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What does an outbound sales representative do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
What does an outbound sales representative do

An outbound sales representative focuses on securing sales by reaching out to clients through calls, correspondence, or face-to-face interactions. They primarily offer products and services, assisting customers every step of the way to ensure client satisfaction. To carry out their duties, they must perform research and analysis to identify business opportunities, develop sales strategies, generate leads, discuss product specifications with customers, introduce payment plans, and negotiate contracts. Moreover, an outbound sales representative must build positive relationships with clients while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.

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Outbound sales representative responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real outbound sales representative resumes:

  • Contact medicare eligible recipients to sell medicare advantage plans through in-home meetings, community seminars and direct telesales.
  • Build rapport while selling customers solar panels, porches, and double glaze windows.
  • Assist customers with there questions and concerns, telemarketing, distribute flyers within neighborhood.
  • Require multitasking, responding appropriately to customer questions and concerns, and negotiating sales for additional products and services.
  • Educate customers and are experts in all TWC products, services and packages along with competitor's offerings.
  • Serve as expert and educator to customers on all TWC products, services and packages along with competitor's offerings.
  • Answer DSR questions regarding billing, service packages, pricing, products and features.
  • Provide troubleshooting and technical trouble ticket installation for DSL customer outages and connectivity issues.

Outbound sales representative skills and personality traits

We calculated that 25% of Outbound Sales Representatives are proficient in Outbound Sales, Customer Service, and Excellent Interpersonal. They’re also known for soft skills such as Physical stamina, Self-confidence, and Interpersonal skills.

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

  • Outbound Sales, 25%

    Targeted Outbound sales representative- Contacted targeted customers for sales

  • Customer Service, 11%

    Presented and promoted communications and entertainment services to new and existing customers in outbound calls while providing excellent customer service.

  • Excellent Interpersonal, 9%

    Demonstrated excellent interpersonal skills combined with an intuitive and professional approach contributed to an above average conversion rate.

  • Excellent Organizational, 8%

    Self-motivated, adaptable and have excellent organizational, communication and planning skills.

  • CRM, 7%

    Tracked purchase orders, calls dialed, cancelled orders and real-estate property purchases through Marriott's CRM Sales force.

  • Inbound Calls, 5%

    Received inbound calls for customers who expressed interest in purchasing security systems for whether it was residential or commercial.

"outbound sales," "customer service," and "excellent interpersonal" are among the most common skills that outbound sales representatives use at work. You can find even more outbound sales representative responsibilities below, including:

Physical stamina. The most essential soft skill for an outbound sales representative to carry out their responsibilities is physical stamina. This skill is important for the role because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives are often on their feet for a long time and may carry heavy sample products." Additionally, an outbound sales representative resume shows how their duties depend on physical stamina: "plan and conduct sales presentations by meeting customers physically on daily basis. "

Self-confidence. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling outbound sales representative duties is self-confidence. The role rewards competence in this skill because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations." According to an outbound sales representative resume, here's how outbound sales representatives can utilize self-confidence in their job responsibilities: "meet compliance standards for all medicare and hippa rules and regulations including specific language and confidentiality"

Interpersonal skills. outbound sales representatives are also known for interpersonal skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to outbound sales representative responsibilities, because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to work well with many types of people." An outbound sales representative resume example shows how interpersonal skills is used in the workplace: "provided a high level of customer service and client relations based on outstanding communication and interpersonal skills"

Customer-service skills. A big part of what outbound sales representatives do relies on "customer-service skills." You can see how essential it is to outbound sales representative responsibilities because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to listen to the customer’s needs and concerns before and after the sale." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical outbound sales representative tasks: "use sales techniques that maximize revenue while maintaining existing guest loyalty to marriott, including up-selling. "

Most common outbound sales representative skills

The three companies that hire the most outbound sales representatives are:

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Compare different outbound sales representatives

Outbound sales representative vs. Business development representative

A business development representative's role is to find new business and client opportunities through market research and networking. They are primarily responsible for participating in creating strategies to enhance client relations, improve sales, and reach out to potential clients through calls, correspondence, and meetings. Moreover, it is also their responsibility to perform follow-up calls, offer recommendations, and even build rapport to strengthen client base. As a representative, it is essential to coordinate with managers and supervisors and adhere to policies and regulations.

If we compare the average outbound sales representative annual salary with that of a business development representative, we find that business development representatives typically earn a $1,517 higher salary than outbound sales representatives make annually.Even though outbound sales representatives and business development representatives are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require customer service, excellent interpersonal, and excellent organizational in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, outbound sales representative responsibilities require skills like "outbound sales," "crm," "telephone calls," and "customer relationships." Meanwhile a typical business development representative has skills in areas such as "business development," "work ethic," "bdr," and "sales cycle." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

On average, business development representatives reach similar levels of education than outbound sales representatives. Business development representatives are 2.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Outbound sales representative vs. Sales development representative

A sales development representative qualifies leads at the sales funnel's initial stages. Sales development representatives need to conduct research for prospective clients and qualify the leads before handing them to the sales team. They develop sales strategies to attract buyers or solicit potential customers. They need to build relationships with their customers to determine their needs and qualify the viability of interests to drive sales. Also, they collaborate with the sales executives making certain that corporate targets and goals are met.

Sales development representative positions earn higher pay than outbound sales representative roles. They earn a $5,781 higher salary than outbound sales representatives per year.While the salary may differ for these jobs, they share a few skills needed to perform their duties. Based on resume data, both outbound sales representatives and sales development representatives have skills such as "outbound sales," "customer service," and "excellent interpersonal. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that outbound sales representative responsibilities requires skills like "excellent organizational," "crm," "inbound calls," and "telephone calls." But a sales development representative might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "sdr," "lead generation," "account executives," and "linkedin."

Sales development representatives earn similar levels of education than outbound sales representatives in general. They're 1.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Outbound sales representative vs. Sales representative internship

In a sales representative internship, an intern's duties depend on the directives of a supervising staff or manager. Typically, they are responsible for gaining industry insights while performing clerical tasks such as preparing and processing documents, greeting visitors, disseminating and organizing files, and running errands as needed. They may also participate in communicating with clients through calls and appointments to offer products and services, ensuring client satisfaction. Furthermore, as an intern, it is essential to familiarize and abide by the company's policies and regulations, including its vision and mission.

On average, sales representative interns earn lower salaries than outbound sales representatives, with a $11,167 difference per year.By looking over several outbound sales representatives and sales representative interns resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "customer service," "inbound calls," and "telephone calls." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from outbound sales representative resumes include skills like "outbound sales," "excellent interpersonal," "excellent organizational," and "crm," whereas a sales representative internship is more likely to list skills in "kids," "sales presentations," "powerpoint," and "outbound calls. "

Sales representative interns typically earn similar educational levels compared to outbound sales representatives. Specifically, they're 2.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Outbound sales representative vs. Sales support representative

A sales support representative is responsible for assisting the complex operations of sales departments, performing administrative duties under the supervision of a direct manager. Sales support representatives' tasks include acknowledging and encoding customers' orders in the system, processing payments, responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about the products, writing sales reports, and updating the customer of the shipment details. They also support the sales representatives on selling goods and services to potential customers by creating marketing materials and communicating with customers over the phone and e-mail to generate revenues and increase profits.

Sales support representatives tend to earn a lower pay than outbound sales representatives by an average of $7,413 per year.While their salaries may vary, outbound sales representatives and sales support representatives both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "customer service," "excellent interpersonal," and "crm. "

Even though a few skill sets overlap between outbound sales representatives and sales support representatives, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an outbound sales representative might have more use for skills like "outbound sales," "excellent organizational," "telephone calls," and "cold calls." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of sales support representatives require skills like "sales support," "phone calls," "pos," and "good communication. "

In general, sales support representatives hold similar degree levels compared to outbound sales representatives. Sales support representatives are 1.1% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of outbound sales representative

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.