Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between technical sales specialists and sales 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 sales specialist takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a technical sales specialist has an average salary of $86,598, which is higher than the $53,004 average annual salary of a sales specialist.
The top three skills for a technical sales specialist include customer service, technical knowledge and cloud. The most important skills for a sales specialist are building relationships, customer complaints, and customer orders.
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $86,598 | $53,004 |
| Hourly rate | $41.63 | $25.48 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 212,987 | 324,069 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| 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.
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.
Technical sales specialists and sales specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Specialist | |
| Average salary | $86,598 | $53,004 |
| Salary range | Between $57,000 And $129,000 | Between $30,000 And $91,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Boston, MA |
| Highest paying state | California | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | VMware | |
| Best paying industry | - | - |
There are a few differences between a technical sales specialist and a sales specialist in terms of educational background:
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 69% | Bachelor's Degree, 62% |
| 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 specialists' demographics:
| Technical Sales Specialist | Sales Specialist | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.3% Female, 24.7% | Male, 55.1% Female, 44.9% |
| 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, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 5.1% White, 72.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |