Medical representative vs inside sales representative

The differences between medical representatives and inside 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 an inside sales representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, an inside sales representative has an average salary of $44,413, 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 inside sales representative are customer service, CRM, and outbound calls.

Medical representative vs inside sales representative overview

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Representative
Yearly salary	$36,309	$44,413
Hourly rate	$17.46	$21.35
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	176,481	244,168
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
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 an inside sales representative do?

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.

Medical representative vs inside sales representative salary

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

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Representative
Average salary	$36,309	$44,413
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $28,000 And $69,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Michigan	Wyoming
Best paying company	Capgemini	Berkshire Hathaway
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Technology

Differences between medical representative and inside sales representative education

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

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

Medical representative vs inside sales representative demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Representative
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 54.7% Female, 45.3%
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, 14.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between medical representative and inside 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.

Inside sales representative example responsibilities.

Coordinate commercial sales and manage projects with HVAC contractors for Georgia district.
Accomplish tasks in a timely manner.Skills UsedComputer, math, reading wiring schematics.
Generate leads through the use of Linkedin, firm websites and legal magazines.
Manage and develop a nationwide territory through cold calling utilizing LinkedIn?, DiscoverOrg.
Manage help desk support for company ERP system as well as employee hardware and software issues.
Manage a team of 15-25 ISE's through effective sales coaching, call monitoring and creating sales spiff programs.

Medical representative vs inside 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 inside sales representative skills

Customer Service, 22%
CRM, 6%
Outbound Calls, 5%
Product Knowledge, 4%
Work Ethic, 4%
Sales Process, 3%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Inside Sales Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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