types of engineering

Should You Transfer from Software Engineer to sales?

By Mike Richardson 20 September, 2023 3 mins read

You may wonder if it is worth considering moving to sales if you are a software engineer who has already started your career. This article will provide you with an overview of the Sales Engineer job description, as well as the required skills and salary. If you are looking to move into the customer-facing part of your business, the sales engineer role is an excellent choice.

Job description of a sales engineer

A sales engineer plays an important role in technical sales. Their job requires them to research products and solve customer problems. They also collaborate with colleagues from across the organization to close business. Sales engineers report into the Director of Sales Engineering. Sales engineers are typically educated to a Bachelor's level or have equivalent experience and education. A sales engineer must have technical knowledge and experience with the software. This means they will need to communicate well and be able explain complex technical information clearly to non-technical audiences.

A sales engineer helps companies market their technologically advanced products to their customers. They help customers make sales and provide technical assistance. While they work full time, some may work irregularly. In addition, sales engineers must find potential customers for their company's products and help them make purchases. Sales engineers are also able to collect feedback from users and assist in product design. Final goal: Sales engineers must be able sell business.

Required Skills

Not only do you need excellent technical skills to make a career as a sales engineer, but there are also many other traits that will help you succeed in your sales role. Sales engineers are attracted to people with strong interpersonal skills. These traits include good communication, teamwork, empathy and collaboration. Sales engineers will also need to have problem solving skills as they will be assessed on their ability solve sales-related problems. Sales engineers will be expected to recommend improvements to their products to increase sales volume.

Technical sales engineers sell products and consult on scientific and technical innovations. They use their technical skills to identify and fix problems in product development, as well as find opportunities for improvement in usability. They often travel 20-70% of the year, but they are able to work from anywhere in America. Technical graduates can apply for this position because the training programs are in-house. A degree in engineering is not necessarily necessary to pursue this role, but it can help.

Salary

Recruiters struggle to find sales-experienced engineers and pay them accordingly. Therefore, the salaries for engineers in sales vary from company to company. While some companies offer a base salary, others offer bonuses for reaching performance targets. This is the common salary structure for sales engineers and may include equity grant or sign-on bonus. No matter the salary structure, benefits and perks available to a SE will be comparable to an experienced engineer.

A successful sales engineer may also move into a consulting or project management role. Experienced sales engineers may also be required by companies to fulfill the role of senior sales executives. Most sales engineers need to have a degree in technical areas. Engineers must possess both technical and interpersonal skills. While a degree as a software engineer is not required for a career selling, it can make a difference. But, it's important to understand that a salary as a software engineer will likely be greater than that of an information technology professional.

FAQ

How much do engineers make an hour?

This will vary from person-to-person and company-to company. The average annual salary for a software engineer in the entry level category is $60,000 per annum. After working for a while, this number can reach over $100,000.

Are there special qualifications required to study engineering in Canada?

No. All you need is good grades in your GCSEs (or equivalent). However, some universities do require applicants to achieve certain levels of academic achievement before they can enroll. Cambridge University, for instance, requires applicants to earn A*-C grades (in Maths, English Language or Science)

If you don't meet these requirements, you will need to take extra courses to help you prepare for university entrance exams.

Additional maths/science subjects or a language course might be required. Ask your school guidance counselors about these options.

What is Engineering?

Engineering is, simply put, the application of scientific principles for useful things. Engineers apply their scientific and mathematical knowledge to create machines, vehicles, buildings and bridges, as well as aircraft, spacecraft and robots.

Engineers can be involved in research, development, maintenance, testing and quality control. They also have the ability to teach, consult, and make decisions about law, politics and finance.

An engineer has various responsibilities, including designing and building products, systems, processes, and services; managing projects; performing tests and inspections; analyzing data; creating models; writing specifications; developing standards; training employees, supervising workers, and making decisions.

Engineers may specialize in certain areas, including mechanical, electrical and chemical.

Some engineers choose to focus on specific types of engineering, such as aeronautics, biotechnology, chemistry, computing, electronics, energy, industrial, marine, medicine, military, nuclear, robotics, space, transportation, telecommunications, and water.

Is engineering hard to study?

It all depends on what you mean when you say "hard". It depends on what you mean by 'hard'. If you mean hard, then yes. But if you mean boring then no. Engineering isn't difficult because it involves a lot of maths, physics, and calculations.

If you want to learn how to do something, go for it! To become an engineer, you don't necessarily have to be an engineer.

Engineering is fun if you're doing something you love.

Engineering isn't hard if you know the basics. This is false.

The reason why people think engineers are boring is that they haven't tried anything else yet.

They're just sticking to the same old thing, day after day.

But there are many different ways to solve problems. And each way has its own advantages and disadvantages. So try them all out and see which one works best for you.

Statistics

8% Civil engineers solve infrastructure problems. (snhu.edu)
14% of Industrial engineers design systems that combine workers, machines, and more to create a product or service to eliminate wastefulness in production processes, according to BLS efficiently. (snhu.edu)