Anyone here have experience with sales engineering?

S

Sir Hobbleton Scotch

Veteran-5
I've searched but there doesn't seem to be much information on sales engineers.
Checked google, wiki, reddit, etc. Not looking for a definition but more about info on career and the like.
Anyone have any info or something?

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Typically Sales Engineers (or Field Application Engineers) are technical people who show up to meetings with the actual Sales Rep. and help answer technical questions about the product / service / process that your company is selling.

While I'm not technically a Sales Engineer, I do something very similar where I work on occasion because Sales Rep's r dumb.
 
I used to be a "sales engineer." Normally I was direct selling to the average person but when opportunity presented itself I would direct sale to companies. Usually construction related companies because I already had plenty of experience in the construction field.
 
Shouldn't the salesman learn that stuff? I mean labeling something an Engineer when it can easily be replaced by a well written pamphlet seems a bit of a stretch.
 
Fool said:
Shouldn't the salesman learn that stuff? I mean labeling something an Engineer when it can easily be replaced by a well written pamphlet seems a bit of a stretch.
Click to expand...

The Sales rep should learn that stuff. But they don't. Their job is to get the client into the room and stroke their balls until they cum buckets of cash.

Sometimes there are questions that come up that can't be answered in a pamphlet. I'll give you an example from a question I had to answer while on the phone with the customer's engineer a few days ago: "Can your ERP system link with our system to automate the transfer of specific data about our inventory?" Specifically they wanted to know if we could output data from our database into a Google Doc's spreadsheet.

The only way to answer that is to know what backed system your customer is working with, and what capabilities your system has.
 
novacham said:
The Sales rep should learn that stuff. But they don't. Their job is to get the client into the room and stroke their balls until they cum buckets of cash.

Sometimes there are questions that come up that can't be answered in a pamphlet. I'll give you an example from a question I had to answer while on the phone with the customer's engineer a few days ago: "Can your ERP system link with our system to automate the transfer of specific data about our inventory?" Specifically they wanted to know if we could output data from our database into a Google Doc's spreadsheet.

The only way to answer that is to know what backed system your customer is working with, and what capabilities your system has.
Click to expand...


Do you split the commission with the Salesman? Otherwise it seems like getting the short end of the stick.
 
Fool said:
Do you split the commission with the Salesman? Otherwise it seems like getting the short end of the stick.
Click to expand...

No, but like I said I'm not really a Sales Engineer. I just play one on occasion when needed. If we do land a large customer as a result, I might get a bonus thrown my way though.

Typically the roles are split up because it requires two different kinds of people. A person who is highly technical doesn't always make the best Sales Person and vice versa. High context people tend to make fantastic sales reps, while low context people tend to be highly technical and productive.

I absolutely detest meetings with customers and try and dodge them as much as possible. But I'll do the company a solid and play nice when needed if it means a benefit to the team that reports directly to me (growth and opportunity leads to raises and promotions).
 
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