How To Become An Inside Sales Engineer: What It Is and Career Path

What is an inside sales engineer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Joseph Hancock

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.

What's a day at work look like for an inside sales engineer?

Joseph Hancock

Research Professor, Program Director, Former Retail Operations Manager, Drexel University, Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design

New graduates will need to be self-disciplined and self-motivated. No one is going to hold your hand and tell you "get to work" or you will soon be looking for a new job. The new world may be one where you don't go to an office, but instead work right from home, scheduling appointments and doing your own calendar. My last years working for Target in a regional field position taught me that no one was going to motivate me each day, I had to motivate myself. Also, it can be lonely working from home as a new graduate, so find outside interests and ways to make friends. I am from the old fashion ideologies that getting a hobby is extremely important, and that hobby is not going to the gym or watching television. It includes something that enriches your life to be a better person in society.

ScoreInside Sales EngineerUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $50,487

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.34%

Asian 5.65%

Black or African American 1.73%

Hispanic or Latino 8.35%

Unknown 6.22%

White 77.72%

Gender

female 34.69%

male 65.31%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.5

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.2

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an inside sales engineer

Explore inside sales engineer education requirements

Most common inside sales engineer degrees

Bachelor's

59.2 %

Associate

19.2 %

High School Diploma

12.9 %

Start to develop specific inside sales engineer skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	24.40%
Product Knowledge	4.11%
CRM	3.69%
Customer Satisfaction	3.38%
Cleanliness	3.22%

Complete relevant inside sales engineer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New inside sales engineers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an inside sales engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real inside sales engineer resumes.

Research inside sales engineer duties and responsibilities

Manage inbound domestic and international logistics and domestic shipping with respect to carrier selection, forwarding, brokering and expediting.
Provide technical contribution during the RFP / RFI process.
Write custom SQL reports for customers.
Utilize SQL to query databases while troubleshooting issues.

Prepare your inside sales engineer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your inside sales engineer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an inside sales engineer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable inside sales engineer resume templates

Build a professional inside sales engineer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your inside sales engineer resume.

Apply for inside sales engineer jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an inside sales engineer job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do inside sales engineers rate their job?

-/5

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1 star

Inside sales engineer reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2020

Pros

IF you have enough experience you get to walk around different manufacturing plants and tell them how you solution will impact their bottom line. every day is different.

Cons

Cold Call is pretty bad because your success rate is 1-2%. Surprises when a competitor sells to a company you did not know about and your marketing folks cant help find them.