What a sales engineer really does
You are the technical expert on the sales team, the one who proves the product can really do what the customer needs.
FieldBusiness
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Considerable preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for sales engineers, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Joining sales calls to dig into a customer's systems, requirements and constraints
- Answering the technical sections of RFPs and writing tailored proposals
- Designing and sizing product configurations for each customer
- Giving technical presentations and live demos to customer engineering teams
- Setting up trial installations or proofs of concept and helping customers through them
- Working closely with account executives on deal strategy and with product teams on gaps
- Keeping account notes, forecasts and records current
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- Proposals and RFP responses are the single most important task, so a lot of the job is technical writing under deadline. Task 1 (Core, importance 90): Develop, present, or respond to proposals for specific customer requirements, including RFP responses (O*NET)
- Your calls have real weight. Deals often hinge on whether you say the product can do something. Impact of decisions on co-workers or company results: 66% very important (O*NET Work Context)
- You lead people you do not manage, pulling in product, support and engineering to win a deal. Coordinating or leading others: 54% extremely important (O*NET Work Context)
- Weekly deadlines are normal, tied to RFP due dates, demos and deal close dates. Time pressure: 23% every day, 55% once a week or more (O*NET Work Context)
- Conflict tends to be with your own team or the customer's experts, about what is promised, not with angry customers. Conflict situations: 36% once a week or more; Dealing with unpleasant, angry, or discourteous people: 75% once a year or more but not monthly (O*NET Work Context)
How people get into it
Most sales engineers hold a bachelor's degree (O*NET Job Zone 4), usually in engineering, computer science or another technical field, plus several years of related technical experience. Many start as engineers, support engineers or consultants who enjoy working with customers, then move into presales roles and learn selling on the job.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks at Signalforge, a fictional company, with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: The trial cannot show real product environments, hands on installation and debugging of a proof of concept, travel to customer sites, or deals that take six to twelve months to close. Commission pay and quota pressure are not simulated. The product, customer and pricing are fictional and simplified.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
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Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 41-9031.00. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.