Medical representative vs sales representative

The differences between medical representatives and 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 sales representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a sales representative has an average salary of $56,591, 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 sales representative are sales process, product knowledge, and customer service.

Medical representative vs sales representative overview

	Medical Representative	Sales Representative
Yearly salary	$36,309	$56,591
Hourly rate	$17.46	$27.21
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	176,481	205,456
Job satisfaction	-	4.33
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 54%
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 sales representative do?

Sales representatives primarily sell the company's products and services to businesses or organizations. They should be adept at closing out sales, negotiating, and providing customer service. They should be knowledgeable about the products or services of the manufacturer or producer they represent. They must also have strong analytical skills that would help them in coming up with cost-benefit analysis in assessing the current roster of clients and even prospective ones. Sales representatives should also be able to maintain good working relationships with all involved stakeholders, especially clients.

Medical representative vs sales representative salary

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

	Medical Representative	Sales Representative
Average salary	$36,309	$56,591
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $33,000 And $94,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	Boston, MA
Highest paying state	Michigan	Massachusetts
Best paying company	Capgemini	Google
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	Pharmaceutical

Differences between medical representative and sales representative education

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

	Medical Representative	Sales Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 54%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

Medical representative vs sales representative demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Sales Representative
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 58.1% Female, 41.9%
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 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.

Sales representative example responsibilities.

Manage prospective leads and existing accounts through a CRM platform to accurately forecast revenue and develop long-term business partnerships.
Manage and create all content distribute via various social media outlets: Facebook, twitter, feedback blogs, etc.
Search for procurement contracts, attend trade shows, design flyers, postcards, etc.
Utilize POS sales software to maintain monetary sales information produce reports for organizational review.
Develop and maintain business relationships with businesses and policyholders using establish methods such as customer relationship management CRM.
Handle administrative and sales duties as Jr.

Medical representative vs 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 sales representative skills

Sales Process, 9%
Product Knowledge, 9%
Customer Service, 7%
CRM, 6%
Business Development, 6%
Sales REP, 5%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Sales Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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