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The differences between sales operations specialists 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 sales operations specialist, 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 $76,900 average annual salary of a sales operations specialist.
The top three skills for a sales operations specialist include sales operations, CRM and customer service. The most important skills for a product specialist are customer service, product knowledge, and sales floor.
| Sales Operations Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $76,900 | $85,932 |
| Hourly rate | $36.97 | $41.31 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 19% |
| Number of jobs | 355,551 | 103,863 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 65% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Average age | 47 | 37 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 6 |
The sales operation specialist is the one who is responsible for making certain that the company's sales are efficient and effective. They gather and evaluate sales data for a company. The results are compared with business plans and previous forecasts to find out if goals were achieved. These specialists are also responsible for creating forecasts about upcoming sales data. Also, they make contracts that fulfill both customer and company needs. Skills required for a sales operations specialist include negotiation, good communication skills, analytical, and strong leadership skills.
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.
Sales operations specialists and product specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Operations Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Average salary | $76,900 | $85,932 |
| Salary range | Between $50,000 And $116,000 | Between $56,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | San Bruno, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | California |
| Best paying company | Amazon | ByteDance |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a sales operations specialist and a product specialist in terms of educational background:
| Sales Operations Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 65% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between sales operations specialists' and product specialists' demographics:
| Sales Operations Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Average age | 47 | 37 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 51.5% Female, 48.5% | Male, 59.8% Female, 40.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | 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 Percentage | 6% | 10% |