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Sales Engineers

Also called: Applications Engineer, Systems Engineer, Account Manager, Sales Engineer

What they do:
Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a baccalaureate degree in engineering.
On the job, you would:
  • Plan and modify product configurations to meet customer needs.
  • Confer with customers and engineers to assess equipment needs and to determine system requirements.
  • Collaborate with sales teams to understand customer requirements, to promote the sale of company products, and to provide sales support.

Knowledge

Business
  • customer service
  • sales and marketing
Engineering and Technology
  • product and service development
  • design
Arts and Humanities
  • English language
Math and Science
  • arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, or statistics

Skills

Basic Skills
  • reading work related information
  • talking to others
People and Technology Systems
  • thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one
  • figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it
Social
  • talking people into changing their minds or their behavior
  • understanding people's reactions

Abilities

Verbal
  • communicate by speaking
  • listen and understand what people say
Ideas and Logic
  • make general rules or come up with answers from lots of detailed information
  • notice when problems happen
Math
  • add, subtract, multiply, or divide
  • choose the right type of math to solve a problem
Memory
  • remember words, numbers, pictures, or steps

Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include
leading, making decisions, and business.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Cooperation
  • Initiative
  • Independence
  • Persistence
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Attention to Detail

Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Enterprise resource planning ERP software
  • Hyperion Solutions Hyperion System 9 Bi+
  • SAP BusinessObjects software
Data base user interface and query software
  • IBM DB2
  • Microsoft SQL Server
Electronic mail software
  • Microsoft Exchange
  • Microsoft Outlook

Education

Education: (rated 4 of 5)
bachelor's degree or
associate's degree
usually needed

Get started on your career:

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Job Outlook

Average Outlook
New job opportunities are likely in the future.
Salary
$89,330
per year, on average
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See more details at O*NET OnLine about sales engineers.