What is a Medical Representative?

A medical representative's job is to promote and sell their company's products, whether that's pharmaceutical drugs or medical equipment. Their typical customers can include doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. The medical representative will increase product awareness, answer queries, provide advice and introduce new products.

Their key duties and responsibilities include selling the company's medications to doctors, pharmacists, and other relevant healthcare professionals. They also schedule appointments with doctors, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals to promote company medications. Medical representatives spend time developing an in-depth understanding of company medications, following up on leads generated by the company, and keeping abreast of new developments in the medical field to determine the effect of such developments on the company's business strategies. Educational requirements include a bachelor's degree in nursing, pharmacy, life sciences, or a related field along with proven medical sales experience.

The job of a medical representative may be hectic, but it is worthwhile. The average salary for this position is $24.61 an hour, which amounts to $51,183 annually. The job is projected to experience growth in the following years and create various job opportunities across the United States.

What Does a Medical Representative Do

There are certain skills that many medical representatives have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed physical stamina, self-confidence and customer-service skills.

Learn more about what a Medical Representative does

How To Become a Medical Representative

If you're interested in becoming a medical representative, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 68.0% of medical representatives have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.1% of medical representatives have master's degrees. Even though most medical representatives have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Medical Representative
Top Medical Representative Jobs Near You

Medical Representative Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a medical representative can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as emergency medical technician, progress to a title such as team leader and then eventually end up with the title director, inside sales.

Medical Representative

Average Salary for a Medical Representative

Medical Representatives in America make an average salary of $36,309 per year or $17 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $48,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $27,000 per year.
Average Medical Representative Salary
$36,309 Yearly
$17.46 hourly
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Roles and Types of Medical Representative

The role of a medical representative includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general medical representative responsibilities:

  • Identify wage loss expenses and wage exposures on medical claims interact daily with customers taking statements
  • Prepares and transmits patient claims in the appropriate claim format according to guidelines. Coordinates
  • Assisting with answering phones, taking messages

There are several types of medical representative, including:

Sales Representative

Role:

As the sole point of contact, sales representatives are responsible for all business matters when it comes to their clients. They ensure the right products are delivered, follow customer leads, and pitch prospective customers.

Probably the most important aspect of a sales representative's job is closing on sales. That's what keeps the business running and your paycheck coming. There are some times when you'll have to deal with tough situations, like customer complaints, and you'll have to know how to fix the situation.

The majority of sales representatives spend about 47 hours a week at work. From travel time to breaks and interacting with customers, you've got some long days ahead. Although, it's not a bad gig, especially since you only need a high school diploma. The majority of your education in your career will come from on-the-job training - nothing beats hands-on experience.

  • Average Salary: $56,591
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Representative

Role:

Since respresentative is such a broad term, you can really take your pick when it comes to having a career as one. Maybe you want to pursue customer service or politics. Either way, representatives are very important for the people they're serving.

As a representative, it's important that you present yourself well. A state representative needs to be a likeable figure for people to vote into office, while a customer service representative needs to put on an understanding face when presented with a customer complaint.

Representatives work all sorts of hours, depending on the industry they've picked. Luckily, there are so many industries that a representative can go into that you'll have plenty of job opportunities available.

  • Average Salary: $36,023
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Inside Sales Representative

Role:

An inside sales representative is responsible for generating sales. As opposed to outside salespeople, who travel to broker sales on location and face-to-face, an inside sales rep works remotely.

Inside sales reps typically communicate with potential clients over the phone or via email. They research and identify leads and do their best to create hype for a product, all while building fruitful relations with customers. They also contribute to creating marketing strategies.

Inside sales reps generally work for commission, so the more you work, the more you make, and working hours are pretty much up to you. This is a job that can be done from home, which may or may not result in higher productivity.

Your salary will vary significantly, though, depending on where you work, what industry you work for, and whether you have that sales DNA or not. Or call it skills. It is up to your temperament, whichever makes you feel more comfortable.

  • Average Salary: $44,413
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Medical Representative Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active medical representative jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where medical representatives earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Medical Representative Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California11,237$43,827
2Texas4,979$33,327
3Florida4,928$34,159
4Illinois4,454$40,351
5Pennsylvania3,799$30,960
6New York3,598$36,075
7Georgia3,404$31,956
8Ohio2,949$38,110
9New Jersey2,876$43,001
10Virginia2,864$37,110
11Minnesota2,455$29,775
12North Carolina2,392$36,181
13Massachusetts2,351$37,691
14Missouri1,909$37,031
15Arizona1,520$40,957
16Washington1,426$43,015
17Tennessee1,410$30,589
18Maryland1,354$42,386
19Alabama1,328$33,376
20Wisconsin1,298$28,543
21Michigan1,282$44,380
22Kentucky1,277$26,121
23Oregon1,265$36,974
24Indiana1,241$32,897
25Colorado1,112$38,907
26Kansas1,107$37,441
27South Carolina1,039$26,563
28Utah897$31,058
29Connecticut891$38,348
30Nebraska849$25,795
31Nevada847$41,621
32Arkansas777$28,425
33Iowa699$33,463
34New Mexico668$31,956
35Idaho618$34,403
36Louisiana580$32,510
37Mississippi540$28,626
38Oklahoma524$31,468
39West Virginia470$37,193
40Rhode Island421$38,512
41Delaware382$36,187
42New Hampshire378$36,871
43Montana338$21,569
44Maine280$32,173
45Vermont198$38,020
46South Dakota162$37,972
47North Dakota140$39,484
48Hawaii125$25,623
49Wyoming109$33,786
50Alaska97$29,310

Medical Representative Education

Medical Representative Majors

Business
20.9 %
Pharmacy
16.4 %
Nursing
7.0 %

Medical Representative Degrees

Bachelors

68.0 %

Associate

9.4 %

Masters

7.1 %

Top Colleges for Medical Representatives

1. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

2. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Minneapolis, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$14,760

Enrollment

31,451

3. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

4. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition

$15,262

Enrollment

30,079

5. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,987

Enrollment

18,946

6. SUNY Stony Brook

Stony Brook, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,625

Enrollment

17,407

7. New York University

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,828

Enrollment

26,339

8. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,695

Enrollment

6,596

9. Howard University

Washington, DC • Private

In-State Tuition

$26,756

Enrollment

6,166

10. University of California, Irvine

Irvine, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,700

Enrollment

29,722

Top Skills For a Medical Representative

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.6% of medical representatives listed patients on their resume, but soft skills such as physical stamina and self-confidence are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Medical Representative Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Medical Representative templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Medical Representative resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Medical Representative Resume
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Medical Representative diversity

Medical Representative Gender Distribution

Female
Female
55%
Male
Male
45%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among medical representatives, 54.8% of them are women, while 45.2% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among medical representatives is White, which makes up 72.8% of all medical representatives.

  • The most common foreign language among medical representatives is Spanish at 41.6%.

Online Courses For Medical Representative That You May Like

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The course is a comprehensive set of didactic lectures surveying fundamentals of transgender medical and surgical treatment. The material is meant to provide the student with core knowledge that is essential for current primary care providers caring for transgender patients. There are 10 modules led by the expert clinical faculty from the pioneering Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, located within the Mount Sinai Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New...

2. Health After Cancer: Cancer Survivorship for Primary Care

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This course presents basic principles of cancer survivorship to primary-care physicians. Developed by a team of experts in caring for cancer survivors, and narrated by a primary-care physician, this course provides practical tips and tools that can be easily integrated into medical practice. You will learn about the complex physical and psychosocial needs and concerns of the growing number of cancer survivors, along with the key role that primary care physicians have in guiding these patients...

3. Medical Terminology

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Introduction to the meaning of various roots, terms and combining forms that are components of medical words...

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Best States For a Medical Representative

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a medical representative. The best states for people in this position are Michigan, California, Washington, and New Jersey. Medical representatives make the most in Michigan with an average salary of $44,380. Whereas in California and Washington, they would average $43,827 and $43,015, respectively. While medical representatives would only make an average of $43,001 in New Jersey, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Nevada

Total Medical Representative Jobs: 847
Highest 10% Earn:
$57,000
Location Quotient:
1.41

$41,621

Avg. Salary

View 847 Medical Representative Jobs In NV

2. California

Total Medical Representative Jobs: 11,237
Highest 10% Earn:
$61,000
Location Quotient:
1.33

$43,827

Avg. Salary

View 11,237 Medical Representative Jobs In CA

3. New Jersey

Total Medical Representative Jobs: 2,876
Highest 10% Earn:
$65,000
Location Quotient:
1.26

$43,001

Avg. Salary

View 2,876 Medical Representative Jobs In NJ
Full List Of Best States For Medical Representatives

How Do Medical Representatives Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Medical Representative Employers

Most Common Employers For Medical Representative

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1AstraZeneca$55,509$26.6927
2Merck$52,273$25.1353
3Novartis$45,179$21.7265
4Eli Lilly and Company$44,536$21.4116
5Pfizer$42,253$20.3155
6Genentech$42,227$20.3044
7Bristol-Myers Squibb$41,608$20.0022
8Abbott$39,481$18.9874
9University of Maryland Medical System$38,329$18.4313
10Forest Laboratories$38,298$18.4113
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Updated April 6, 2023