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The differences between sales engineers and business developers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a business developer has an average salary of $101,635, which is higher than the $93,727 average annual salary of a sales engineer.
The top three skills for a sales engineer include pre sales, customer service and sales process. The most important skills for a business developer are healthcare, CRM, and customer service.
| Sales Engineer | Business Developer | |
| Yearly salary | $93,727 | $101,635 |
| Hourly rate | $45.06 | $48.86 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 132,324 | 193,469 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| 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.
A business developer specializes in conducting in-depth business analysis and crafting various strategies that would not just help a business grow, but also strengthen client base and brand awareness. One of their primary responsibilities revolves around identifying areas in need of improvement. They come up with new services that will boost customer satisfaction, examining the potential for revenue and figuring out new opportunities from trends or other pre-existing programs within the company. All of this is conducted according to the vision, mission, and policies of the organization.
Sales engineers and business developers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Engineer | Business Developer | |
| Average salary | $93,727 | $101,635 |
| Salary range | Between $66,000 And $132,000 | Between $66,000 And $156,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | Apple |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a sales engineer and a business developer in terms of educational background:
| Sales Engineer | Business Developer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between sales engineers' and business developers' demographics:
| Sales Engineer | Business Developer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% | Male, 65.8% Female, 34.2% |
| 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, 6.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 8.8% White, 70.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 11% |