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The differences between sales specialists and sales engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a sales specialist, 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 $53,004 average annual salary of a sales specialist.
The top three skills for a sales specialist include building relationships, customer complaints and customer orders. The most important skills for a sales engineer are pre sales, customer service, and sales process.
| Sales Specialist | Sales Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $53,004 | $93,727 |
| Hourly rate | $25.48 | $45.06 |
| Growth rate | 4% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 324,069 | 132,324 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Average age | 47 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 6 |
A sales specialist is responsible for offering the best goods and services to customers in order to boost the company's sales. Sales specialists also promote strategies and solutions to contribute to the company's growth and profitability. A sales specialist must have extensive knowledge of the current market trends and the best sales skills to perform marketing tasks. Sales specialists should have excellent communication and customer service skills to assist existing and potential clients with their inquiries and concerns.
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 specialists and sales engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Specialist | Sales Engineer | |
| Average salary | $53,004 | $93,727 |
| Salary range | Between $30,000 And $91,000 | Between $66,000 And $132,000 |
| Highest paying City | Boston, MA | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | Virginia |
| Best paying company | VMware | Meta |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a sales specialist and a sales engineer in terms of educational background:
| Sales Specialist | Sales Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 62% | Bachelor's Degree, 74% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred | Northwestern University |
Here are the differences between sales specialists' and sales engineers' demographics:
| Sales Specialist | Sales Engineer | |
| Average age | 47 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 55.1% Female, 44.9% | Male, 90.1% Female, 9.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 5.1% White, 72.9% 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 | 6% | 7% |