When you get a pacemaker, you don't buy the equipment directly from the manufacturer. Instead, the hospital buys the pacemaker from a durable medical supplies salesperson. Workers in this field sell expensive items that are in great demand and have a possibility of earning wages much higher than in other positions with similar education requirements.

Salary Basics

People who sell pacemakers fall in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) category of Technical and Scientific Product Sales Representatives. The 2010 median wage for workers in this category was $73,710, according to BLS reports. The middle 50 percent of people in this profession made between $51,290 and $104,820.

Commission

Like other professional salespeople, a pacemaker salesperson earns the bulk of his income in the form of commissions. If he sells well, he earns a high salary. If he sells poorly, he earns little money -- and in some cases, no money at all.

Feast and Famine

Selling high-ticket items like pacemakers often means making very high earnings one month, then going a month or more without any sales at all while you approach another potential customer and make a sale. Somebody entering this field must have the financial discipline to save money from a month with a surplus to make it to the next big payday.

Job Outlook

The BLS has no job outlook statistics specifically for pacemaker sales but does keep statistics for manufacturing and repair of medical equipment -- an industry closely related to the demand for those who sell medical equipment. The BLS expects jobs in that industry to grow by 27 percent between 2008 and 2018 -- more than three times the rate expected for U.S. jobs as a whole. Even with a healthy margin for error, likely the demand for pacemaker salesmen will remain open for the foreseeable future.

2018 Salary Information for Medical Equipment Repairers

Medical equipment repairers earned a median annual salary of $49,210 in May 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. On the low end, medical equipment repairers earned a 10th percentile salary of $36,160, meaning 90 percent earned more than this amount. The 90th percentile salary is $62,370, meaning 10 percent earn more. In 2018, 53,800 people were employed in the U.S. as medical equipment repairers.