As the name implies, technical sales representatives are specialized in selling technical and scientific products and services. To do this, you need to have a sound knowledge of the goods or services and show the clients how it works and can be used for their benefit. As a technical sales representative, you are also expected to keep in touch with existing customers even as you source for new ones, provide answers to customer's questions about the product, and advise them to update their product. Also, you should be aware and familiar with competitor's products as you identify and analyze sales opportunities.
As a technical sales representative, you should have a strong work ethic and communication skills. You should also be self-motivated, be creative, and you should be able to work under pressure. You need a degree in business, information technology, computer science, or a related field for the role. Averagely you will earn $66,958 per year.
How to Become a Technical Sales Representative
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a technical sales representative. For example, did you know that they make an average of $31.92 an hour? That's $66,402 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 35,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Technical Sales Representative Do
There are certain skills that many technical sales representatives have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed interpersonal skills, physical stamina and self-confidence.
How To Become a Technical Sales Representative
If you're interested in becoming a technical sales representative, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 56.9% of technical sales representatives have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.9% of technical sales representatives have master's degrees. Even though most technical sales representatives have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a technical sales representative. When we researched the most common majors for a technical sales representative, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on technical sales representative resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a technical sales representative. In fact, many technical sales representative jobs require experience in a role such as sales representative. Meanwhile, many technical sales representatives also have previous career experience in roles such as customer service representative or cashier.
Technical Sales Representative Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a technical sales representative can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as account manager, progress to a title such as director, inside sales and then eventually end up with the title director, inside sales.
Average Salary for a Technical Sales Representative
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Technical Sales Representatives
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
3. SUNY Farmingdale
Farmingdale, NY • Private
4. New York University
New York, NY • Private
5. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
6. SUNY College at Plattsburgh
Plattsburgh, NY • Private
7. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
8. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
9. SUNY College of Technology at Alfred
Alfred, NY • Private
10. Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY • Private
Top Skills For a Technical Sales Representative
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 24.6% of technical sales representatives listed communication on their resume, but soft skills such as interpersonal skills and physical stamina are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Technical Sales Representative Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Technical Sales Representative templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Technical Sales Representative resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Technical Sales Representative Demographics
Technical Sales Representative Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among technical sales representatives, 26.7% of them are women, while 73.3% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among technical sales representatives is White, which makes up 76.0% of all technical sales representatives.
- The most common foreign language among technical sales representatives is Spanish at 58.3%.
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Best States For a Technical Sales Representative
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a technical sales representative. The best states for people in this position are Washington, North Dakota, Oregon, and California. Technical sales representatives make the most in Washington with an average salary of $105,226. Whereas in North Dakota and Oregon, they would average $101,569 and $96,539, respectively. While technical sales representatives would only make an average of $96,224 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Michigan
$94,750
Avg. Salary
2. Ohio
$83,573
Avg. Salary
3. North Dakota
$101,569
Avg. Salary
How Do Technical Sales Representative Rate Their Jobs?
Top Technical Sales Representative Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ technical sales representatives and discovered their number of technical sales representative opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Dell was the best, especially with an average salary of $125,650. T-Mobile US follows up with an average salary of $45,401, and then comes The Heritage Company with an average of $63,724. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a technical sales representative. The employers include Lenovo, ProMach, and LATICRETE International
Most Common Employers For Technical Sales Representative
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas Instruments | $139,501 | $67.07 | 34 |
| 2 | Dell | $125,650 | $60.41 | 173 |
| 3 | Oracle | $104,654 | $50.31 | 31 |
| 4 | Kodak | $98,644 | $47.42 | 34 |
| 5 | Best Buy | $88,429 | $42.51 | 42 |
| 6 | Amazon | $81,927 | $39.39 | 77 |
| 7 | Staples | $76,055 | $36.56 | 41 |
| 8 | Office Depot | $70,995 | $34.13 | 48 |
| 9 | Medtronic | $69,338 | $33.34 | 54 |
| 10 | FLS Connect | $66,402 | $31.92 | 41 |
Technical Sales Representative Videos
