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The differences between medical sales specialists and inside 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 sales specialist, becoming an inside sales representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a medical sales specialist has an average salary of $69,959, which is higher than the $44,413 average annual salary of an inside sales representative.
The top three skills for a medical sales specialist include patients, medical devices and medical sales. The most important skills for an inside sales representative are customer service, CRM, and outbound calls.
| Medical Sales Specialist | Inside Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $69,959 | $44,413 |
| Hourly rate | $33.63 | $21.35 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 76,398 | 244,168 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
A medical sales specialist is an individual who advertises, markets, and distributes a specific pharmaceutical product or medical equipment to medical establishments. Medical sales specialists must manage a network of independent representatives and maintain relationships with their clients to attain territory-specific sales goals. They develop marketing strategies and business sales plans to identify key growth areas and deliver short and long-term corporate objectives. Medical sales specialists should also conduct analyses on product and market trends to achieve and exceed sales goals.
An inside sales representative is responsible for selling services and products to clients, driving the company's revenues and increase sales profitability. Duties of an inside sales representative include developing strategic sales pitches, responding to customer's inquiries and requests, offering promotional products and discounts, researching potential clients, creating sales reports, and managing customer's possible complaints. An inside sales representative also provides strategic solutions to share with the sales team to improve their sales performance. Inside sales representatives must have excellent communication and negotiation skills to deal with customers' needs.
Medical sales specialists and inside sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Medical Sales Specialist | Inside Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $69,959 | $44,413 |
| Salary range | Between $47,000 And $102,000 | Between $28,000 And $69,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | California | Wyoming |
| Best paying company | Medline | Berkshire Hathaway |
| Best paying industry | Pharmaceutical | Technology |
There are a few differences between a medical sales specialist and an inside sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Medical Sales Specialist | Inside Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred |
Here are the differences between medical sales specialists' and inside sales representatives' demographics:
| Medical Sales Specialist | Inside Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 50.8% Female, 49.2% | Male, 54.7% Female, 45.3% |
| Race ratio | 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% | Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |