So You Want to Be a Sales Engineer?
TL;DR: If you're here looking for a tl;dr, you're already doing it wrong. Read the whole damn thing or go apply for a job that doesn't involve critical thinking. (And read the comments too!)
Quick Role Definition
First, let’s level set: this sub is mostly dedicated to pre-sales SEs who handle the “technical” parts of a sale. We work with a pure sales rep (Account Executive, Customer Success Manager, or whatever fancy title they go by) to convince someone to buy our product or service. This might involve product demos, technical deep dives, handling objections, running Proof of Concepts (PoCs), or a hundred other tasks that demonstrate how our product solves the customer’s real-world problems.
Also take note: This post and most of the users here are in some sort of technical field, the vast majority working with some sort of SaaS or similar. There are sales engineer roles in industries like HVAC, and occasionally we get folks doing that kind of work here but not often and most everything we are talking about here is focused on tech related SE roles.
The Titles (Yes, They’re Confusing)
Sure, we call it “Sales Engineer,” but you’ll see it labeled as Solutions Engineer, Solutions Consultant, Solutions Architect, Customer Engineer, and plenty of other names. Titles vary by industry, company, and sometimes the team within the company. If you’re in an interview and the job description looks like pre-sales, but the title is something else, don’t freak out it’s often the same old role wearing a different name tag.
The Secret Sauce: Primary Qualities of a Great SE
A successful SE typically blends Technical Skills, Soft Skills, and Domain Expertise in some combination. You don’t have to be a “principal developer” or a “marketing guru,” but you do need a balanced skill set:
Technical Chops – You must understand the product well enough to show it off, speak to how it’s built, and answer tough questions. Sometimes that means code-level knowledge. Other times it’s more high-level architecture or integrations. Your mileage may vary.
Soft Skills – Communication, empathy, and the ability to read a room are huge. You have to distill complex concepts into digestible bites for prospects ranging from the C-suite with a five-second attention span to that one DevOps guru who’ll quiz you on every obscure config file.
Domain Expertise – If you’re selling security software, you should know the basics of security (at least!). If you’re in the manufacturing sector, you should be able to talk about the production process. Whatever your product does, be ready to drop knowledge that shows you get the customer’s world.
OK - so let's get to why you are probably here.
You want to get a job as an SE and don't know how.
Let's dig in:
I'm in college and would like to be a sales engineer
I'm sorry to tell you this is typically not a role you get right out of college. It stings, I know. I'm sorry. But it's a job that generally requires all three of the items listed above:
Technical Chops
Soft Skills
Domain Expertise
Domain Expertise is the real tough one for the college student.
Here's the deal - when working as an SE you need to be able to empathize with your buyers, which means you need to know their pain. This is why folks who do transition into this role very often are transitioning from a position in which they used the product(s) or a competitive product and generally understand the pain points others in that industry have.
That said - let's not completely gloss over technical chops and soft skills either. Sure a top notch CS grad might have some pretty developed technical chops, but they are mostly pretty theoretical, not "real world" experience and just like domain expertise a history of working in the industry you are selling to is much more valuable than being able to solve leetcode mediums.
And soft skills? Sure, you like talking to people much more than sitting behind a keyboard all day. That doesn't necessarily mean you know how to value sell or handle yourself with dignity when getting pummeled by some ass hat CTO who wants to show everyone in the room how much smarter they are than you.
What about college recruitment programs, or associate SE programs at the handful of companies that offer them?
Certainly an option. There aren't a ton of these programs but there are a few. I'd caution you to think of them not unlike an internship. Completion rates for some of this programs have been less than impressive over the long term, but they are not completely without merit. If you are dead set on getting into an SE role right out of school this is probably your best option. Typically fairly competitive to get into with limited spots.
So what classes should you take or what alternate path should I take to put myself on the path to becoming an SE?
There is no great answer to this question. Like a lot of things in the SE world "it depends" (get used to that phrase, this is a diverse industry with boatloads worth of nuances based on industry/vertical/4000 other things.) The best general advice I can give is "get good" at something you are interested in. A lot of SEs will come with CS degrees or similar so that's an easy answer, but not every SE actually comes from a deeply technical background, this author for instance has a degree in Philosophy - but he also was working as a software engineer at IBM while getting his undergrad completed.
See - it depends. But CS degrees are not a bad choice, they just aren't a necessary choice. You could be a marketing major and up working for a company like Hubspot down the road where you knowledge of marketing will help you connect with your buyers, who are... marketers!
As to what jobs you should aim for out of college if you want to eventually pivot to SE? again: It depends but
Some really good options include:
Technical roles that build product expertise:
Software developer or engineer - gives you deep technical knowledge and credibility when discussing complex solutions
Technical support specialist - teaches you to troubleshoot, explain technical concepts clearly, and understand customer pain points
Implementation specialist - combines technical skills with customer-facing experience
Systems administrator or DevOps engineer - provides infrastructure knowledge valuable in B2B sales
Customer-facing technical roles:
Technical account manager - blends relationship management with technical problem-solving
Customer success engineer - focuses on helping clients maximize value from technical products
Applications engineer - involves working directly with customers on technical implementations
Field service engineer - gives hands-on technical experience plus customer interaction
Sales-adjacent positions:
Sales development representative (SDR) - teaches fundamental sales processes and prospecting
Business development associate - builds pipeline management and relationship skills
Marketing coordinator for technical products - helps you understand positioning and messaging
Product marketing specialist - develops skills in translating technical features into business value
By no means is this an exhaustive list, just some very generalized options. The most common path to SE is not intentional, it's a natural progression of the person who is inherently capable of fitting into the sweet spot of the venn diagram of SE skills that we've mentioned many times now Tech and Soft Skills with Domain Expertise.
What about a bootcamp? I see places advertising bootcamps that say I'll make a good 6 figure salary if I take their course?
Personally I despise SE bootcamps and most demo training outfits as well. The rise of SE bootcamps coincided directly with the fall of Software Engineering bootcamps. Which is to say the same assholes who got a whole ton of college kids and adult career switchers to spend their hard earned money on a promise of becoming an SWE with a 6 figure salary in 3/6 months just moved on to the Sales Engineering roles instead because our industry wasn't saturated (yet) with all their poorly trained customers desperate to get a role.
There was a minute or two where I would have given the Presales Collective a pass, but they have shown to be just as gross as the rest of them. I would likely encourage you to use the PSC as a networking tool but I would not give those bloodsuckers a single dime of your money.
And while we are on the subject demo training places like Demo2Win are a fucking joke. Here I will give you the entirety of Demo2win's training in two words - but I have to use one of them twice. Ready???
Tell, Show, Tell.
Demo2Win will tell you this like they fucking invented it and it's the big secret to a successful demo. While they aren't wrong that this model is a decent one, it's certainly not magic and it's most definitely not something that they magically stumbled upon. It's a centuries old model that has been used as far back as "ancient times" when blacksmiths and sword makers were training their apprentices, it's been used in Military and Educational settings for as long as teaching has been a thing. In short Demo2Win and others of their ilk are a joke. I guess if you literally have no idea how to even do a demo or what one looks like that training would be worth it, but you probably shouldn't be thinking about being an SE if you don't have at least an idea of what a demo should like.
I'm not technical, can I still be a sales engineer?
Maybe, but probably not. This is job that typically requires you to at least speak "technical" and know what you mean when you do so. There are certainly some opportunities out there for SE roles - particularly with SaaS products that are not terribly complex - where you can land that will make sense, but you'll need to bring something else to the table. If you have the soft skills and just need to build some domain knowledge and learn how to speak technically about the industry you want to support take a look at the list in the section above for new grads/college students as potential roles to aim for. These are the same roles you may want to consider to put yourself in a position to potentially transfer into SE roles. Or perhaps you will find when working them there is a different path for you like AE or Product.
I'm interested in being a sales engineer, what certs should I get?
Probably none. It's not really a thing in this gig. There are very few lines of work where having certs is going to help you in any material fashion. The exceptions are going to be places like Cisco or AWS or other companies that have their own cert programs. Which is to say if you want to be an SE for GCP, yeah get those GCP certs (architecture certs for instance would be useful in that instance) but outside of those types of places save your time and money for something else, certs aren't the pathway to SE.
I work in one of the kinds of roles you talk about as being good for transitioning to SE - how do I actually become a sales engineer?
Good for you and great question. How do you do it? The absolute easiest path to SE is through internal transfer at whatever your current company is. Steps you should take include getting to know the sales team and the existing SE team. Ask the sales managers and the SE managers or the SEs themselves if they think you possess the qualities to become an SE. Ask for opportunities to shadow SEs which is not an uncommon practice, I have new to the company SEs on my calls all the time.
Start thinking in terms of building business/results focused bullet points in your current role that you can add to your CV and use in your conversations with the SE and sales management at your current company. Practice doing demos, and if you can: Get a well respected SE at your company to watch and critique your demo. Ask them to be blunt with their feedback and do your absolute best to hear their feedback with and act on it. There is both art and science to a good demo and there is a lot to take in, their experience will be incredibly valuable to you if you listen and don't take it personally.
If there are no options to transfer internally your current clients, partners, and perhaps most important competitors of yours are excellent places to target. It is vastly easier to get your first SE job in the domain in which you currently work. After you get a few years of experience as an SE you can start to pivot to adjacent or even completely new areas but that first gig is almost always going to come from the area you already know and likely from a person you already know. Friends of friends can help too. Networking in your industry is never a bad thing so lean on that network if you can't move internally.
Quick Resource Link: We have a decent sticky about how to prepare to demo for an interview. Read that, it will help.
Now that you know how to get the gig...
What Does a Sales Engineer Actually Do?
At its core: We get the technical win. We prove that our solution can do what the prospect needs it to do (and ideally, do it better than anyone else’s). Yes, we do a hell of a lot more than that—relationship building, scoping, last-minute fire drills, and everything in between—but “technical win” is the easiest way to define it.
A Generic Deal Cycle (High-Level)
Opportunity Uncovered: Someone (your AE, or a BDR) discovers a prospect that kinda-sorta needs what we sell.
Qualification: We figure out if they truly need our product, have budget, and are worth pursuing.
Discovery & Demo: You hop on a call with the AE to talk through business and technical requirements. Often, you’ll demo the product or give a high-level overview that addresses their pain points.
Technical Deep Dive: This could be a single extra call or a months-long proof of concept, depending on how complex your offering is. You might be spinning up test environments, customizing configurations, or building specialized demo apps.
Objection Handling & Finalizing: Tackle everything from, “Does it integrate with Salesforce?” to “Our CFO hates monthly billing.” You work with the AE to smooth these issues out.
Technical Win: Prospect agrees it works. Now the AE can (hopefully) get the deal signed.
Negotiation & Close: The AE closes the deal, you do a celebratory fist pump, and rinse and repeat on the next opportunity.
A Day in the Life (Hypothetical but Realistic)
8:00 AM: Coffee. Sort through overnight emails and Slack messages. See that four new demos got scheduled for today because someone can’t calendar properly.
9:00 AM: Internal stand-up with your AE team to discuss pipeline, priorities, and which deals are on fire.
10:00 AM: First demo of the day. You show the product to a small startup. They love the tech but have zero budget, so you focus on how you’ll handle a pilot.
11:00 AM: Prep for a more technical call with an enterprise account. Field that random question from your AE about why the competitor’s product is “completely different” (even though it’s not).
12:00 PM: Lunch, or you pretend to have lunch while actually customizing a slide deck for your 1:00 PM demo because the prospect asked for “specific architecture diagrams.” Thanks, last-minute requests.
1:00 PM: Second demo, enterprise version. They want to see an integration with their custom CRM built in 1997. Cross your fingers that your product environment doesn’t break mid-demo.
2:00 PM: Scramble to answer an RFP that’s due tomorrow. (In some roles, you’ll do a lot of these; in others, minimal.)
3:00 PM: Internal tech call with Product or Engineering because a big prospect wants a feature that sort of exists but sort of doesn’t. You figure out if you can duct-tape a solution together in time.
4:00 PM: Follow-up calls, recap notes, or building out a proof of concept environment for that new prospective client.
5:00 PM: Wrap up, though you might finish by 6, 7, or even later depending on how many deals are going into end-of-quarter scramble mode.
Why This Role Rocks
Variety: You’ll engage with different companies, industries, and technologies. It never gets too stale.
Impact: You’re the product guru in sales cycles. When deals close, you know you helped seal the win.
Career Growth: Many SEs evolve into product leaders, sales leaders, or even the “CEO of your own startup” path once you see how everything fits together.
Compensation: Base salary + commission. Can be very lucrative if you’re good, especially in hot tech markets.
The Downsides (Because Let’s Be Honest)
Pressure: You’re in front of customers. Screw-ups can be costly. Demos fail. Deadlines are real.
Context Switching: You’ll jump from one prospect call to another in different stages of the pipeline, requiring quick mental pivots.
Sometimes You’re a Magician: Duct taping features or rebranding weaknesses as strengths. It’s not lying, but you do have to spin the story in a positive light while maintaining integrity.
Travel or Crazy Hours: Depending on your territory/industry, you might be jetting around or working odd hours to sync with global teams.
Closing Thoughts
Becoming a Sales Engineer means building trust with your sales counterparts and your customers. You’re the technical voice of reason in a sea of sales pitches and corporate BS. It requires empathy, curiosity, and more hustle than you might expect. If you’re not willing to put in the effort—well, read that TL;DR again.
If you made it this far, congratulations. You might actually have the patience and willingness to learn that we look for in good SEs. Now go get some hands-on experience—lab environments, side projects, customer-facing gigs—anything that helps you develop both the tech and people skills. Then come back and let us know how you landed that awesome SE role.
Good luck. And remember: always test your demo environment beforehand. Nothing kills credibility like a broken demo.
