Hospital sales representative vs medical representative

The differences between hospital sales representatives and medical representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a hospital sales representative and a medical representative. Additionally, a hospital sales representative has an average salary of $93,625, which is higher than the $36,309 average annual salary of a medical representative.

The top three skills for a hospital sales representative include patients, territory sales and healthcare professionals. The most important skills for a medical representative are patients, customer service, and first aid kits.

Hospital sales representative vs medical representative overview

	Hospital Sales Representative	Medical Representative
Yearly salary	$93,625	$36,309
Hourly rate	$45.01	$17.46
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	165,793	176,481
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 85%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	2	2

What does a hospital sales representative do?

Hospital sales representatives sell medical supplies to clinics, hospitals, doctors, and facilities. The representatives promote their company's products like medical equipment and/or pharmaceutical products. They increase product awareness, provide advice, introduce new products, and answer queries. It is also part of their job to explain the benefits and features of the products. They are expected to be responsive, keep their patient in mind, communicative, have good customer service, and should be knowledgeable in medicine.

What does a medical representative do?

A medical representative is responsible for selling medical equipment, medications, and other medical supplies by demonstrating benefits and features to patients and healthcare professionals. Medical representatives work closely with their company's marketing department to develop strategic procedures and promotional techniques to attract customers and generate revenues for the business. They respond to the customers' inquiries and concerns, take their orders, and process their payments. A medical representative also analyzes the current trends in the medical industry to identify business opportunities that would establish a market presence.

Hospital sales representative vs medical representative salary

Hospital sales representatives and medical representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Hospital Sales Representative	Medical Representative
Average salary	$93,625	$36,309
Salary range	Between $62,000 And $141,000	Between $27,000 And $48,000
Highest paying City	-	Lansing, MI
Highest paying state	-	Michigan
Best paying company	-	Capgemini
Best paying industry	-	Pharmaceutical

Differences between hospital sales representative and medical representative education

There are a few differences between a hospital sales representative and a medical representative in terms of educational background:

	Hospital Sales Representative	Medical Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 85%	Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Hospital sales representative vs medical representative demographics

Here are the differences between hospital sales representatives' and medical representatives' demographics:

	Hospital Sales Representative	Medical Representative
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 58.9% Female, 41.1%	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between hospital sales representative and medical representative duties and responsibilities

Hospital sales representative example responsibilities.

Manage products in gastroenterology, cardiology, endocrinology, psychiatry, rheumatology, and OB-GYN categories.
Educate clinicians at top teaching institutions across the southeast on appropriate care and therapies for critically ill patients.
Promote Genoptix Oncology/Hematology diagnostic services in the private oncology clinic and hospital laboratory.
Trained/developed influential physician advocates for product lines, including top gastroenterology practices and recruiting top physicians as regional speakers.
Acquire knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, and diseases to sell respiratory equipment and nebulizer medication.

Medical representative example responsibilities.

Achieve market share growth in the psychiatry, cardiovascular, and neurology markets.
Lead the nation in new product introduction of ZAC, an anti hypertension medication.
Manage the sale of pharmaceuticals to treat hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, depression, women's health and pain/neurological disorders.
Manage specialty sales of psychiatry and other products across Mid-Michigan health-care systems.
Manage products in gastroenterology, cardiology, endocrinology, psychiatry, rheumatology, and OB-GYN categories.
Achieve sales growth objectives by incorporating product/technical knowledge, teamwork, customer and multi-product focus, innovation and creativity.

Hospital sales representative vs medical representative skills

Common hospital sales representative skills

Patients, 19%
Territory Sales, 7%
Healthcare Professionals, 6%
Medical Sales, 6%
Sales Quota, 6%
Sales Growth, 5%

Common medical representative skills

Patients, 17%
Customer Service, 13%
First Aid Kits, 9%
Incident Investigations, 9%
CPR, 6%
Medical Terminology, 6%

Hospital Sales Representative vs. similar jobs

Hospital Sales Representative related careers

Hospital Sales Representative related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Sales Industry
Hospital Sales Representative
Hospital Sales Representative vs Medical Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse sales jobs