Medical representative vs customer sales representative

The differences between medical representatives and customer sales representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a medical representative, becoming a customer sales representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a customer sales representative has an average salary of $38,744, which is higher than the $36,309 average annual salary of a medical representative.

The top three skills for a medical representative include patients, customer service and first aid kits. The most important skills for a customer sales representative are customer service, product knowledge, and customer sales.

Medical representative vs customer sales representative overview

	Medical Representative	Customer Sales Representative
Yearly salary	$36,309	$38,744
Hourly rate	$17.46	$18.63
Growth rate	4%	-4%
Number of jobs	176,481	303,801
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Average age	47	40
Years of experience	2	12

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.

What does a customer sales representative do?

The primary role of customer service representatives is to help customers with questions and complaints. It is also their duties and responsibilities to provide customers with information about services and products, take and process orders, and process returns and modifications. They also store records of customer transactions and interactions and provide feedback on customer service efficacy. Customer service representatives must also ensure that they can give customer satisfaction and offer the best professional support.

Medical representative vs customer sales representative salary

Medical representatives and customer sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Medical Representative	Customer Sales Representative
Average salary	$36,309	$38,744
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $27,000 And $54,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	Santa Rosa, CA
Highest paying state	Michigan	Hawaii
Best paying company	Capgemini	Merck
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Finance

Differences between medical representative and customer sales representative education

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

	Medical Representative	Customer Sales Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	-

Medical representative vs customer sales representative demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Customer Sales Representative
Average age	47	40
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 44.9% Female, 55.1%
Race ratio	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%	Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 24.4% Asian, 6.8% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	6%	7%

Differences between medical representative and customer sales representative duties and responsibilities

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.

Customer sales representative example responsibilities.

Manage call center productivity levels by maintaining CSR schedule adherence.
Help customers if internet are running slow, if phone are not working, and also help to troubleshoot with them.
Practice good housekeeping methods and overall cleanliness.
Maintain cleanliness and organization of inventory within the assigned department.
Require to troubleshoot products and instruct customers on their proper use/warranty/options.
Work closely with sales director on scheduling, motivation of representations and setting up promotional events.

Medical representative vs customer sales representative skills

Common medical representative skills

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

Common customer sales representative skills

Customer Service, 19%
Product Knowledge, 13%
Customer Sales, 9%
Cleanliness, 8%
Excellent Interpersonal, 6%
Social Media Marketing, 5%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Customer Sales Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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