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The differences between technical sales specialists and sales representatives 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 sales representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a technical sales specialist has an average salary of $86,598, which is higher than the $56,591 average annual salary of a sales representative.
The top three skills for a technical sales specialist include customer service, technical knowledge and cloud. The most important skills for a sales representative are sales process, product knowledge, and customer service.
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $86,598 | $56,591 |
| Hourly rate | $41.63 | $27.21 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 212,987 | 205,456 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.33 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 54% |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 4 |
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.
Sales representatives primarily sell the company's products and services to businesses or organizations. They should be adept at closing out sales, negotiating, and providing customer service. They should be knowledgeable about the products or services of the manufacturer or producer they represent. They must also have strong analytical skills that would help them in coming up with cost-benefit analysis in assessing the current roster of clients and even prospective ones. Sales representatives should also be able to maintain good working relationships with all involved stakeholders, especially clients.
Technical sales specialists and sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $86,598 | $56,591 |
| Salary range | Between $57,000 And $129,000 | Between $33,000 And $94,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Boston, MA |
| Highest paying state | California | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | ||
| Best paying industry | - | Pharmaceutical |
There are a few differences between a technical sales specialist and a sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 54% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred |
Here are the differences between technical sales specialists' and sales representatives' demographics:
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.3% Female, 24.7% | Male, 58.1% Female, 41.9% |
| 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, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.5% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |