If you love technology and have an aptitude for sales, a career as a sales engineer could be a fulfilling path But what exactly does a sales engineer do? What skills and background do you need? And how much can you earn in this fast-growing field?
This comprehensive guide will explain everything you need to know about succeeding as a sales engineer
What is a Sales Engineer?
A sales engineer is a technical sales professional who sells complex scientific, technological, and business products and services. They leverage expert product knowledge and strong technical abilities to explain products, solve problems, build custom solutions, and drive sales.
Sales engineers act as a critical link between customers and the company. They ensure the product meets the client’s needs and that the sales team understands the product’s capabilities and applications.
Sales Engineer Job Duties
Sales engineers have a diverse mix of responsibilities across pre-sales, post-sales, and ongoing customer success activities.
Here are some of the most common sales engineer job duties:
- Meeting with potential clients to assess needs and requirements
- Providing technical advice and product education to customers
- Presenting products or services to demonstrate capabilities
- Developing custom solutions to solve client challenges
- Writing proposals and quotations for prospective sales
- Negotiating pricing and contracts with buyers
- Coordinating closely with sales, marketing, production, and technical teams
- Conducting product training and support for clients
- Troubleshooting issues and providing technical assistance
- Gathering feedback to improve offerings and ensure customer satisfaction
Sales Engineer vs Sales Representative
Sales engineers differ from traditional sales representatives in a few key ways:
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Technical expertise – Sales engineers possess in-depth knowledge of complex products and systems to explain details to customers. Sales reps focus more on general features.
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Consultative sales – Sales engineers take a consultative approach, assessing needs to build custom solutions. Sales reps focus on presenting off-the-shelf options.
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Product focus – Sales engineers sell highly technical or scientific products that require advanced understanding. Sales reps can sell a broader range of simpler goods and services.
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Pre- and post-sales work – Sales engineers provide technical support across the customer journey. Sales reps tend to focus on persuading prospects to buy.
So in essence, sales engineers leverage special technical know-how to sell challenging products and ensure successful customer use. Sales representatives have a broader scope across more straightforward sales processes.
Key Sales Engineer Responsibilities
Let’s explore some of the sales engineer’s major responsibilities in more detail:
Technical Expertise
Sales engineers must maintain in-depth, current knowledge of their company’s complex products or services. This allows them to explain technical capabilities, architectures, features, and configurations to prospects. Sales engineers stay up-to-date through self-study, internal training, and working closely with product development teams.
Needs Assessment
Sales engineers consult with potential clients early on to fully understand their business needs, pain points, and technical requirements. They use customer insights to tailor solutions. Needs assessment abilities, including asking probing questions and listening intently, are critical.
Solution Development
Leveraging their technical know-how, sales engineers design customized solutions to address each customer’s particular requirements. This may include configuring various product or service elements into an integrated offering. Sales engineers draw up proposals or quotations detailing their proposed solutions.
Product Demonstrations
Sales engineers showcase how their company’s offering solves customer challenges through demonstrations and pilots. They highlight technical functionality in a compelling way for each customer’s unique context. Sales engineers must be excellent presenters.
Purchase Negotiation
Sales engineers negotiate pricing, payment terms, schedules, warranties, and other purchase conditions with clients to close sales. They balance customer satisfaction with company revenue targets at this crucial stage.Strong negotiation talents are indispensable.
Client Training
Post-sale, sales engineers conduct training to ensure clients use products properly. They develop educational materials and programs tailored to different customer groups. Sales engineers must be skilled instructors and content creators.
Customer Support
Sales engineers provide ongoing technical support across the customer journey, troubleshooting issues that arise with product or service usage. They manage the relationship to guarantee high satisfaction and retention. Superior customer service abilities are vital.
Typical Sales Engineer Background
While some sales engineers transition from other sales roles, most have relevant educational backgrounds. Here are some common credentials:
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, such as electrical, mechanical, or industrial engineering
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science or information technology
- Master’s degree in engineering, technology, or business-related field
- Technical training through vocational programs, certification courses, or military service
Academic programs that mix engineering or tech content with sales and marketing coursework are great preparation too. Some sales engineers also carry professional certifications related to the products they sell.
Essential Sales Engineer Skills
Sales engineers need a diverse blend of soft skills and technical abilities to thrive. Here are some of the most important sales engineer qualifications to develop:
- Communication skills to liaise effectively across teams and explain complex products clearly
- Presentation abilities to demonstrate products persuasively to diverse audiences
- Customer service skills to build relationships and ensure satisfaction
- Writing skills to produce winning proposals and other technical documents
- Analytical thinking to interpret customer needs and Identify optimal solutions
- Listening skills to actively understand customer challenges and requirements
- Problem-solving skills to troubleshoot technical issues quickly
- Organizational and time management skills to juggle a busy workload
- Interpersonal skills to collaborate well cross-functionally
- Technical expertise in relevant engineering and computer systems
Sales Engineer Industry and Employers
Sales engineers work in technology fields like:
- Computer software and hardware
- Telecommunications equipment
- Medical devices
- Industrial machinery
- Scientific analytical tools
- Electronics and semiconductors
Top employers of sales engineers include:
- Technology firms like Oracle, Cisco, IBM, etc.
- Pharmaceutical and biotech companies
- Advanced manufacturing corporations
- Aerospace and defense contractors
- Medical technology enterprises
Sales Engineer Salary
Sales engineers earn competitive salaries along with performance incentives. Here are some average sales engineer salary statistics according to Glassdoor:
- Average Base Pay: $68,763
- Average Total Pay: $129,117
- Average Commission: $48,581
Sales engineer pay can vary based on these factors:
- Industry (software pays more than manufacturing, for instance)
- Experience level
- Product complexity and customer budgets
- Sales performance and commissions
- Geographic location
Overall, the generous earning potential is one of the major upsides of the sales engineer career path.
Sales Engineer Job Outlook
The job outlook for sales engineers is very strong. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment of sales engineers will grow 5% from 2020 to 2030, keeping pace with the average for all occupations.
Several key factors are fueling demand:
- Growth in complex, high-tech products across many industries
- Increasing customer need for knowledgeable technical guidance
- Continuous product innovation requiring ongoing education of sales teams and clients
- Value of custom solutions requiring specialized input
These trends point to plentiful sales engineer job opportunities in the years ahead. Competition will be stiff for top talent.
How to Become a Sales Engineer
If launching a sales engineering career appeals to you, follow these steps to get started:
Earn a Relevant Degree
A tech-focused Bachelor’s degree in engineering or computer science is ideal preparation. Coursework in sales and marketing is a major plus. Some sales engineers have Master’s degrees as well.
Develop Technical Expertise
Build knowledge in your chosen technology domain through hands-on experience, independent learning, and potentially vocational certifications. Stay on top of the latest developments.
Hone Communication Skills
Take courses and practice presenting, writing proposals, negotiating, and providing customer service. These talents are vital to sales engineering success.
Gain Sales Experience
Many sales engineers start in entry-level sales roles to build skills. Sales internships while in college can jumpstart your career too.
Earn Key Certifications
Certain credentials like a Six Sigma Green Belt or Salesforce Admin certification can make your resume stand out. Pursue certs that align with your niche.
Network and Interview
Once qualified, apply to sales engineering jobs and leverage your network. Emphasize technical knowledge and customer focus in interviews.
Sales Engineer Career Paths
Sales engineers have several potential career progression opportunities, including:
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Senior Sales Engineer – Lead larger, more complex sales with top clients.
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Sales Engineering Manager – Manage a team of sales engineers.
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Director of Sales Engineering – Oversee all sales engineering initiatives company-wide.
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Product Marketing Manager – Shift into strategic marketing role with product focus.
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Customer Success Manager – Move into post-sales customer retention activities.
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Sales Operations Manager – Transition into sales analytics and process optimization.
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Chief Revenue Officer – Ascend to executive leadership of all sales, marketing and customer success.
So sales engineer roles can lead to diverse advancement options in sales, marketing, services, and leadership. The experience
Sales engineers tap into both the sales and tech sides of an organization, using their technical know-how to close deals.
Peanut butter and jelly. Fish and chips. Macaroni and cheese. Some things are just better together.
The same goes for the role of sales engineer.
What’s a sales engineer? It’s a mash-up of sales and tech. And when those two skill sets come together, they create a hugely valuable member of a sales team.
Here, we cover what you’ll do, the skills and experience needed to be successful in the role, and what you need to know to nail an interview and get the job.
Skills needed to become a sales engineer
Sales engineers need a mix of hard and soft skills. They must be armed with technical proficiency and be able to interact with customers and prospects. Let’s say you’re a sales engineer for a company that provides technology for health care call centers. These are some of the skills you may need:
- Technical knowledge: You know the ins and outs of your company’s product or service, such as how the technology routes incoming calls. You understand the product’s features, its capabilities, its differentiation from the competition, and how it could work for a customer.
- Industry intelligence: A sales engineer keeps up on information, trends, and research developments specific to their product’s industry. They are immersed in the world they sell into and are constantly reading industry reports, getting certifications, and learning how the latest tech works.
- Opportunity and project management: A sales engineer must juggle multiple opportunities, projects, stay on track, and meet deadlines. The goal is to manage your time and be productive. For example, on a typical day, a sales engineer might balance the priorities of attending customer meetings, answering customer questions, updating sales management, and delivering a call center solution.
- Verbal and written communication: A sales engineer works with customers, prospects, sales account executives, and product developers — and must speak the language of all of them. An example might be talking with a customer about their call center’s help-ticketing system and telling a story through a demonstration of the product showcasing how your product decreases the time to ticket resolution.
- Interpersonal skills: Sales engineers build a rapport with customers and must be comfortable with active listening, empathy, and adaptability. An example is participating in a face-to-face customer meeting about an issue with their current call-center tech. A sales engineer must ask questions, provide a technical solution, and do it all while building a human connection.
- Analytical thinking: Sales engineers are problem solvers. They like to dig into complex customer issues and offer tailored solutions. An example is interpreting patterns in the customer’s call center data to identify ways to decrease call volume.
What is Sales Engineering? | How to Be a Sales Engineer | What is a Sales Engineer?
How are sales engineers different from traditional salespeople?
Sales engineers are different from traditional salespeople because they sell more technical products. They need to have technical expertise to explain these products in detail to customers. Sales engineers often work with clients on a more consultative basis, helping them find the best solution for their needs.
What does a sales engineer do?
Sales engineers typically work in business-to-business environments, where they implement strategies that influence other businesses to buy their companies’ products. Sales engineering consists of a mix of sales and engineering principles that these professionals use to work across a variety of industrial, commercial and technical industries.
What skills do you need to be a sales engineer?
Analytical skills and your ability to use logic and reason to solve problems are highly important skills as a sales engineer. For instance, your ability to apply your knowledge and expertise to solve problems or initiate change are two aspects of your analytical thinking that can help you succeed in your career as a sales engineer.
How much does a sales engineer make?
Salaries typically start from $62,300 and go up to $182,850. A sales engineer bridges the gap between technical expertise and sales efforts within a company. Combining technical knowledge with strong communication and interpersonal skills, a sales engineer acts as a liaison between the sales team and the technical team.
