Technical sales specialists are sales professionals that work exclusively with highly specialized technical products, such as electronics or computer products. Like any other sales professional, technical sales specialists need excellent interpersonal skills to maintain client relationships and onboard new clients. In addition to their sales experience, technical sales specialists usually have extensive knowledge of the product they are selling. They use their technical knowledge to explain to clients the benefits of their product and how to use it. Technical sales specialists also need to be proficient in sales software such as CRM. Often, they work within their sales department to use technical solutions to optimize sales procedures.
There are many different ways to become a technical sales specialist. Some have a bachelor's degree in computer science or business. Others have only a high school diploma. Some start off working in technology before switching to sales, while others have many years of sales experience.
No matter how they get to this position, technical sales specialists earn an average salary of $94,213 a year.
How to Become a Technical Sales Specialist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a technical sales specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $52.77 an hour? That's $109,752 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 Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many technical sales specialists 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 physical stamina, interpersonal skills and self-confidence.
How To Become a Technical Sales Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a technical sales specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 68.8% of technical sales specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 8.1% of technical sales specialists have master's degrees. Even though most technical sales specialists 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 specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a technical sales specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on technical sales specialist resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a technical sales specialist. In fact, many technical sales specialist jobs require experience in a role such as sales representative. Meanwhile, many technical sales specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as account executive or sales associate.
Technical Sales Specialist 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 specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as account executive, progress to a title such as territory manager and then eventually end up with the title senior territory manager.
Average Salary for a Technical Sales Specialist
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Technical Sales Specialists
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 Specialist
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, 14.3% of technical sales specialists listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as physical stamina and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Technical Sales Specialist Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Technical Sales Specialist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Technical Sales Specialist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Technical Sales Specialist Demographics
Technical Sales Specialist Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among technical sales specialists, 24.7% of them are women, while 75.3% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among technical sales specialists is White, which makes up 76.1% of all technical sales specialists.
- The most common foreign language among technical sales specialists is Spanish at 37.5%.
Online Courses For Technical Sales Specialist That You May Like
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Lead Generation and pre-sales skills: Learn lead generation, introducing yourself & qualifying your lead in 3 hours...
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Best States For a Technical Sales Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a technical sales specialist. The best states for people in this position are Michigan, North Dakota, California, and Ohio. Technical sales specialists make the most in Michigan with an average salary of $149,153. Whereas in North Dakota and California, they would average $144,621 and $142,416, respectively. While technical sales specialists would only make an average of $140,633 in Ohio, 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. Ohio
$140,633
Avg. Salary
2. North Carolina
$138,671
Avg. Salary
3. North Dakota
$144,621
Avg. Salary
How Do Technical Sales Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Technical Sales Specialist 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 specialists and discovered their number of technical sales specialist opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that IBM was the best, especially with an average salary of $144,236. Office Depot follows up with an average salary of $105,517, and then comes Prometheus Laboratories with an average of $128,943. 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 specialist. The employers include Baker Hughes, SAS Institute, and Thermo Fisher Scientific
Most Common Employers For Technical Sales Specialist
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dell | $164,911 | $79.28 | 31 |
| 2 | Apple | $157,432 | $75.69 | 41 |
| 3 | Autodesk | $154,984 | $74.51 | 18 |
| 4 | Microsoft | $153,855 | $73.97 | 20 |
| 5 | Intel | $149,995 | $72.11 | 26 |
| 6 | IBM | $144,236 | $69.34 | 190 |
| 7 | FactSet | $139,466 | $67.05 | 13 |
| 8 | Quest Diagnostics | $132,078 | $63.50 | 13 |
| 9 | Prometheus | $128,943 | $61.99 | 74 |
| 10 | Hewlett Packard Enterprise | $128,585 | $61.82 | 14 |
Technical Sales Specialist Videos
