sales rep

noun

Informal.

1. sales representative.

Word History and Origins

Origin of sales rep¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

In San Francisco, Gong uses AI to scan and digest every call its customers’ sales reps have ever recorded, to help them sell more.

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For Mackin, fatherhood forced him to also consider his family’s financial stability, prompting him to enter the corporate workforce as a sales rep and eventually becoming a service director for Toyota.

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Many years later, after marrying, having kids and working as a pharmaceutical sales rep, he thought back to his mother’s advice, and spent evenings writing a novel he named “Winter for Two.”

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Last spring, B45’s pro sales rep, Kevin Young, was making an annual tour of Major League Baseball’s spring training complexes to visit clients.

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So they had to call the pacemaker sales rep, who was not at the hospital, and tell him to bring the right one ASAP.

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Related Words

• clerk 

When To Use

What does sales rep mean?

A sales rep is a person whose job is to sell products or services for a company, often in a particular area.Rep is short for representative. The term sales representative is also used. A sales rep always works for (represents) a company—whereas a salesperson may be selling their own products. However, the two terms are often used synonymously.The terms salesman and saleswoman are still commonly used, but salesperson and sales rep are often used in their place.A sales rep is often said to “work in sales”—in which sales refers to the type of occupation or the division or department within a company.A sales rep can sell directly to customers or to other businesses or organizations. Sometimes, sales reps sell things in person, such as at a retail store or dealership. They also commonly sell things over the phone or by communicating with people online. In the past, it was common for some sales reps to travel door-to-door to make sales to people at home.Sales rep is sometimes used as another term for traveling salesperson—a salesperson who has to travel as part of their job.The word salesperson is sometimes used in a somewhat figurative way to refer to someone who’s skilled at persuading people, especially in a business or professional setting, as if they are selling them a product. However, the term sales rep is not used in this way.Example: The sales rep told me that this was the best deal he could give me.