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The differences between senior sales executives and senior 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 senior sales executive, becoming a senior sales specialist takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a senior sales executive has an average salary of $110,808, which is higher than the $74,361 average annual salary of a senior sales specialist.
The top three skills for a senior sales executive include sales process, healthcare and business development. The most important skills for a senior sales specialist are customer service, sales training, and customer satisfaction.
| Senior Sales Executive | Senior Sales Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $110,808 | $74,361 |
| Hourly rate | $53.27 | $35.75 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 168,737 | 109,882 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 80% |
| Average age | 46 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 8 | 2 |
Senior sales executives are the most experienced members of a sales team. It is their responsibility to lead the customer representatives, ensuring that sales targets are met. Their job includes analyzing business trends to identify ways to improve products, ensuring customer satisfaction is met with the company products or services acquired, as well as submitting account plans and sales reports to higher management. They should also be able to timely resolve issues concerning complaints from the customer.
A senior sales specialist oversees and provides solutions to improve a company's sales operations. It is their responsibility to conduct market research and analysis, establish budgets and guidelines, generate leads, and develop sales strategies and sales forecasts. They also liaise and build positive relationships with vendors and suppliers, set sales targets, and resolve customer issues and complaints. Moreover, being a senior sales specialist, it is essential to lead and serve as a mentor to junior sales specialists while implementing and promoting the company's policies and regulations.
Senior sales executives and senior sales specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Senior Sales Executive | Senior Sales Specialist | |
| Average salary | $110,808 | $74,361 |
| Salary range | Between $59,000 And $207,000 | Between $50,000 And $108,000 |
| Highest paying City | Boston, MA | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | California |
| Best paying company | IBM | VMware |
| Best paying industry | Pharmaceutical | Pharmaceutical |
There are a few differences between a senior sales executive and a senior sales specialist in terms of educational background:
| Senior Sales Executive | Senior Sales Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 79% | Bachelor's Degree, 80% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Southern California | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between senior sales executives' and senior sales specialists' demographics:
| Senior Sales Executive | Senior Sales Specialist | |
| Average age | 46 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 71.3% Female, 28.7% | Male, 53.5% Female, 46.5% |
| 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, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 6% |