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The differences between sales engineers and account executives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a sales engineer has an average salary of $93,727, which is higher than the $69,618 average annual salary of an account executive.
The top three skills for a sales engineer include pre sales, customer service and sales process. The most important skills for an account executive are customer service, CRM, and healthcare.
| Sales Engineer | Account Executive | |
| Yearly salary | $93,727 | $69,618 |
| Hourly rate | $45.06 | $33.47 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 132,324 | 205,561 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | - |
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.
An account executive is responsible for supporting existing clients, closing client deals, and developing sales strategies to increase the company's sales and satisfaction. An account executive must be competitive enough to keep up with the constant changes in the sales industry, including the high demands of digital marketing, a different approach to product advertising, effective negotiation, and presentation skills. An account executive also requires excellent communication skills for the successful acquisition of client accounts and immediately resolve possible complaints as they arise.
Sales engineers and account executives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Engineer | Account Executive | |
| Average salary | $93,727 | $69,618 |
| Salary range | Between $66,000 And $132,000 | Between $44,000 And $109,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Portland, OR |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | Oregon |
| Best paying company | Meta | Hitachi Vantara |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a sales engineer and an account executive in terms of educational background:
| Sales Engineer | Account Executive | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between sales engineers' and account executives' demographics:
| Sales Engineer | Account Executive | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% | Male, 57.2% Female, 42.8% |
| Race ratio | 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% | Black or African American, 6.7% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 5.6% White, 66.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 5% |