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.

Medical Representative Responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real medical representative resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

  • 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.
  • Facilitate instruction to clinical and non-clinical personnel and patients on objectives of patient care services.
  • Create access to ICU, HIV clinic, psych lock-down.
  • Schedule appointments, completing demographic and insurance registration while using the IDX system.
  • Input ICD-9 and CPT codes for hospital/physician charge entry, for timely claims filing.
  • Train new sales reps in the field throughout the country for the Gastroenterology sales force.
  • Distribute medical and surgical equipment and services to area hospitals, clinics and surgery centers.
  • Register and schedule outpatient follow up initial, and specialty appointments by phone and IDX system.
  • Promote in the cardiology, endocrinology, pulmonology, surgeons primary care and emergency room fields.
  • Recruit to successfully promote primary products in hospital setting targeting ICU, ER, and CCU.

Medical Representative Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 17% of Medical Representatives are proficient in Patients, Customer Service, and First Aid Kits. They’re also known for soft skills such as Physical stamina, Self-confidence, and Customer-service skills.

We break down the percentage of Medical Representatives that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Patients, 17%

    Designed classes regarding nutrition and maintaining a healthy lifestyle for diabetic patients.

  • Customer Service, 13%

    Provided customer service to Purchasing Managers and assisted in fulfilling inventory needs of hospital medical supplies and accurately scheduling deliveries.

  • First Aid Kits, 9%

    Maintain first aid kits, inventory supplies, and restock and clean equipment.

  • Incident Investigations, 9%

    Participate in incident investigations and provide documentation for safety team and workers comp cases.

  • CPR, 6%

    Established and directed Military Training Network Site for CPR utilizing AHA guidelines providing required training/certification to 1500 employees over 4 years.

  • Medical Terminology, 6%

    Interpret medical records and understands medical terminology regarding soft tissue injuries.

"patients," "customer service," and "first aid kits" aren't the only skills we found medical representatives list on their resumes. In fact, there's a whole list of medical representative responsibilities that we found, including:

  • The most important skills for a medical representative to have in this position are physical stamina. In this excerpt that we gathered from a medical representative resume, you'll understand why: "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives are often on their feet for a long time and may carry heavy sample products." According to resumes we found, physical stamina can be used by a medical representative in order to "schedule physical therapy appointments for patients. "
  • Another trait important for fulfilling medical representative duties is self-confidence. According to a medical representative resume, "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations." Here's an example of how medical representatives are able to utilize self-confidence: "prepare all medical documents for copying data entry customer service promote and maintain patient confidentiality"
  • Customer-service skills is also an important skill for medical representatives to have. This example of how medical representatives use this skill comes from a medical representative resume, "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to listen to the customer’s needs and concerns before and after the sale." Read this excerpt from a resume to understand how vital it is to their everyday roles and responsibilities, "worked in a separate department of the call center, making outbound calls to customers to inform them of expired prescriptions. "
  • In order for certain medical representative responsibilities to be completed, the job requires the skill "interpersonal skills." According to a medical representative resume, "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to work well with many types of people" As an example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies: "assisted with patients in examination rooms practiced interpersonal skills and became familiar with medical terminology"
  • See the full list of medical representative skills.

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    What Outside Saless 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.

    In this section, we compare the average medical representative annual salary with that of an outside sales. Typically, outside sales earn a $40,983 higher salary than medical representatives earn annually.

    While their salaries may differ, one common ground between medical representatives and outside sales are a few of the skills required in each craft. In both careers, employees bring forth skills like customer service, product knowledge, and outbound calls.

    As far as similarities go, this is where it ends because a medical representative responsibility requires skills such as "patients," "first aid kits," "incident investigations," and "cpr." Whereas a outside sales is skilled in "first hand," "ongoing support," "work ethic," and "crm." So if you're looking for what truly separates the two careers, you've found it.

    Outside sales really shine in the manufacturing industry with an average salary of $83,118. Whereas medical representatives tend to make the most money in the pharmaceutical industry with an average salary of $39,941.

    On average, outside sales reach similar levels of education than medical representatives. Outside sales are 3.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 2.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

    What Are The Duties Of an Inside Sales Specialist?

    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.

    The next role we're going to look at is the inside sales specialist profession. Typically, this position earns a higher pay. In fact, they earn a $14,635 higher salary than medical representatives per year.

    Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Medical representatives and inside sales specialists both include similar skills like "customer service," "data entry," and "excellent organizational" on their resumes.

    But both careers also use different skills, according to real medical representative resumes. While medical representative responsibilities can utilize skills like "patients," "first aid kits," "incident investigations," and "cpr," some inside sales specialists use skills like "crm," "sales process," "work ethic," and "customer satisfaction."

    On average, inside sales specialists earn a higher salary than medical representatives. There are industries that support higher salaries in each profession respectively. Interestingly enough, inside sales specialists earn the most pay in the real estate industry with an average salary of $63,848. Whereas, medical representatives have higher paychecks in the pharmaceutical industry where they earn an average of $39,941.

    In general, inside sales specialists study at similar levels of education than medical representatives. They're 1.4% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 2.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    How an Inside Sales Associate Compares

    An inside sales associate is responsible for selling the company's goods and services through remote communication. Inside sales associates make calls to potential customers, demonstrate the products' features, take orders, process payments, and inform the customers of the delivery details. They strategize the most effective sales pitches to attract the customers on purchasing more services that would generate revenues and increase the company's profitability and brand image. An inside sales associate also supports the marketing team in developing marketing campaigns and promotional offers depending on customer demands and requests.

    The inside sales associate profession generally makes a higher amount of money when compared to the average salary of medical representatives. The difference in salaries is inside sales associates making $4,378 higher than medical representatives.

    Using medical representatives and inside sales associates resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "data entry," "excellent organizational," and "strong customer service," but the other skills required are very different.

    There are many key differences between these two careers as shown by resumes from each profession. Some of those differences include the skills required to complete responsibilities within each role. As an example of this, a medical representative is likely to be skilled in "patients," "customer service," "first aid kits," and "incident investigations," while a typical inside sales associate is skilled in "inside sales," "sales associates," "sales process," and "customer satisfaction."

    Inside sales associates make a very good living in the health care industry with an average annual salary of $47,342. Whereas medical representatives are paid the highest salary in the pharmaceutical industry with the average being $39,941.

    When it comes to education, inside sales associates tend to earn similar education levels than medical representatives. In fact, they're 3.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 1.8% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

    Description Of a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist

    A pharmaceutical sales specialist's primary duty is to reach out to pharmacies, medical facilities, and physicians to discuss the latest medical drugs in an effort to secure sales. Their responsibilities typically revolve around learning and understanding everything about the products that they are offering, traveling to different areas to deliver samples, and maintaining records of all transactions. Furthermore, as a pharmaceutical sales specialist, it is essential to create marketing materials and build positive relationships with clients to accomplish sales targets, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.

    Pharmaceutical sales specialists tend to earn a higher pay than medical representatives by about $36,694 per year.

    While both medical representatives and pharmaceutical sales specialists complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like patients, internal medicine, and product knowledge, the two careers also vary in other skills.

    Each job requires different skills like "customer service," "first aid kits," "incident investigations," and "cpr," which might show up on a medical representative resume. Whereas pharmaceutical sales specialist might include skills like "sales territory," "clinical evidence," "diabetes," and "business plan."

    Pharmaceutical sales specialists earn a higher salary in the pharmaceutical industry with an average of $126,357. Whereas, medical representatives earn the highest salary in the pharmaceutical industry.

    Pharmaceutical sales specialists reach similar levels of education when compared to medical representatives. The difference is that they're 2.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree more, and 1.6% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.