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The differences between sales engineer, account managers and sales managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 4-6 years to become a sales engineer, account manager, becoming a sales manager takes usually requires 6-8 years. Additionally, a sales engineer, account manager has an average salary of $95,490, which is higher than the $73,952 average annual salary of a sales manager.
The top three skills for a sales engineer, account manager include technical support, product development and CRM. The most important skills for a sales manager are product knowledge, customer satisfaction, and sales performance.
| Sales Engineer, Account Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $95,490 | $73,952 |
| Hourly rate | $45.91 | $35.55 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 152,078 | 119,066 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 76% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Average age | 44 | 46 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 8 |
Sales Engineers, account managers take note of the available sales opportunities to boost and cross-sell the organizations' products. They seek out and create new potential customers to maximize the organization's sales. Besides meeting and exceeding sales activities and sales targets, sales engineers, account managers also provide daily support and account management services to the allocated customers. They also prepare product quotations, cost savings analyses, customer demonstrations, and written presentations.
Sales managers are responsible for leading the organization's sales team. They oversee the progress and performance of the whole team, set area assignments to team members, and set weekly or monthly quotas. Sales managers oversee training team members during onboarding and providing further coaching to help them achieve their goals. They manage the challenges that team members may meet and help mitigate any problems that come along the way. Sales managers also set the strategic direction of the sales team and follow through by ensuring that the team's activities are in line with the goals.
Sales engineer, account managers and sales managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Engineer, Account Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Average salary | $95,490 | $73,952 |
| Salary range | Between $68,000 And $133,000 | Between $42,000 And $129,000 |
| Highest paying City | Pleasanton, CA | Jersey City, NJ |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Teradyne | Capgemini |
| Best paying industry | Professional | - |
There are a few differences between a sales engineer, account manager and a sales manager in terms of educational background:
| Sales Engineer, Account Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 76% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | University of Southern California |
Here are the differences between sales engineer, account managers' and sales managers' demographics:
| Sales Engineer, Account Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Average age | 44 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 87.1% Female, 12.9% | Male, 68.7% Female, 31.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 1.7% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.4% Asian, 6.1% White, 77.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |