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The differences between sales engineers and product 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, becoming a product manager takes usually requires 8-10 years. Additionally, a product manager has an average salary of $111,729, 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 product manager are product management, QA, and product strategy.
| Sales Engineer | Product Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $93,727 | $111,729 |
| Hourly rate | $45.06 | $53.72 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 132,324 | 125,678 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Average age | 44 | 39 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 10 |
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 product manager is responsible for ensuring product development, providing the best marketing strategies, and effectively handling the sales and marketing team. Product managers' duties include monitoring the market trends and conditions, identifying business opportunities and plan initiatives, and collaborating the product launch process with the appropriate departments. A product manager is also responsible for generating ideas on improving product features, determining timetables and reasonable pricing, and analyzing product sales. A product manager must have excellent strategic and decision-making skills to contribute to its growth and profitability.
Sales engineers and product managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Engineer | Product Manager | |
| Average salary | $93,727 | $111,729 |
| Salary range | Between $66,000 And $132,000 | Between $81,000 And $152,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Virginia | California |
| Best paying company | Meta | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Retail |
There are a few differences between a sales engineer and a product manager in terms of educational background:
| Sales Engineer | Product Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 72% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | University of Georgia |
Here are the differences between sales engineers' and product managers' demographics:
| Sales Engineer | Product Manager | |
| Average age | 44 | 39 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% | Male, 65.3% Female, 34.7% |
| 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, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 10% |