Medical representative vs representative

The differences between medical representatives and 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 representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a medical representative has an average salary of $36,309, which is higher than the $36,023 average annual salary of a representative.

The top three skills for a medical representative include patients, customer service and first aid kits. The most important skills for a representative are cleanliness, patients, and customer issues.

Medical representative vs representative overview

	Medical Representative	Representative
Yearly salary	$36,309	$36,023
Hourly rate	$17.46	$17.32
Growth rate	4%	-4%
Number of jobs	176,481	252,761
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Average age	47	40
Years of experience	2	12

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 representative do?

Representatives are lawmakers who represent the people in a specific district. They run for office to represent their districts in their hometown or their current place of living. Representatives are usually charismatic and good communicators. These characteristics are especially important during campaign and election periods. Representatives should be able to capture the hearts of the voters through their planned projects and advocacies. They are then elected by their constituents. Upon election, representatives author bills that will eventually be passed into law should it be approved by the majority of the congress. They also vote on the passage of bills authored by other representatives. They also participate in discussions and debates regarding different bills, issues, and laws. Representatives are expected to vote according to their conscience and in consideration of the voice of their constituents.

Medical representative vs representative salary

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

	Medical Representative	Representative
Average salary	$36,309	$36,023
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $23,000 And $55,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	Michigan	New York
Best paying company	Capgemini	Google
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Transportation

Differences between medical representative and representative education

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

	Medical Representative	Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 53%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	-

Medical representative vs representative demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Representative
Average age	47	40
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 41.8% Female, 58.2%
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, 11.0% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 20.9% Asian, 7.5% White, 54.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	6%	7%

Differences between medical representative and 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.

Representative example responsibilities.

Manage fitting rooms and recover the department, while providing exceptional customer service and offering rewards and POS options.
Manage physical portfolio with necessary derivatives to mitigate risk within company guidelines.
Conduct telephone sales and interviews, compile and enter information into database, manage documents and insure customer satisfaction.
Review EOB denials, appeals and/or rebilling as appropriate.
Certify of all requirements, policies, and procedures, including MSB.
Take inbound phone calls from member and providers explaining the EOB denial and payments

Medical representative vs representative skills

Common medical representative skills

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

Common representative skills

Cleanliness, 20%
Patients, 11%
Customer Issues, 10%
Customer Service, 10%
Data Entry, 6%
Outbound Calls, 3%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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