The Inside Sales Engineer is a role tasked with the management and development of everyday operations of a company's inside sales department. They also play the negotiator between the department and the potential and existing clients.
They are meant to build up a collection of information, advice, ideas based on customer response and other available sale and marketing data, and generally use it to increase profit and efficiency, and thus, of course, sales by new and loyal customers alike. The Engineer will need to construct strategies and present higher management with figures, which informs the company on what and how much of what to make, what changes to put in place, and so on.
They also may do other tasks, such as training employees in sales and negotiation, ordering supplies and materials, tracking their shipment, conducting market research and predicting future market trends, and generally keeping a number of databases and records up to date.
A good Inside Sales Engineer should generally need to have a Bachelor's in a subject such as Mechanical Engineering and preferably previous experience in sales and distribution. A proficiency in certain software and excellent communication and negotiation skills will also be necessary.
How to Become an Inside Sales Engineer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an inside sales engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.36 an hour? That's $48,596 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 3,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Inside Sales Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many inside sales engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed problem-solving skills, technological skills and interpersonal skills.
How To Become an Inside Sales Engineer
If you're interested in becoming an inside sales engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 59.2% of inside sales engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.4% of inside sales engineers have master's degrees. Even though most inside sales engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an inside sales engineer. When we researched the most common majors for an inside sales engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on inside sales engineer resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an inside sales engineer. In fact, many inside sales engineer jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many inside sales engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as sales representative or sales associate.
Inside Sales Engineer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of sales engineer you might progress to a role such as sales manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director, inside sales.
Average Salary for an Inside Sales Engineer
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Inside Sales Engineers
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
3. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
4. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
5. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
6. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
7. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Private
8. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
9. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
10. Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD • Private
Top Skills For an Inside Sales Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 25.7% of inside sales engineers listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as problem-solving skills and technological skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Inside Sales Engineer Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Inside Sales Engineer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Inside Sales Engineer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Inside Sales Engineer Demographics
Inside Sales Engineer Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among inside sales engineers, 34.7% of them are women, while 65.3% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among inside sales engineers is White, which makes up 80.6% of all inside sales engineers.
- The most common foreign language among inside sales engineers is Spanish at 55.6%.
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Best States For an Inside Sales Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an inside sales engineer. The best states for people in this position are Virginia, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Inside sales engineers make the most in Virginia with an average salary of $74,877. Whereas in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, they would average $66,892 and $64,457, respectively. While inside sales engineers would only make an average of $63,160 in New Hampshire, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Rhode Island
$66,892
Avg. Salary
2. Massachusetts
$64,457
Avg. Salary
3. Virginia
$74,877
Avg. Salary
How Do Inside Sales Engineer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Inside Sales Engineer Employers
Most Common Employers For Inside Sales Engineer
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dell | $96,289 | $46.29 | 44 |
| 2 | Airgas | $73,561 | $35.37 | 54 |
| 3 | General Electric | $66,302 | $31.88 | 31 |
| 4 | Eaton | $57,723 | $27.75 | 30 |
| 5 | Fastenal | $48,981 | $23.55 | 162 |
| 6 | Ferguson Enterprises | $48,596 | $23.36 | 109 |
| 7 | Motion Industries | $47,151 | $22.67 | 54 |
| 8 | Kelly-Moore Paints | $45,407 | $21.83 | 68 |
| 9 | HD Supply | $45,259 | $21.76 | 35 |
| 10 | Sherwin-Williams | $45,127 | $21.70 | 45 |