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The differences between sales managers and sales engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-8 years to become a sales manager, becoming a sales engineer takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a sales engineer has an average salary of $93,727, which is higher than the $73,952 average annual salary of a sales manager.
The top three skills for a sales manager include product knowledge, customer satisfaction and sales performance. The most important skills for a sales engineer are pre sales, customer service, and sales process.
| Sales Manager | Sales Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $73,952 | $93,727 |
| Hourly rate | $35.55 | $45.06 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 119,066 | 132,324 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Average age | 46 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 8 | 6 |
Sales managers are responsible for leading the organization's sales team. They oversee the progress and performance of the whole team, set area assignments to team members, and set weekly or monthly quotas. Sales managers oversee training team members during onboarding and providing further coaching to help them achieve their goals. They manage the challenges that team members may meet and help mitigate any problems that come along the way. Sales managers also set the strategic direction of the sales team and follow through by ensuring that the team's activities are in line with the goals.
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 managers and sales engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Manager | Sales Engineer | |
| Average salary | $73,952 | $93,727 |
| Salary range | Between $42,000 And $129,000 | Between $66,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | Jersey City, NJ | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Virginia |
| Best paying company | Capgemini | Meta |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a sales manager and a sales engineer in terms of educational background:
| Sales Manager | Sales Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 63% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Southern California | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between sales managers' and sales engineers' demographics:
| Sales Manager | Sales Engineer | |
| Average age | 46 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 68.7% Female, 31.3% | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | 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% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |