Medical representative vs inside sales specialist

The differences between medical representatives and inside sales specialists 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 specialist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, an inside sales specialist has an average salary of $50,944, 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 specialist are customer service, CRM, and sales process.

Medical representative vs inside sales specialist overview

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Specialist
Yearly salary	$36,309	$50,944
Hourly rate	$17.46	$24.49
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	176,481	251,423
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
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 specialist do?

An inside sales specialist is primarily responsible for securing sales by reaching out to clients to sell products and services. They may communicate with customers through calls and correspondence or personally recommend products in a retail store setting. Moreover, they are also responsible for responding to inquiries or concerns, identifying the customers' needs, devising strategies to find sales opportunities, and discussing products to customers. An inside sales specialist is often required to meet sales goals and report to managers should there be any issues or problems.

Medical representative vs inside sales specialist salary

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

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Specialist
Average salary	$36,309	$50,944
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $34,000 And $75,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	Michigan	Washington
Best paying company	Capgemini	Keller Williams Greater Seattle
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Real Estate

Differences between medical representative and inside sales specialist education

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

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

Medical representative vs inside sales specialist demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Inside Sales Specialist
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 52.0% Female, 48.0%
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, 13.9% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between medical representative and inside sales specialist 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 specialist example responsibilities.

Manage individual sales activities by developing highly effective, communications focuse relationship with multiple sales channels.
Present presentations to potential clients through Microsoft PowerPoint.
Maintain and update assigned territory through SalesLogix CRM program.
Revise and update CRM database to ensure accurate customer information.
Operate as inside sales consultant, primarily in areas of customer relations, sales/service support, coordinating production and transportation scheduling
Call on corporate counsel, c-level executives and law firms to sell solutions with traditional litigation support.

Medical representative vs inside sales specialist 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 specialist skills

Customer Service, 13%
CRM, 7%
Sales Process, 5%
Work Ethic, 5%
Product Knowledge, 5%
Outbound Calls, 4%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Inside Sales Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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