Outside Sales Reps | Job Description and Salary | How Do You Make Money

Outside sales reps is what it essentially sounds like. They are sales professionals who spend most of their days outside of the office in sales appointments.

They do spend some time in the office making phones calls, setting appointments, doing product training, doing sales meetings and the usual administrative duties that all professionals have.

But outside sales reps bread and butter is made out in the field. Also called field sales reps, on average makes more money than inside sales reps, who spend most of their time on the phone in the office.

Their are two types of outside sales reps. There are those who sell to consumers and those who sell business to business. Those who do business to business (B2B) sales tend to make more money than consumer or retail sales.

I had an outside sales reps job doing retail sales when I was in college with a company called Vector Marketing selling Cutco knives. Many of you are smiling because you probably did this or tried to do this when you were in college too. They are very popular among college students because it's one of those few jobs where you can make decent money and your own hours while you are in college. And it's one of those rare opportunities that recruit kids with no experience.

That being said, it was a good product which made it a relatively painless sales job. Cutco knives are made of the highest quality stainless steel metal and it has a nice design. I was required to buy a small set and I ended up liking them very much. And they are much cheaper than comparable knives you'd find at department stores.

Other examples would include selling life insurance, financial advising, selling knives, Avon, Tupperware, and the like.

I also worked for a high tech company selling software to businesses after college. It was a lot harder work, but it also paid much better. Plus it had a future that I deemed acceptable.

This required me to make a ton of phone calls to set up appointments. Then I'd go meet with the business clients at their offices to do my sales presentations. I got to travel a lot and that was the big benefit of this sales job.

It's a lot more interesting to sit in an office and to bang out phone calls all day, though there were many days that I did that as well. But going outside of the office and meeting clients in person was very exciting and satisfying.

Speaking of which, outside sales reps in business to business sales, or otherwise known as b2b sales is more interesting as well.  You get to become an expert in a specific industry and they tend to be more technical in nature.

If you look at inside vs. outside sales jobs, the outside sales reps makes more money and is more interesting. Consumer vs. B2B, B2B makes more money and again is more interesting.