What does a senior sales specialist do?
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 specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior sales specialist resumes:
- Manage contracts base on hospital GPO.
- Manage the promotion of neuroscience portfolio to psychiatry and neurology offices, including long-term care facilities.
- Manage GPO contracts, work with distributors to ensure supply chain efficiency; consult customer through full-product integration sales cycle.
- Manage blood bank solutions for blood plasma expander as well as blood infusion for chemotherapy, emergency room, and trauma.
- Manage territory as a solo dermatology specialty representative in Maryland and Washington DC.
- Generate leads and evangelize product to physicians in orthopedics, hematology, internal medicine, surgery, critical care and cardiology.
- Rank 27 of 82 YTD.
- Rank #2 in region for Q4 in FY 2013 and Q1 in FY 2014
- Sell merchandise using a point-of-sale (POS) software system.
- Work in tandem with Novartis specialty sales group to generate new business.
- Capture the highest market share in territory with the number one brand ADHD medication.
- Rank 2nd in region and 8th out of 177 nationally for overall YTD sales.
- Conceptualize, implement marketing strategies to foster use of medical kits for children with ADHD.
- Train new employees on POS system and how to be an impactful and productive employee.
- Season in specialty physician interactions allergists, ENTs, pulmonologists, OB/GYNs, gastroenterologists, as well as PCPs and pediatricians.
Senior sales specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 20% of Senior Sales Specialists are proficient in Customer Service, Sales Training, and Customer Satisfaction. They’re also known for soft skills such as Customer-service skills, Interpersonal skills, and Physical stamina.
We break down the percentage of Senior Sales Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 20%
Assisted with project management, implementation, purchasing, supplier relations, inventory tracking and customer service billing management.
- Sales Training, 10%
Performed role of Guest Trainer for immunology initial sales training class, and attended Immunology Leadership Development Summit.
- Customer Satisfaction, 7%
Coordinate for permanent solution of adding device to enhance Coverage whether internal or external the location to meet customer satisfaction.
- Product Knowledge, 6%
Provide high quality education opportunities that facilitate customer product knowledge concerning safety and efficacy to promote ease and comfort of use.
- Account Management, 6%
Ensured effective account management for growing existing business and generating new business for launch of two Nationally recognized brands.
- Patients, 5%
Provided educational and support materials to patients, families and therapists to encourage and promote successful therapy.
Common skills that a senior sales specialist uses to do their job include "customer service," "sales training," and "customer satisfaction." You can find details on the most important senior sales specialist responsibilities below.
Customer-service skills. One of the key soft skills for a senior sales specialist to have is customer-service skills. You can see how this relates to what senior sales specialists do because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to listen to the customer’s needs and concerns before and after the sale." Additionally, a senior sales specialist resume shows how senior sales specialists use customer-service skills: "expanded customer base, surpassed sales objectives, resulting in territory revenues exceeding $1.2 million. "
Interpersonal skills. Another essential skill to perform senior sales specialist duties is interpersonal skills. Senior sales specialists responsibilities require that "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to work well with many types of people." Senior sales specialists also use interpersonal skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "provide excellent customer service by applying strong interpersonal skills to deliver prompt and courteous service to all customers. "
Physical stamina. senior sales specialists are also known for physical stamina, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to senior sales specialist responsibilities, because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives are often on their feet for a long time and may carry heavy sample products." A senior sales specialist resume example shows how physical stamina is used in the workplace: "called on pain management and physical medicine & rehab physicians, anesthesiologists, oncologists, orthopedic surgeons, rheumatologists and podiatrists. "
Self-confidence. senior sales specialist responsibilities often require "self-confidence." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations." This resume example shows what senior sales specialists do with self-confidence on a typical day: "displayed consistency and earned the confidence of sales managers and fellow sales consultants by selling ninety seven cars by six months. "
The three companies that hire the most senior sales specialists are:
- Deloitte35 senior sales specialists jobs
- Edwards Lifesciences23 senior sales specialists jobs
- Amazon21 senior sales specialists jobs
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Compare different senior sales specialists
Senior sales specialist vs. Territory representative
A territory representative is responsible for selling the company's goods and services within a designated area, negotiating offers with potential clients, and identifying business opportunities according to market trends and customer demands. Territory representatives analyze the sales performance and strategize techniques to reach sales targets by coordinating with the whole sales team. They must be highly knowledgeable of the products offered by the company to demonstrate features and functionalities and respond to the inquiries and concerns the customers may have.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, senior sales specialist responsibilities require skills like "account management," "led training," "opportunity management," and "enterprise sales." Meanwhile a typical territory representative has skills in areas such as "food handling," "food safety," "sales territory," and "working independently." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Territory representatives tend to reach similar levels of education than senior sales specialists. In fact, territory representatives are 3.5% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Senior sales specialist vs. Specialty representative
A specialty representative is responsible for selling specific goods and services to target customers through remote communication or site visits, depending on business requirements and client needs. Specialty representatives assist the marketing and sales team in delivering high-quality sales strategies and promotional techniques to attract customers, identifying their needs by researching industry trends to drive more revenue resources and achieve sales goals and objectives. A specialty representative should have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially in responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns, resolving complaints, and updating their accounts within the database.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real senior sales specialist resumes. While senior sales specialist responsibilities can utilize skills like "customer service," "sales training," "customer satisfaction," and "account management," specialty representatives use skills like "dermatology," "disease state," "immunotherapy," and "hepatology."
Specialty representatives earn similar levels of education than senior sales specialists in general. They're 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior sales specialist vs. Sales/account representative
A sales account representative is responsible for managing and responding promptly to customer complaints and queries of clients. They focus on customer concerns and contact prospects. They work on upselling or cross-selling products and services, collaborating with account executives, and prepare reports to upper management. This job requires you to be a goal-driven person, energetic, and have excellent communication skills. Moreover, this is a challenging job; at times, it requires being extra polite and calm in handling customer complaints and other related situations.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, senior sales specialists are more likely to have skills like "sales training," "patients," "led training," and "enterprise sales." But a sales/account representative is more likely to have skills like "sales process," "sales techniques," "business development," and "work ethic."
Sales/account representatives earn the highest salary when working in the technology industry, where they receive an average salary of $72,531. Comparatively, senior sales specialists have the highest earning potential in the pharmaceutical industry, with an average salary of $98,432.When it comes to education, sales/account representatives tend to earn similar degree levels compared to senior sales specialists. In fact, they're 3.7% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior sales specialist vs. Consultant and sales representative
A consultant and sales representative's role is to perform research and analysis to devise strategies for reaching sales targets and optimal services. Aside from providing consultations and business plans, they may also represent the company by reaching out to clients through calls and correspondence. They may offer products and services to secure sales, answer inquiries, and even arrange appointments to discuss and negotiate deals. Furthermore, as a consultant and sales representative, it is essential to build positive relationships with clients in adherence to the company's policies and regulations.
Types of senior sales specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
