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The differences between medical sales specialists and outside 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 outside 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 $60,443 average annual salary of an outside sales representative.
The top three skills for a medical sales specialist include patients, medical devices and medical sales. The most important skills for an outside sales representative are customer service, work ethic, and sales process.
| Medical Sales Specialist | Outside Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $69,959 | $60,443 |
| Hourly rate | $33.63 | $29.06 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 76,398 | 218,034 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| 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 Outside Sales Representative specializes in customer service and relations, focusing on reaching sales targets through selling and networking with clients. Among the duties revolve around reaching out to customers through calls, email, or even arranging appointments, monitoring and keeping an organized record of sales, communicating with managers or supervisors, adhering to the company's policies and regulations, and keeping extensive knowledge about the brand and the trends. Besides building rapport with customers, it is also essential for an Outside Sales Representative to be proactive and create strategies to help meet the sales target.
Medical sales specialists and outside sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Medical Sales Specialist | Outside Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $69,959 | $60,443 |
| Salary range | Between $47,000 And $102,000 | Between $41,000 And $87,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Minneapolis, MN |
| Highest paying state | California | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Medline | Microsoft |
| Best paying industry | Pharmaceutical | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a medical sales specialist and an outside sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Medical Sales Specialist | Outside Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 67% |
| 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 outside sales representatives' demographics:
| Medical Sales Specialist | Outside Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 50.8% Female, 49.2% | Male, 71.5% Female, 28.5% |
| 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, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.4% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |