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The differences between outside sales engineers and sales engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both an outside sales engineer and a sales engineer. Additionally, a sales engineer has an average salary of $93,727, which is higher than the $79,145 average annual salary of an outside sales engineer.
The top three skills for an outside sales engineer include customer relationships, HVAC and product line. The most important skills for a sales engineer are pre sales, customer service, and sales process.
| Outside Sales Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $79,145 | $93,727 |
| Hourly rate | $38.05 | $45.06 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 113,925 | 132,324 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
An outside sales engineer is both a specialist and a salesperson of scientific and technological products or services to businesses. You have an in-depth knowledge of the products and the engineering processes that make these products work so that you can demonstrate their benefits to customers. Outside sales engineers are technical customer service representatives working for businesses that sell engineering products or the makers - they are out in the field interacting, educating, and selling to potential customers.
A sales engineer is responsible for assisting customers with their technical equipment and advanced scientific product needs. Sales engineers must have excellent knowledge of the scientific processes and component functions of the products they're selling to deliver presentations and orient the customers. Sales engineers' duties also include troubleshooting, identifying product defects, and upgrading systems for better optimization. They are also responsible for analyzing cost estimates documents, performing adjustments as needed, process payments, arranging deliveries, and settling customers' complaints by replacing damaged items or doing refunds.
Outside sales engineers and sales engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Outside Sales Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Average salary | $79,145 | $93,727 |
| Salary range | Between $55,000 And $113,000 | Between $66,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | - | Virginia |
| Best paying company | - | Meta |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between an outside sales engineer and a sales engineer in terms of educational background:
| Outside Sales Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between outside sales engineers' and sales engineers' demographics:
| Outside Sales Engineer | Sales Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 91.2% Female, 8.8% | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 1.6% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 5.8% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 1.7% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.0% Asian, 7.1% White, 76.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |