Medical representative vs specialty representative

The differences between medical representatives and specialty representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a medical representative and a specialty representative. Additionally, a specialty representative has an average salary of $49,201, 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 specialty representative are patients, oncology, and dermatology.

Medical representative vs specialty representative overview

	Medical Representative	Specialty Representative
Yearly salary	$36,309	$49,201
Hourly rate	$17.46	$23.65
Growth rate	4%	4%
Number of jobs	176,481	50,435
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 85%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	2	2

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 specialty representative do?

A specialty representative is responsible for selling specific goods and services to target customers through remote communication or site visits, depending on business requirements and client needs. Specialty representatives assist the marketing and sales team in delivering high-quality sales strategies and promotional techniques to attract customers, identifying their needs by researching industry trends to drive more revenue resources and achieve sales goals and objectives. A specialty representative should have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially in responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns, resolving complaints, and updating their accounts within the database.

Medical representative vs specialty representative salary

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

	Medical Representative	Specialty Representative
Average salary	$36,309	$49,201
Salary range	Between $27,000 And $48,000	Between $26,000 And $92,000
Highest paying City	Lansing, MI	-
Highest paying state	Michigan	-
Best paying company	Capgemini	-
Best paying industry	Pharmaceutical	-

Differences between medical representative and specialty representative education

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

	Medical Representative	Specialty Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 68%	Bachelor's Degree, 85%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Pennsylvania

Medical representative vs specialty representative demographics

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

	Medical Representative	Specialty Representative
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%	Male, 47.7% Female, 52.3%
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, 14.2% Asian, 5.1% White, 72.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between medical representative and specialty 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.

Specialty representative example responsibilities.

Manage the strategic planning and territory development of neurology accounts.
Manage the development, productivity and utilization of local, regional and national speakers for hyperlipidemia and hypertension.
Attract and build strong advocates within large cardiology groups by building a reputation on integrity, product knowledge and accountability.
Develop and influence neurology and psychiatry opinion leaders by organizing medical education events, residency and speaker programs.
Present in-services for healthcare teams in surgery, ICU and GI settings.
Work with key colorectal surgeons and anesthesiologists to prepare for the launch of Entereg.

Medical representative vs specialty representative skills

Common medical representative skills

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

Common specialty representative skills

Patients, 27%
Oncology, 10%
Dermatology, 8%
Neurology, 6%
Educational Programs, 6%
Endocrinology, 5%

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Medical Representative
Medical Representative vs Specialty Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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