Medical representative vs executive sales representative

The differences between medical representatives and executive sales 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 medical representative and an executive sales representative. Additionally, an executive sales representative has an average salary of $78,858, 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 an executive sales representative are patients, product knowledge, and oncology.

Medical representative vs executive sales representative overview

	Medical Representative	Executive Sales Representative
Yearly salary	$36,309	$78,858
Hourly rate	$17.46	$37.91
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	176,481	226,902
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 79%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	2	2

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 an executive sales representative do?

An executive sales representative researches and recommends business opportunities. They analyze sales alternatives and help build business relations with clients and prospects. They must keep updated on business trends and potential competitors to best recommend new product ideas. They must be open-minded, risk-takers, adaptive, and innovative to be able to develop successful marketing strategies. It is also necessary for them to be highly skilled at business analysis to distinguish selling opportunities and create an immediate action plan.

Medical representative vs executive sales representative salary

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

	Medical Representative	Executive Sales Representative
Average salary	$36,309	$78,858
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $48,000 And $128,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	-
Highest paying state	Michigan	-
Best paying company	Capgemini	-
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	-

Differences between medical representative and executive sales representative education

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

	Medical Representative	Executive Sales Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 79%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Medical representative vs executive sales representative demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Executive Sales Representative
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 53.7% Female, 46.3%
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, 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%

Differences between medical representative and executive 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.

Executive sales representative example responsibilities.

Position products above the competition, utilizing data, manage care information and patient benefit to promote the Novartis brands.
Achieve sales growth objectives by incorporating product/technical knowledge, teamwork, customer and multi-product focus, innovation and creativity.
Call on customers in oncology, pulmonology urology, cardiology, neurology, OB/GYN, psychiatry, gastroenterology and primary care.
Promote diabetes medications to family practice, general practice, internal medicine physicians and diabetic educators.
Track and create territory reports and spreadsheets with action items and a pod business plan.
Target specialty sales to neurology, psychiatry, pain management and high target primary care physicians.

Medical representative vs executive 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 executive sales representative skills

Patients, 10%
Product Knowledge, 10%
Oncology, 8%
Account Management, 7%
Territory Management, 7%
Customer Satisfaction, 6%

Medical Representative vs. similar jobs

Medical Representative related careers

Medical Representative related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Sales Industry
Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Executive Sales Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse sales jobs