What is a Sales Engineer (SE)?
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering… “What’s the difference between an SE and an SOM?” We get it. There’s confusion and overlap between various sales titles used at different organizations. What’s more, titles are often changing and adapting to industry trends.
The fast-growing, competitive nature of the SaaS industry has created an environment where new titles are needed to accommodate for completely new positions. What’s more, (slightly) different titles – à la Sales Development Rep vs. Business Development Rep – are created to sound more relevant, modern, and in line with company values and culture.
If you’re new to all this sales jargon, look no further! We’ve got you covered. Keep reading to find out exactly what a sales engineer does, average salary for SEs, career outlook, and available SE jobs.
In SaaS sales, the acronym SE stands for Sales Engineer. SEs work with the sales team in an organization to provide custom, often complex solutions and integrations for clients.
Sales Engineer Job Description
In the world of SaaS, sales engineers have an excellent knowledge of their company’s technology, as well as a keen understanding of the kinds of software solutions buyers are looking for.
What does a Sales Engineer do?
The main role of a sales engineer is to build custom solutions and solve complex problems for prospective and current clients – whether that means building out custom integrations or troubleshooting a solution for a large, complex organization. They are typically employed in B2B companies, where they facilitate sales relationships with other organizations that may have custom tech needs.
Sales engineers generally hold advanced degrees in the industry specific to the product or service they sell, enabling them to give in-depth explanations of the technology or science supporting their product to prospective buyers, as well as create advanced custom solutions.
Because they keep a close eye on the ever-changing needs of their business clients and industry-specific trends, SEs can act as a liaison between sales and product teams.
Sales Engineer Salary
The average sales engineer salary in the United States is $84,261 annually, with $20,000 per year in commission (source: Indeed). This number varies based on the state and city you work in, with the highest paying cities for sales engineers being Alpharetta, GA ($193,079), New York, NY ($108,988), and Los Angeles ($92,741).
SE Career Outlook
With the abundance of automation, software, and online marketing tools available on the market today, it may be worth wondering if sales positions will still be growing in a few years.
If you’re looking to grow your career in the sales industry, don’t worry – as the market outlook for sales engineers is positive! 8% growth is projected for sales engineer opportunities through 2030, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Sales Engineer Jobs
Looking for available SE jobs? Here are a few resources to help your search:
Which sales role is right for me?
The right sales role for you depends on your experience and expertise, but sales can be a good industry to get your start if you are entering the job market for the first time!
Some key characteristics of great sales and customer support professionals include:
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Great communicators
- Passion for what they are selling
- Willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done
- No fear calling and following-up with potential clients
- Positive attitude
- Creative and passionate about helping others
- Ability to multi-task across different platforms and forms of communication
- Ability to work well under pressure and with a team
Does this sound like you? Kixie is hiring, and we’d love to hear from you! We are looking for jovial, hard-working colleagues to share our journey as we change the landscape of business telephony.
