Sales engineers are a vital link between a company’s products or services and the clientele who use them. But what type of person is best suited for the job, especially in today’s competitive marketplace?
Spend a few minutes looking at "sales engineer” job postings online and you’ll find that companies are seeking employees who are multi-talented and well-versed in a number of tech solutions.
Today, about 25% of sales engineers (SE) are employed in wholesale trade establishments, and another 20% are employed in manufacturing establishments in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Others work in computer systems design and related services organizations, as well as telecommunications firms.
BLS projection data indicate that the employment of sales engineers is expected to grow 6% from 2018 to 2028, about as fast as the average for all occupations in that period. Average sales engineer salaries for job postings nationwide are currently 40% higher than average salaries for all job postings nationwide, according to Indeed.com. The average sales engineer’s salary is around $90,000.
What Do Sales Engineers Do?
Sales engineers face the weight of the economy, especially during times when sales organizations are being reduced, as consumers halt product and service purchases. And as technology changes, so do the tools and services that sales engineers are required to understand and represent in detail.
Traditionally, SEs were expected to simply provide technical information related to the sales efforts of their account managers. Today, according to Edward S. Levine’s The Evolving Sales Engineer, they are expected to be not only technical experts, but also consultative contributors to the sales process who can connect technical features to business drivers, handle the most common and challenging objections, earn a place in strategic conversations, identify and satisfy business and customers needs, and uncover cross-sell and account-expansion opportunities.
Whether they’re known as sales engineers or other titles — e.g., systems engineers or pre-sales support — these employees must be well equipped for success.
What Skills Does a Sales Engineer Possess?
According to experts, successful SE professionals should demonstrate at least a few key traits and skills. Do you have what it takes?
They are Well-versed in Technical Products
"SEs act as the sales team’s technical encyclopedia during the sale, representing the technical aspects of how the product solves specific customer problems,” Steve Johnson, an expert in technology product management, writes at PragmaticMarketing.com. While it’s essential to have tech expertise, however, SEs must consider the customer as well.
To that end, experts recommend that SEs avoid immersing themselves in one sole aspect of the sales engineering profession, "because at the end of the day, one can’t exist without the other,” Beth Fatusi, a systems engineer at Cisco, tells IMT. "If you don’t know the technical aspect, you can’t sell. If you can’t sell, the technical knowledge is rendered useless.”
They Prioritize Tasks Effectively
Most companies that utilize sales engineers have client bases that "are large and fluid, regularly changing in size and definition,” according to Levine, which requires keeping track of contacts and clients that get restructured. Moreover, Levine writes that an evolving sales engineering career will involve creating and delivering presentations, often with little input from account managers.
Successful SEs know how to prioritize effectively, which, as Harvard Business Review suggests, involves shifting your focus from volume to value: "Instead of checking off all the boxes and trying to get everything done, let’s identify those activities and initiatives that will truly add value. It’s OK not to do certain things, or to do them later.” Consider establishing a grading system, such as dividing and then grading goals into important "A” and less important "B” categories.
They Communicate With Their Listeners
Although SEs often require both sales and tech knowledge and should be well-versed in both, potential barriers can get in the way. The solution is to stay open-minded about who your listener is at any given moment.
"Technology sales pros need to know when to talk like a tech junkie and when to drop the jargon, especially when addressing a nontechnical audience, Monster.com tech jobs expert Allan Hoffman advises. "Sales engineers need to be technical, but talk the layman’s lingo,” Harvey Bass, CEO of IT sales professional staffing firm Stascom Technologies, tells Monster.
Finally, the best sales engineers have a positive attitude.
"A VP once told me, ‘Smart gets you in the door, but attitude keeps you there,’ and that has stuck with me,” Fatusi recalls. "Sometimes it doesn’t matter how smart and knowledgeable you are — if you have a bad attitude, no one will buy from you. So have a positive attitude.”
Based on these traits, does a career in sales engineering sound right for you?