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Product trainer vs product specialist

The differences between product trainers and product specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a product trainer, becoming a product specialist takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a product specialist has an average salary of $85,932, which is higher than the $55,361 average annual salary of a product trainer.

The top three skills for a product trainer include training materials, training sessions and powerpoint. The most important skills for a product specialist are customer service, product knowledge, and sales floor.

Product trainer vs product specialist overview

Product TrainerProduct Specialist
Yearly salary$55,361$85,932
Hourly rate$26.62$41.31
Growth rate8%19%
Number of jobs98,126103,863
Job satisfaction45
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Average age4437
Years of experience46

What does a product trainer do?

A product trainer is responsible for guiding and teaching the employees or the whole organization regarding a specific product or service offered by the company. Product trainers must be highly knowledgeable of the product to be able to assist the employees with their inquiries and concerns and provide recommendations as necessary. They handle the development of learning materials, outline training schedules, and identify each employee's strengths and weaknesses for development. A product trainer works with large groups of people, requiring them to have excellent communication skills.

What does a product specialist do?

A product specialist is required to have excellent knowledge about a product and work with a business unit to ensure excellent product delivery. Product specialists perform product demonstrations to customers and other stakeholders and assist in their promotions and product releases. To gain increased revenue, product specialists must be able to identify new market opportunities. They are required to conduct product and sales training for the marketing team. They must also provide reports about their product-related activities to the management.

Product trainer vs product specialist salary

Product trainers and product specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

Product TrainerProduct Specialist
Average salary$55,361$85,932
Salary rangeBetween $45,000 And $68,000Between $56,000 And $130,000
Highest paying City-San Bruno, CA
Highest paying state-California
Best paying company-ByteDance
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between product trainer and product specialist education

There are a few differences between a product trainer and a product specialist in terms of educational background:

Product TrainerProduct Specialist
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 64%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Georgia

Product trainer vs product specialist demographics

Here are the differences between product trainers' and product specialists' demographics:

Product TrainerProduct Specialist
Average age4437
Gender ratioMale, 57.6% Female, 42.4%Male, 59.8% Female, 40.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 10.4% Unknown, 6.3% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 5.9% White, 60.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%Black or African American, 5.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 12.5% Asian, 10.6% White, 66.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage12%10%

Differences between product trainer and product specialist duties and responsibilities

Product trainer example responsibilities.

  • Instruct representatives on how to maximize functionality of relational database to effectively manage their sales territories and expenses.
  • Require use of PowerPoint presentations, classroom training and one on one tutoring with new employees.
  • Revise and maintain document templates, project-wide style guide, and standards of practice in SharePoint document database.
  • Develop a company intranet using SharePoint.
  • Create PowerPoint presentations and customize learning reference aids.
  • Establish overall infrastructure for off-shore development including communication plan, QA, testing and packaging, functional and detail design standards
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Product specialist example responsibilities.

  • Create and manage RFP responses for potential customers and develop product quotes base on customer requirements.
  • Manage projects and priorities list of ongoing engineering plans base on ROI and business needs, and relay to operations regularly.
  • Perform weekly review and update of lead list against opportunities manage in Salesforce.com.
  • Manage telephone relationships with senior management of client companies to troubleshoot and develop product.
  • Participate in CAPA activities as required.
  • Develop generic UI's that includes re-branding & re-skinning of product.
  • Show more

Product trainer vs product specialist skills

Common product trainer skills
  • Training Materials, 12%
  • Training Sessions, 10%
  • PowerPoint, 9%
  • Course Content, 7%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 4%
  • Presentation, 4%
Common product specialist skills
  • Customer Service, 19%
  • Product Knowledge, 7%
  • Sales Floor, 7%
  • Patients, 6%
  • Excellent Interpersonal, 4%
  • Windows, 3%

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