Sales administrator vs sales support representative

The differences between sales administrators and sales support representatives 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 a sales support representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a sales administrator has an average salary of $41,404, which is higher than the $38,310 average annual salary of a sales support representative.

The top three skills for a sales administrator include customer service, sales support and powerpoint. The most important skills for a sales support representative are sales support, phone calls, and POS.

Sales administrator vs sales support representative overview

	Sales Administrator	Sales Support Representative
Yearly salary	$41,404	$38,310
Hourly rate	$19.91	$18.42
Growth rate	5%	4%
Number of jobs	82,712	319,292
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
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 a sales support representative do?

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 administrator vs sales support representative salary

Sales administrators and sales support representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Sales Administrator	Sales Support Representative
Average salary	$41,404	$38,310
Salary range	Between $29,000 And $58,000	Between $30,000 And $48,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Seattle, WA
Highest paying state	California	Washington
Best paying company	KLA	NetApp
Best paying industry	Technology	Finance

Differences between sales administrator and sales support representative education

There are a few differences between a sales administrator and a sales support representative in terms of educational background:

	Sales Administrator	Sales Support Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	SUNY College of Technology at Alfred

Sales administrator vs sales support representative demographics

Here are the differences between sales administrators' and sales support representatives' demographics:

	Sales Administrator	Sales Support Representative
Average age	46	47
Gender ratio	Male, 21.0% Female, 79.0%	Male, 39.9% Female, 60.1%
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, 14.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	7%	6%

Differences between sales administrator and sales support representative 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.

Sales support representative example responsibilities.

Manage internal CRM and inventory software to track and input sales orders, account history, and stock allocation.
Facilitate the transition from AS400 to JDE operating system.
Utilize all programs, systems, and procedures of windows operating systems.
Help customers troubleshoot technical issues with their computers, process customer transactions and handle escalate issues.
Assist in setting up and checking EDI data from customers, brokers, carriers, and truckers.
Work collaboratively with sales representatives and regional vice presidents to produce cost proposals, problem solve and troubleshoot issues.

Sales administrator vs sales support representative skills

Common sales administrator skills

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

Common sales support representative skills

Sales Support, 16%
Phone Calls, 10%
POS, 8%
Product Knowledge, 7%
Customer Complaints, 6%
Customer Inquiries, 6%

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Executive Management Industry
Sales Administrator
Sales Administrator vs Sales Support Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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