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The differences between inside sales representatives and business sales representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both an inside sales representative and a business sales representative. Additionally, a business sales representative has an average salary of $58,288, which is higher than the $44,413 average annual salary of an inside sales representative.
The top three skills for an inside sales representative include customer service, CRM and outbound calls. The most important skills for a business sales representative are business sales, customer accounts, and customer service.
| Inside Sales Representative | Business Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $44,413 | $58,288 |
| Hourly rate | $21.35 | $28.02 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 244,168 | 226,438 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 4 |
An inside sales representative is responsible for selling services and products to clients, driving the company's revenues and increase sales profitability. Duties of an inside sales representative include developing strategic sales pitches, responding to customer's inquiries and requests, offering promotional products and discounts, researching potential clients, creating sales reports, and managing customer's possible complaints. An inside sales representative also provides strategic solutions to share with the sales team to improve their sales performance. Inside sales representatives must have excellent communication and negotiation skills to deal with customers' needs.
A business sales representative's role is to develop strategies in identifying leads and opportunities to secure sales. Their responsibilities revolve around reaching out to clients to offer products and services, discussing the pricing and specifications of products, processing payments, and gathering necessary client information. They may also arrange appointments with clients to negotiate and sign contracts. Furthermore, as a business sales representative, it is essential to produce progress reports and presentations, handle issues and complaints, maintain records of all transactions, and regularly update databases.
Inside sales representatives and business sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Inside Sales Representative | Business Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $44,413 | $58,288 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $69,000 | Between $31,000 And $108,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | Bothell, WA |
| Highest paying state | Wyoming | Washington |
| Best paying company | Berkshire Hathaway | Amazon |
| Best paying industry | Technology | - |
There are a few differences between an inside sales representative and a business sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Inside Sales Representative | Business Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 68% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between inside sales representatives' and business sales representatives' demographics:
| Inside Sales Representative | Business Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 54.7% Female, 45.3% | Male, 61.4% Female, 38.6% |
| Race ratio | 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% | 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% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |