Sales, Marketing and Communications
Sales Engineer
Sales engineers sell goods or services which require a high level of technical or engineering knowledge and understanding.
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Entry-level education
Bachelor’s degree
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Job outlook
What does a Sales Engineer do?
Sales engineers sell goods or services which require a high level of technical or engineering knowledge and understanding.
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Work activities
As a sales engineer, you would:
- meet new and current customers and gauge their needs
- prepare and deliver technical presentations to existing and prospective customers
- sell products requiring extensive technical knowledge for installation and support
- develop and modify product configurations to fit customers' needs
- clearly explain technical specifications to customers
- demonstrate products or equipment
- negotiate prices, contracts and payments
- record and detail orders
- organise and provide after-sales service and support
- recommend improved materials or services to customers, showing how changes will lower costs or increase production
- monitor competitors' products and services
- meet sales targets.
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Key skills and interests
To become a sales engineer, you would need:
- extensive technical knowledge
- good communication skills
- enthusiasm, initiative and confidence
- persuasiveness and good negotiation skills
- ambition to reach sales targets
- good teamwork skills
- good time management skills.
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Working hours and conditions
Working Hours
In a full-time role, you would usually work a standard number of hours per week. Depending on the needs of your customers, you may need to work evenings or weekends to accommodate them.
Conditions
You would spend a lot of your time travelling around your sales area. This may mean local, national or even international travel. When you are not on the road, you may be based in a sales office or you could work from home.
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How to become an Sales Engineer?
Entry Level Education
To become a sales engineer, you would typically need a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field. However, you may become a sales engineer without a degree, but with extensive sales experience as well as technical experience of the equipment or service you are selling.
Entry into a degree courses in engineering would usually require a senior secondary school certificate or equivalent. English, maths and physics would be appropriate subjects to study prior to university.
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Job outlook
Employment of sales engineers is projected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations.
As a wider range of technologically sophisticated products comes on the market, sales engineers will be in demand to sell these products and services related to these products.
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