Alternate Title(s) | Technical Sales Engineer, Senior Sales Executive, Vice President of Sales, Key Account Manager |
Minimum Education Requirements | Bachelor's degree |
Salary | See Bureau of Labor Statistics for more information |
Job Skills | - Interpersonal skills. Strong interpersonal skills are a valuable characteristic for sales engineers, both for building relationships with clients and effectively communicating with other members of the sales team. - Problem-solving skills. Sales engineers must be able to listen to the customer’s desires and concerns, and then recommend solutions, possibly including customizing a product. - Self-confidence. Sales engineers should be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations. - Technological skills. Sales engineers must have extensive knowledge of the technologically sophisticated products they sell in order to explain their advantages and answer questions. |
Job Duties | Sales engineers typically do the following: - Prepare and deliver technical presentations explaining products or services to existing and prospective customers - Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements - Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements and provide sales support - Secure and renew orders and arrange delivery - Plan and modify products to meet customer needs - Help clients solve problems with installed equipment - Recommend improved materials or machinery to customers, showing how changes will lower costs or increase production - Help in researching and developing new products |
Job Profile | Sales engineers sell complex scientific and technological products or services to businesses. They must have extensive knowledge of the products’ parts and functions and must understand the scientific processes that make these products work. Sales engineers specialize in technologically and scientifically advanced products. They use their technical skills to explain the benefits of their products or services to potential customers and to show how their products or services are better than their competitors'. Some sales engineers work for the companies that design and build technical products. Others work for independent sales firms. |
The information presented within this occupational profile was synthesized from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Handbook of Occupational Groups & Families.