What is the Future of Technical Sales?

(by Sania Salman) With the advancement and continuous innovations in the field of science and technology, new product inventions and machines are always being developed. This augmentation of technology requires not only its accessibility but also its understanding and knowledge to make it more convenient for the usage of targeted audiences. People want machines to make their life easier and work efficient. When it comes to buying products for their businesses or work, not everyone is a tech geek and has the comprehension of technology or machines to make the right choice. That is when technical sales come into play.

What is Technical Sales?

Technical sales is the art of selling technology products by personnel having a core knowledge of scientific technicalities and specifications of the particular product. A unique blend of sales and technology ensures a much better buying experience since it provides the different aspects of a product to be known by the customer before the purchase is made.  Thereby the customer is well aware of the choice he is making in terms of having an efficient solution to his business needs.

Technical sales is quite different from most regular sales jobs. Like any sales job, a person has to be persuasive to make the buyer purchase the product.  In technical sales, the purchase depends on the sound knowledge, explanation, and demonstration of the product by the technical sales engineer or specialist. The consultative nature of the sales rep proves to be insightful to the consumer in fulfilling their business needs with a technology-provided solution.

“Keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you’re working on.”—Thomas Edison

The Future of Technical Sales

Talking about the future of technical sales, as we all know the future is technology, therefore, technical sales is only going to get stronger in the future. With many more inventions and scientific breakthroughs, the solutions provided by science and technology will be extensive. The only thing required is that sales engineers should be trained effectively and accordingly in order to fulfill the needs of the customers by providing them a resourceful guide to the product and ensuring a solution.

According to John Care, an SE expert and founder of Mastering Technical Sales, there will certainly be a growing demand for sales engineers in the future. The fact that advancements in technology will continue to rise in the future is undeniable but most importantly, people still prefer to work with people and don’t want robots to sell to them.   Human factors and empathy are the attributes that cannot be duplicated by robots.

An article in the Harvard Business Review analyzed the jobs and skills which are at a high risk of being automated and technical sales was way down at the bottom of the list- which further proves that the demand for technical sales will not decline as we proceed farther into the foreseeable future.

The employment opportunity for sales engineers is projected to grow 6 percent from 2018 to 2028, about as fast as the average for all occupations. As a wider range of technologically complex products is being developed, sales engineers will be crucial to help sell such products or services.

The job growth chart provided by Data USA shows a steady rise in the field of technical sales. Strong industry growth is predicted in computer systems design and related services, which will greatly contribute to employment growth for the occupation. Based on this, the employment of sales engineers in this field is projected to grow 24 percent from 2018 to 2028.

While the field of technical sales is predicted to show growth in the future, people working in this field also need to evolve to adapt to the changing needs of the customers. Reciting products’ specifications ad features to the customers will not be enough, rather they need to understand the customers’ business problems and provide them a solution accordingly. They should not only be well-informed of the scientific notions and technicalities of the product but also consult with the customers and understand their needs properly to make it appeal more to the prospect.

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” – Will Rodgers

Anything related to the field of science and technology is on the uptick and will remain so for the near future. The good news is that people still prefer to work with people and not with robots so technical sales roles will benefit. The bottom line is that with the surge in technology, technical sales engineers or product managers will become increasingly critical for a product’s success in the market.