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The differences between inside sales representatives and sales support 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 sales support representative. Additionally, an inside sales representative has an average salary of $44,413, which is higher than the $38,310 average annual salary of a sales support representative.
The top three skills for an inside sales representative include customer service, CRM and outbound calls. The most important skills for a sales support representative are sales support, phone calls, and POS.
| Inside Sales Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $44,413 | $38,310 |
| Hourly rate | $21.35 | $18.42 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 244,168 | 319,292 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 55% |
| 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 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.
Inside sales representatives and sales support representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Inside Sales Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Average salary | $44,413 | $38,310 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $69,000 | Between $30,000 And $48,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Wyoming | Washington |
| Best paying company | Berkshire Hathaway | NetApp |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between an inside sales representative and a sales support representative in terms of educational background:
| Inside Sales Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 66% | Bachelor's Degree, 55% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred |
Here are the differences between inside sales representatives' and sales support representatives' demographics:
| Inside Sales Representative | Sales Support Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 54.7% Female, 45.3% | Male, 39.9% Female, 60.1% |
| 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, 14.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |