What does a sales engineer do?
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.
Sales engineer responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real sales engineer resumes:
- Create and manage product/technical parts of responses to RFI and RFP requests.
- Maintain and closely manage expenses, overall cost of sale, receivables, ROI.
- Create tools to manage customer projects, such as standardized proposals, technical templates, and SQL tracking database.
- Manage inbound domestic and international logistics and domestic shipping with respect to carrier selection, forwarding, brokering and expediting.
- Perform detail responses and presentations to RFP, RFI and RFR requests on technical/sales opportunities.
- Generate and release drawings on AutoCAD and SolidWorks for weld shop and machine shop parts fabrication.
- Develop and deliver all pre-sales technical presentations and product demonstrations.
- Perform vulnerability testing using Kail Linux on application and SaaS infrastructure.
- Provide inside sales support which include quotations, order processing, and technical assistance for electrical and utility distributors.
- Test SATA, SAS, PCIe utilities and Linux drivers.
- Develop and grow PLC and HMI opportunities.
- Create, design, and update database records.
- Documented/Assure inventory and vendors comply with ISO compliance's.
- Programme and build a web interface SQL database detailing all national devices.
- Full documentation on file, in AutoCAD, providing customers information when request.
Sales engineer skills and personality traits
We calculated that 6% of Sales Engineers are proficient in Pre Sales, Customer Service, and Sales Process. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Problem-solving skills, and Self-confidence.
We break down the percentage of Sales Engineers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Pre Sales, 6%
Participated in various pre sales activities like preparation of RFP response, client demonstration, co-ordination with developers etc.
- Customer Service, 5%
Support customer service department, equipment and instrument purchasing, negotiating with vendors, customer maintenance contract and construction contracting processes.
- Sales Process, 5%
Developed equipment quotations and provided sales process improvements* Responsible for industrial accounts resulting in contracts for steel products in roll formed shapes
- Technical Support, 4%
Coordinated and verified information on purchase orders; coordinated product shipments; organized project schedules and provided technical support to customers.
- Windows, 3%
Assisted in developing enterprise security solutions for deploying Windows 7 desktop operating system and application platforms.
- CRM, 3%
Converted legacy customer lists to CRM database for more efficient territory management.
"pre sales," "customer service," and "sales process" are among the most common skills that sales engineers use at work. You can find even more sales engineer responsibilities below, including:
Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for a sales engineer to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "strong interpersonal skills are a valuable characteristic for sales engineers, both for building relationships with clients and effectively communicating with other members of the sales team." Additionally, a sales engineer resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "maintain excellent interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain relationships with key technical contacts at customer and partner organizations. "
Problem-solving skills. Many sales engineer duties rely on problem-solving skills. "sales engineers must be able to listen to the customer’s desires and concerns, and then recommend solutions, such as customizing a product for the customer.," so a sales engineer will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways sales engineer responsibilities rely on problem-solving skills: "direct sales into new england area providing pc-based data acquisition and analysis solutions to high technology and medical industries. "
Self-confidence. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of sales engineers is self-confidence. This skill is critical to many everyday sales engineer duties, as "sales engineers should be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "work directly with and trained distributor sales team to gain product knowledge and confidence in the tungaloy product line. "
Technological skills. For certain sales engineer responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "technological skills." The day-to-day duties of a sales engineer rely on this skill, as "sales engineers must have extensive knowledge of the technologically sophisticated products they sell in order to explain their advantages and answer questions." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what sales engineers do: "direct technological evaluations of sales process and collaborate with sales teams as subject matter expert and key technical advisor. "
The three companies that hire the most sales engineers are:
- Oracle337 sales engineers jobs
- Snowflake Computing175 sales engineers jobs
- Paychex102 sales engineers jobs
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Compare different sales engineers
Sales engineer vs. National account executive
A national account executive is responsible for identifying sales opportunities and assisting the company in achieving its sales goals. Your duties and responsibilities will include identifying new market trends and conducting research to win new accounts, enforcing the company's sales strategies and plans, and developing new revenue from existing clients by offering additional services and selling new sites. Additionally, you will be responsible for maintaining good relationships with business decision-makers at major companies, investigating promotions, sales strategies, and competitor products, and setting performance goals.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, sales engineer responsibilities require skills like "pre sales," "technical support," "windows," and "customer satisfaction." Meanwhile a typical national account executive has skills in areas such as "healthcare," "national accounts," "business relationships," and "salesforce." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
National account executives earn the highest salaries when working in the finance industry, with an average yearly salary of $89,796. On the other hand, sales engineers are paid more in the technology industry with an average salary of $97,595.national account executives tend to reach similar levels of education than sales engineers. In fact, national account executives are 2.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Sales engineer vs. Technical sales representative
A technical sales representative is responsible for selling products and services by demonstrating the product's details and features to existing and potential clients. Technical sales representatives evaluate clients' needs and recommend solutions through the organization's technology-based products. They also assist with promotional offers and marketing campaigns to boost brand awareness and increase revenues and achieve profitability goals while ensuring the highest customer satisfaction. A technical sales representative must have excellent communication and customer service skills, handling customers' inquiries, and resolving complaints.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that sales engineer responsibilities requires skills like "pre sales," "project management," "technical presentations," and "ip." But a technical sales representative might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "sales rep," "technical knowledge," "business relationships," and "strong work ethic."
In general, technical sales representatives achieve similar levels of education than sales engineers. They're 4.5% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for sales engineers in the next 3-5 years?
Bill Thorne
Executive Director of the NRF Foundation and Senior Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs of NRF, National Retail Federation
Sales engineer vs. Sales and marketing consultant
A sales and marketing consultant specializes in developing solutions to enhance a company's sales and marketing performance. Their responsibilities typically revolve around conducting research and analysis to identify marketing opportunities, assess existing projects and programs to recommend improvements, devise business plans and strategies, and produce materials for traditional or digital marketing. Furthermore, as a sales and marketing consultant, it is essential to monitor the progress of every procedure, prepare progress reports and presentations for clients, and create sales forecasts and cost estimates.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, sales engineers are more likely to have skills like "technical support," "windows," "java," and "product demonstrations." But a sales and marketing consultant is more likely to have skills like "media sales," "real estate," "sales techniques," and "bars."
Most sales and marketing consultants achieve a similar degree level compared to sales engineers. For example, they're 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Sales engineer vs. Territory sales representative
A territory sales representative is responsible for selling goods and services, assisting customers with their inquiries and concerns, and monitoring the assigned area's sales reports. Territory sales representatives coordinate with the rest of the sales team to develop effective marketing strategies and promotional techniques to increase revenues and profitability. Territory sales representatives research current market trends to identify business opportunities to meet consumer demands and widen their services. A territory sales representative must have excellent knowledge of the sales disciplines and principles, managing the market approach to ensure customer satisfaction.
Types of sales engineer
Updated January 8, 2025
