Sales administrator vs inside sales specialist

The differences between sales administrators and inside sales specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-8 years to become a sales administrator, becoming an inside sales specialist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, an inside sales specialist has an average salary of $50,944, which is higher than the $41,404 average annual salary of a sales administrator.

The top three skills for a sales administrator include customer service, sales support and powerpoint. The most important skills for an inside sales specialist are customer service, CRM, and sales process.

Sales administrator vs inside sales specialist overview

	Sales Administrator	Inside Sales Specialist
Yearly salary	$41,404	$50,944
Hourly rate	$19.91	$24.49
Growth rate	5%	4%
Number of jobs	82,712	251,423
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Average age	46	47
Years of experience	8	4

What does a sales administrator do?

A sales administrator supports sales representatives to make customer deals. Aside from that, tasks such as answering customer queries, checking stock availability, processing deliveries, sending out invoices, and maintaining records and databases are a sales administrator's duties. Overall, a sales administrator focuses on orders, communicating to customers via telephone or face-to-face, invoicing, targeting sales, and record keeping.

What does an inside sales specialist do?

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.

Sales administrator vs inside sales specialist salary

Sales administrators and inside sales specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Sales Administrator	Inside Sales Specialist
Average salary	$41,404	$50,944
Salary range	Between $29,000 And $58,000	Between $34,000 And $75,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	California	Washington
Best paying company	KLA	Keller Williams Greater Seattle
Best paying industry	Technology	Real Estate

Differences between sales administrator and inside sales specialist education

There are a few differences between a sales administrator and an inside sales specialist in terms of educational background:

	Sales Administrator	Inside Sales Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 69%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

Sales administrator vs inside sales specialist demographics

Here are the differences between sales administrators' and inside sales specialists' demographics:

	Sales Administrator	Inside Sales Specialist
Average age	46	47
Gender ratio	Male, 21.0% Female, 79.0%	Male, 52.0% Female, 48.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	7%	6%

Differences between sales administrator and inside sales specialist duties and responsibilities

Sales administrator example responsibilities.

Manage distributor accounts including inventory management, allocations, and communicating internally with purchasing, logistics, finance and shipping departments.
Work with operations to expedite deliveries, or track shipments as requested by customer.
Confer with sales, shipping, and warehouse to expedite or trace missing or delay shipments.
Publish POS materials and create correspondence to distributors for seasonal promotion items.
Design and produce consumer/distributor incentive programs, POS materials and retail display systems.
Manage distributor accounts including inventory management, allocations, and communicating internally with purchasing, logistics, finance and shipping departments.

Inside sales specialist example responsibilities.

Manage individual sales activities by developing highly effective, communications focuse relationship with multiple sales channels.
Present presentations to potential clients through Microsoft PowerPoint.
Maintain and update assigned territory through SalesLogix CRM program.
Revise and update CRM database to ensure accurate customer information.
Operate as inside sales consultant, primarily in areas of customer relations, sales/service support, coordinating production and transportation scheduling
Call on corporate counsel, c-level executives and law firms to sell solutions with traditional litigation support.

Sales administrator vs inside sales specialist skills

Common sales administrator skills

Customer Service, 37%
Sales Support, 13%
PowerPoint, 5%
Data Entry, 5%
CRM, 4%
Salesforce, 4%

Common inside sales specialist skills

Customer Service, 13%
CRM, 7%
Sales Process, 5%
Work Ethic, 5%
Product Knowledge, 5%
Outbound Calls, 4%

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Executive Management Industry
Sales Administrator
Sales Administrator vs Inside Sales Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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