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The differences between sales engineers and field sales representatives 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, becoming a field sales representative takes usually requires 2-4 years. Additionally, a sales engineer has an average salary of $93,727, which is higher than the $48,460 average annual salary of a field sales representative.
The top three skills for a sales engineer include pre sales, customer service and sales process. The most important skills for a field sales representative are excellent time management, customer service, and powerpoint.
| Sales Engineer | Field Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $93,727 | $48,460 |
| Hourly rate | $45.06 | $23.30 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 132,324 | 228,254 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Average age | 44 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 4 |
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 field sales representative is an employee who is employed by business-to-business (B2B) and wholesale organizations to visit leads and sell products or services to their customers in person. Field sales representatives must attract new customers and win new accounts so that they can maximize profitability within their territory. They travel around their assigned territory and visit their customers regularly to educate them on how their products can benefit them. Field sales representatives must also maintain records of all sales leads and monitor the organization's competitor, new products, and market conditions.
Sales engineers and field sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Engineer | Field Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $93,727 | $48,460 |
| Salary range | Between $66,000 And $132,000 | Between $26,000 And $88,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Seattle, WA |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | Washington |
| Best paying company | Meta | VMware |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a sales engineer and a field sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Sales Engineer | Field Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 73% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred |
Here are the differences between sales engineers' and field sales representatives' demographics:
| Sales Engineer | Field Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 44 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% | Male, 69.5% Female, 30.5% |
| 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, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.5% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 6% |