Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
What is an outside sales engineer and how to become one
If you want to positively affect the environment and overcome the planet's most daunting challenges, working as an outside sales engineer can be a very rewarding career. This role can let you enjoy professional growth opportunities and enjoy competitive benefits. But what do outside sales engineers really do?
The outside sales engineer must meet a sales quota that is consistent with competent sales engineer seasoned standards. The principal responsibility for this role is to oversee and organize the sales activity within the assigned customer or distributor base. In the same business area, the outside sales engineer will distribute assigned product lines to specific companies.
An excellent outside sales engineer should have a strong work ethic and great interpersonal skills. It would help if you also had a sense of competitiveness and willingness to learn. It is also necessary to have the market knowledge to establish customer relationships within your market area. Good time management and planning skills are advantageous to have as well.
What's a day at work look like for an outside sales engineer?
John Tobon
Adjunct Professor, Florida International University
Avg. Salary $79,145
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate 6%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.33%
Asian 5.78%
Black or African American 1.63%
Hispanic or Latino 7.87%
Unknown 6.18%
White 78.20%
Genderfemale 8.83%
male 91.17%
Age - 44American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 44Stress level is high
7.1 - high
Complexity level is advanced
7 - challenging
Work life balance is poor
6.4 - fair
Outside sales engineer career paths
Key steps to become an outside sales engineer
Explore outside sales engineer education requirements
Start to develop specific outside sales engineer skills
Skills Percentages Customer Relationships 9.54% HVAC 7.49% Product Line 6.52% CRM 5.26% Trade Shows 5.05% Complete relevant outside sales engineer training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New outside 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 outside sales engineer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real outside sales engineer resumes.Research outside sales engineer duties and responsibilities
- Manage inbound domestic and international logistics and domestic shipping with respect to carrier selection, forwarding, brokering and expediting.
- Increase sales to existing OEMs and develop new OEM customers.
- Develop and implement sales and marketing strategies to aggressively develop new OEM accounts.
- Price, sell, and engineer HVAC products and services to contractors and building owners.
Prepare your outside sales engineer resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your outside 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 outside 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 outside sales engineer resume templates
Build a professional outside 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 outside sales engineer resume.
Apply for outside sales engineer jobs
Now it's time to start searching for an outside 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 did you land your first outside sales engineer job
Are you an outside sales engineer?
Share your story for a free salary report.
Average outside sales engineer salary
The average outside sales engineer salary in the United States is $79,145 per year or $38 per hour. Outside sales engineer salaries range between $55,000 and $113,000 per year.
What am I worth?
How do outside sales engineers rate their job?
Outside sales engineer reviews
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.
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.
no general certification like PMP exists for pre sales engineer, they are all specified for one product. requires an absurd amount of concentration required for proposals writing if you don't have the adequate tools to help.
Presales tasks are usually working under Pressure, no enough time to improve skills
Updated January 8, 2025
