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The differences between sales agents and brokers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a broker has an average salary of $124,861, which is higher than the $45,217 average annual salary of a sales agent.
The top three skills for a sales agent include customer service, customer satisfaction and life insurance. The most important skills for a broker are brokerage, financial services, and insurance products.
| Sales Agent | Broker | |
| Yearly salary | $45,217 | $124,861 |
| Hourly rate | $21.74 | $60.03 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 391,987 | 2,770 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Average age | 43 | 49 |
| Years of experience | 6 | - |
A sales representative is responsible for offering goods and services to potential and existing clients. Sales representatives must display a strong knowledge of the company's products to assist customers with their inquiries and concerns. A sales representative should have exceptional communication skills and extensive knowledge of the sales industry to deliver sales pitches and negotiate pricing offers with the clients. Sales representatives must also keep themselves updated with the current market trends to provide service recommendations, improving their sales to increase revenues.
Brokers can either be a firm or an individual acting as an intermediary between a securities exchange and an investor. They often provide services to individual investors and traders who cannot engage directly with security exchanges, which only accept orders from their members. They provide investors and traders with an investment plan, market intelligence, and research. They may cross-sell some financial services and products offered by their brokerage firms. They are also typically classified as discount or full-service brokers.
Sales agents and brokers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Agent | Broker | |
| Average salary | $45,217 | $124,861 |
| Salary range | Between $21,000 And $95,000 | Between $68,000 And $227,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | New York | New York |
| Best paying company | Goldman Sachs | Child Guidance & Family Solutions |
| Best paying industry | - | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a sales agent and a broker in terms of educational background:
| Sales Agent | Broker | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 48% | Bachelor's Degree, 66% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Southern California |
Here are the differences between sales agents' and brokers' demographics:
| Sales Agent | Broker | |
| Average age | 43 | 49 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 52.7% Female, 47.3% | Male, 63.8% Female, 36.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.7% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 9.3% White, 68.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 5.3% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 13.2% Asian, 6.9% White, 70.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 13% |