to product advertising, effective negotiation, and presentation skills. An account executive also requires excellent communication skills for the successful acquisition of client accounts and immediately resolve possible complaints as they arise.

Executive sales representative vs account executive salary

Executive sales representatives and account executives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Executive Sales Representative	Account Executive
Average salary	$78,858	$69,618
Salary range	Between $48,000 And $128,000	Between $44,000 And $109,000
Highest paying City	-	Portland, OR
Highest paying state	-	Oregon
Best paying company	-	Hitachi Vantara
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between executive sales representative and account executive education

There are a few differences between an executive sales representative and an account executive in terms of educational background:

	Executive Sales Representative	Account Executive
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 79%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Executive sales representative vs account executive demographics

Here are the differences between executive sales representatives' and account executives' demographics:

	Executive Sales Representative	Account Executive
Average age	47	44
Gender ratio	Male, 53.7% Female, 46.3%	Male, 57.2% Female, 42.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.8% 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, 6.7% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 5.6% White, 66.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	6%	5%

Differences between executive sales representative and account executive duties and responsibilities

Executive sales representative example responsibilities.

Position products above the competition, utilizing data, manage care information and patient benefit to promote the Novartis brands.
Achieve sales growth objectives by incorporating product/technical knowledge, teamwork, customer and multi-product focus, innovation and creativity.
Call on customers in oncology, pulmonology urology, cardiology, neurology, OB/GYN, psychiatry, gastroenterology and primary care.
Promote diabetes medications to family practice, general practice, internal medicine physicians and diabetic educators.
Track and create territory reports and spreadsheets with action items and a pod business plan.
Target specialty sales to neurology, psychiatry, pain management and high target primary care physicians.

Account executive example responsibilities.

Create and manage Facebook and twitter accounts.
Have achieve Google certification for both SEM and SEO sales.
Lead proposal team in winning a $1MM RFP, turning around a key account relationship.
Manage all aspects of new FedEx implementations (automation set-up, operational support and training of customers).
Develop and manage networking, VoIP, IP/TV, video, cloud, wireless, and security/disaster recovery projects.
Source all leads by means of cold calling, leveraging linkedin, referrals, and upselling to existing customers.

Executive sales representative vs account executive skills

Common executive sales representative skills

Patients, 10%
Product Knowledge, 10%
Oncology, 8%
Account Management, 7%
Territory Management, 7%
Customer Satisfaction, 6%

Common account executive skills

Customer Service, 9%
CRM, 6%
Healthcare, 5%
Sales Process, 5%
Salesforce, 4%
Work Ethic, 4%

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Executive Sales Representative
Executive Sales Representative vs Account Executive

Updated January 8, 2025

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