Medical representative vs outside sales

The differences between medical representatives and outside sales 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 outside sales takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, an outside sales has an average salary of $77,292, 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 outside sales are customer service, product knowledge, and ongoing support.

Medical representative vs outside sales overview

	Medical Representative	Outside Sales
Yearly salary	$36,309	$77,292
Hourly rate	$17.46	$37.16
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	176,481	333,400
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
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 outside sales do?

An outside sales representative is responsible for generating the company's sales and revenues by offering goods and services to existing and potential clients, responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about the products, and researching on possible leads. Outside sales representatives monitor the current industry trends to identify new business opportunities that would help the business adjust to market changes to achieve profitability goals. An outside sales representative must have excellent communication and customer service skills, immediately resolving complaints and assisting on marketing promotions to gain sales prospects.

Medical representative vs outside sales salary

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

	Medical Representative	Outside Sales
Average salary	$36,309	$77,292
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $56,000 And $104,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	Arlington, VA
Highest paying state	Michigan	New Hampshire
Best paying company	Capgemini	Morgan Stanley
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Manufacturing

Differences between medical representative and outside sales education

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

	Medical Representative	Outside Sales
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

Medical representative vs outside sales demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Outside Sales
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 78.3% Female, 21.7%
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, 72.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between medical representative and outside sales 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.

Outside sales example responsibilities.

Plan logistical outside sales route, planned/schedule sales calls with web-base CRM program, manage various sales cycles.
Manage and create all content distribute via various social media outlets: Facebook, twitter, feedback blogs, etc.
Perfect the craft of upselling customers.
Prepare material estimates/bids for houses, windows, doors, trusses, etc.
Increase existing customer base and generate new dealer and customer relationships within the HVAC equipment and sales.
Estimate, price, bid and follow up to all mechanical HVAC and plumbing plan and spec projects.

Medical representative vs outside sales skills

Common medical representative skills

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

Common outside sales skills

Customer Service, 30%
Product Knowledge, 9%
Ongoing Support, 4%
Work Ethic, 4%
CRM, 4%
Flyers, 4%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Outside Sales

Updated January 8, 2025

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