Medical representative vs field sales representative

The differences between medical representatives and field 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 field sales representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a field sales representative has an average salary of $48,460, 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 field sales representative are excellent time management, customer service, and powerpoint.

Medical representative vs field sales representative overview

	Medical Representative	Field Sales Representative
Yearly salary	$36,309	$48,460
Hourly rate	$17.46	$23.30
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	176,481	228,254
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	2	4

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 field sales representative do?

A field sales representative is an employee who is employed by business-to-business (B2B) and wholesale organizations to visit leads and sell products or services to their customers in person. Field sales representatives must attract new customers and win new accounts so that they can maximize profitability within their territory. They travel around their assigned territory and visit their customers regularly to educate them on how their products can benefit them. Field sales representatives must also maintain records of all sales leads and monitor the organization's competitor, new products, and market conditions.

Medical representative vs field sales representative salary

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

	Medical Representative	Field Sales Representative
Average salary	$36,309	$48,460
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $26,000 And $88,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Michigan	Washington
Best paying company	Capgemini	VMware
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Technology

Differences between medical representative and field sales representative education

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

	Medical Representative	Field Sales Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 73%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

Medical representative vs field sales representative demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Field Sales Representative
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 69.5% Female, 30.5%
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, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.5% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between medical representative and field 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.

Field sales representative example responsibilities.

Train and manage new DSR's.
Lead seminars for the CPA community for CPE credits.
Develop and manage sales in major retail accounts in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Manage and assist a vast customer base in the market for new roofing needs after a large hail storm in Lubbock.
Manage merchandising and POS materials at the retail store level ensuring meticulous compliance with all current corporate initiative regulations.
Conduct effective group Medicare HMO/PPO presentations/seminars, as well as one-on-one field sales presentations.

Medical representative vs field 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 field sales representative skills

Excellent Time Management, 17%
Customer Service, 8%
PowerPoint, 6%
Medicare, 6%
Account Management, 6%
Sales Presentations, 5%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Field Sales Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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