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The differences between sales specialists and customer sales representatives 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 specialist, becoming a customer sales representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a sales specialist has an average salary of $53,004, which is higher than the $38,744 average annual salary of a customer sales representative.
The top three skills for a sales specialist include building relationships, customer complaints and customer orders. The most important skills for a customer sales representative are customer service, product knowledge, and customer sales.
| Sales Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $53,004 | $38,744 |
| Hourly rate | $25.48 | $18.63 |
| Growth rate | 4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 324,069 | 303,801 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 12 |
A sales specialist is responsible for offering the best goods and services to customers in order to boost the company's sales. Sales specialists also promote strategies and solutions to contribute to the company's growth and profitability. A sales specialist must have extensive knowledge of the current market trends and the best sales skills to perform marketing tasks. Sales specialists should have excellent communication and customer service skills to assist existing and potential clients with their inquiries and concerns.
The primary role of customer service representatives is to help customers with questions and complaints. It is also their duties and responsibilities to provide customers with information about services and products, take and process orders, and process returns and modifications. They also store records of customer transactions and interactions and provide feedback on customer service efficacy. Customer service representatives must also ensure that they can give customer satisfaction and offer the best professional support.
Sales specialists and customer sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $53,004 | $38,744 |
| Salary range | Between $30,000 And $91,000 | Between $27,000 And $54,000 |
| Highest paying City | Boston, MA | Santa Rosa, CA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | VMware | Merck |
| Best paying industry | - | Finance |
There are a few differences between a sales specialist and a customer sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Sales Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred | - |
Here are the differences between sales specialists' and customer sales representatives' demographics:
| Sales Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 55.1% Female, 44.9% | Male, 44.9% Female, 55.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 5.1% White, 72.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 24.4% Asian, 6.8% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 7% |