Technical sales is a segment of sales that works highly complex manufacturing and technology products being sold to large corporations. Technical salesman have many titles, Sales engineer, field consultant, pre-sales support, and support engineer. all of these titles link to a salesman who knows a specific product or set of products inside and out. They will then use this extensive knowledge on a product to convince target consumers to buy their product. Technical sales reps have a background in business, sales, marketing but also engineering or other specific trade. Healthcare sales reps could also be categorized with a technical rep. Companies use Engineers to provide to support to salesman in the field, working together as a team. many times this type of sales process requires a demo, hands on explanation, or training scenario that would require a product expert. Technical sales reps sometimes provide post-purchase support or orchestrate repairs and part exchange situations. they become the face of relationship between manufacturing and technology.
This is a great example that anyone can get into sales. engineers don’t represent your typical “sales personality” but they have unique knowledge that makes them incredibly powerful in the sales process. according to EHow.com the number of sales engineers has increased 8% over the last 5 years and will continue to grow.
BoweryJE22
I really hadn’t heard of technical sales before, and really did not know what that meant so it was interesting to read your post. I think this goes right into our discussion on how many roles/jobs that you think are not sales positions actually require a great deal of selling. I certainly don’t think of an engineer when I first hear the word salesman, but they do have unique skills that would aid them in the selling process. Knowing your product inside and out is really beneficial to selling.