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The differences between technical sales specialists and product specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a technical sales specialist, becoming a product specialist takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a technical sales specialist has an average salary of $86,598, which is higher than the $85,932 average annual salary of a product specialist.
The top three skills for a technical sales specialist include customer service, technical knowledge and cloud. The most important skills for a product specialist are customer service, product knowledge, and sales floor.
| Technical Sales Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $86,598 | $85,932 |
| Hourly rate | $41.63 | $41.31 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 19% |
| Number of jobs | 212,987 | 103,863 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Average age | 47 | 37 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 6 |
A technical sales specialist is in charge of devising strategies to develop technical solutions for optimizing sales procedures. Their responsibilities revolve around identifying market and client needs, assessing existing programs and projects to determine its strengths and weaknesses, and recommending improvements as needed. A technical sales specialist may also interact with walk-in clients, or reach out to them through calls and correspondence, to demonstrate and offer products and services. Furthermore, as a technical sales specialist, it is essential to produce progress reports and maintain records of transactions, all while prioritizing to meet sales targets.
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.
Technical sales specialists and product specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Sales Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Average salary | $86,598 | $85,932 |
| Salary range | Between $57,000 And $129,000 | Between $56,000 And $130,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | San Bruno, CA |
| Highest paying state | California | California |
| Best paying company | ByteDance | |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a technical sales specialist and a product specialist in terms of educational background:
| Technical Sales Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 64% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between technical sales specialists' and product specialists' demographics:
| Technical Sales Specialist | Product Specialist | |
| Average age | 47 | 37 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.3% Female, 24.7% | Male, 59.8% Female, 40.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.4% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.6% 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% |