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What does a technical sales engineer do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
What does a technical sales engineer do

A technical sales engineer is a sales professional who provides technical sales support and advice about the products and services. Your duties typically include consulting and selling on scientifically and technologically advanced products, organizing sales visits, and liaising contracts and terms and conditions. Additionally, you are expected to collaborate with the design, engineering, production, and research and development departments on how to modify products and services that meet customers' needs. You are also responsible for attending meetings, conferences, and trade shows.

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Technical sales engineer responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real technical sales engineer resumes:

  • Manage and maintain CRM database, including entering new opportunities into system and periodically updating existing customer profiles.
  • Steer RFP, RFQ, and bid management activities for new and existing customer engagements together with sales operations.
  • Establish back-office systems from scratch, including implementing order fulfillment system, CRM, and QuickBooks.
  • Educate the internal teams on the competitive landscape of cloud solutions as well as new partners.
  • Prepare request for proposal (RFP) responses in conjunction with the appropriate sales team as necessary.
  • Configure computer, server, and IP telephony system quotes per given requirements for current and potential customers.
  • Provide sales engineering support for SE region on complete line of IP and RF cable products and access equipment.
  • Master knowledge of technology-base products, and competitor products, to address needs of healthcare professionals and quickly establish market share.
  • Maintain and balance electronic RF distribution equipment.
  • Leverage engineering skills daily via customer interaction.
  • Review customer design needs during pre-sales activities and identify cross-sell opportunities.
  • Direct internal team that standardize PowerPoint presentations across product lines for the company.
  • Leverage good communication skills and extensive technical knowledge to continually exceed sales goals.
  • Partner extensively with industrial distribution channel to penetrate industrial user and OEM customer base.
  • Design company marketing brochure and effective PowerPoint presentations featuring company strengths and competitive advantages.

Technical sales engineer skills and personality traits

We calculated that 10% of Technical Sales Engineers are proficient in Customer Service, Sales Process, and Product Line. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Problem-solving skills, and Self-confidence.

We break down the percentage of Technical Sales Engineers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Service, 10%

    Assumed responsibility to trained and managed Inside Sales and Customer Service personnel to provide technical assistance, equipment and component proposals.

  • Sales Process, 8%

    Spearheaded ERP implementation (Visibility) to automate and fully integrate engineering, accounting and sales processes.

  • Product Line, 7%

    Promoted to two additional product lines with responsibilities to revamp presentation of subject matter.

  • Pre Sales, 7%

    Provided Pre Sales Engineer support to customers.

  • Technical Knowledge, 4%

    Develop and exercise technical knowledge of all NBS products and features, including functionality and integration points.

  • Technical Expertise, 4%

    Analyzed client-specific needs to offer standard or custom solutions requiring technical expertise.

Common skills that a technical sales engineer uses to do their job include "customer service," "sales process," and "product line." You can find details on the most important technical sales engineer responsibilities below.

Interpersonal skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a technical sales engineer to have is interpersonal skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "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." Technical sales engineers often use interpersonal skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "employed excellent interpersonal, verbal, and communication skills. "

Problem-solving skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling technical sales engineer duties is problem-solving skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "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." According to a technical sales engineer resume, here's how technical sales engineers can utilize problem-solving skills in their job responsibilities: "provided support through to resolution for evaluations and customer issues. "

Self-confidence. This is an important skill for technical sales engineers to perform their duties. For an example of how technical sales engineer responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "sales engineers should be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a technical sales engineer: "experience and outstanding customer service skills allow for customer confidence in managing the technical support aspects of the products. ".

Technological skills. technical sales engineer responsibilities often require "technological skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "sales engineers must have extensive knowledge of the technologically sophisticated products they sell in order to explain their advantages and answer questions." This resume example shows what technical sales engineers do with technological skills on a typical day: "validate, investigate, propose, and support technological speech solutions to pre-sales accounts. "

See the full list of technical sales engineer skills

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Compare different technical sales engineers

Technical sales engineer vs. Sales development representative

A sales development representative qualifies leads at the sales funnel's initial stages. Sales development representatives need to conduct research for prospective clients and qualify the leads before handing them to the sales team. They develop sales strategies to attract buyers or solicit potential customers. They need to build relationships with their customers to determine their needs and qualify the viability of interests to drive sales. Also, they collaborate with the sales executives making certain that corporate targets and goals are met.

If we compare the average technical sales engineer annual salary with that of a sales development representative, we find that sales development representatives typically earn a $37,119 lower salary than technical sales engineers make annually.While their salaries may differ, the common ground between technical sales engineers and sales development representatives are a few of the skills required in each roleacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities. In both careers, employee duties involve skills like customer service, sales process, and pre sales.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, technical sales engineer responsibilities require skills like "product line," "technical knowledge," "technical expertise," and "account management." Meanwhile a typical sales development representative has skills in areas such as "sdr," "lead generation," "account executives," and "linkedin." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

Sales development representatives tend to make the most money working in the start-up industry, where they earn an average salary of $54,512. In contrast, technical sales engineers make the biggest average salary, $92,811, in the telecommunication industry.sales development representatives tend to reach lower levels of education than technical sales engineers. In fact, sales development representatives are 8.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Technical sales engineer vs. Territory representative

A territory representative is responsible for selling the company's goods and services within a designated area, negotiating offers with potential clients, and identifying business opportunities according to market trends and customer demands. Territory representatives analyze the sales performance and strategize techniques to reach sales targets by coordinating with the whole sales team. They must be highly knowledgeable of the products offered by the company to demonstrate features and functionalities and respond to the inquiries and concerns the customers may have.

Territory representative positions earn lower pay than technical sales engineer roles. They earn a $48,862 lower salary than technical sales engineers per year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Technical sales engineers and territory representatives both require similar skills like "customer service," "product line," and "excellent interpersonal" to carry out their responsibilities.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that technical sales engineer responsibilities requires skills like "sales process," "pre sales," "technical knowledge," and "technical expertise." But a territory representative might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "patients," "customer relationships," "territory development," and "food handling."

In general, territory representatives achieve lower levels of education than technical sales engineers. They're 7.0% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Technical sales engineer vs. Outside sales

An outside sales representative is responsible for generating the company's sales and revenues by offering goods and services to existing and potential clients, responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about the products, and researching on possible leads. Outside sales representatives monitor the current industry trends to identify new business opportunities that would help the business adjust to market changes to achieve profitability goals. An outside sales representative must have excellent communication and customer service skills, immediately resolving complaints and assisting on marketing promotions to gain sales prospects.

On average, outside sales earn lower salaries than technical sales engineers, with a $11,331 difference per year.technical sales engineers and outside sales both have job responsibilities that require similar skill sets. These similarities include skills such as "customer service," "sales process," and "product line," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from technical sales engineer resumes include skills like "pre sales," "technical knowledge," "technical expertise," and "technical solutions," whereas an outside sales is more likely to list skills in "product knowledge," "first hand," "ongoing support," and "work ethic. "

Outside sales earn the highest salary when working in the manufacturing industry, where they receive an average salary of $83,118. Comparatively, technical sales engineers have the highest earning potential in the telecommunication industry, with an average salary of $92,811.When it comes to education, outside sales tend to earn lower degree levels compared to technical sales engineers. In fact, they're 8.7% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Technical sales engineer vs. Inside sales specialist

An inside sales specialist is primarily responsible for securing sales by reaching out to clients to sell products and services. They may communicate with customers through calls and correspondence or personally recommend products in a retail store setting. Moreover, they are also responsible for responding to inquiries or concerns, identifying the customers' needs, devising strategies to find sales opportunities, and discussing products to customers. An inside sales specialist is often required to meet sales goals and report to managers should there be any issues or problems.

Inside sales specialists typically earn lower pay than technical sales engineers. On average, inside sales specialists earn a $37,679 lower salary per year.According to resumes from technical sales engineers and inside sales specialists, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "customer service," "sales process," and "product line. "While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "technical knowledge," "technical expertise," "technical solutions," and "project management" are skills that commonly show up on technical sales engineer resumes. On the other hand, inside sales specialists use skills like work ethic, product knowledge, outbound calls, and strong work ethic on their resumes.The real estate industry tends to pay the highest salaries for inside sales specialists, with average annual pay of $63,848. Comparatively, the highest technical sales engineer annual salary comes from the telecommunication industry.In general, inside sales specialists hold lower degree levels compared to technical sales engineers. Inside sales specialists are 6.4% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of technical sales engineer

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.