Sales Rep (Technical & Scientific)
Sales Rep (Technical & Scientific)
Career Overview
Technical and scientific sales representatives help businesses choose products that solve specific problems. They combine sales skills with knowledge of products such as technology, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, engineering products, or scientific supplies.
Education
Education depends on what you’re selling. A high school diploma may be enough for some sales positions, while technical and scientific products often require a college or university degree in a related subject. Strong product knowledge is important—you need to understand what you’re selling and explain it clearly.
Future Outlook
The outlook is steady. Businesses will continue to need people who can explain increasingly complex products and technologies. Technology and AI may change how sales are done, but strong communication, product knowledge, and relationship-building remain valuable. Current projections show modest growth through 2034.
Work Environment
Sales representatives may work in offices, customer locations, trade shows, or online. The job can involve travel, presentations, meetings, and frequent communication with customers. Sales goals and commissions can make the work competitive and fast-paced.
Recommended High School Courses
- Psychology
- Business
- Public Speaking
- Communication
- Economics
- Marketing
- Sociology
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
- Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Memorization - The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Negotiate prices or other sales terms.
- Contact current or potential customers to promote products or services.
- Gather customer or product information to determine customer needs.
- Sell products or services.
- Prepare sales or other contracts.
- Process sales or other transactions.
- Maintain records of customer accounts.
- Answer customer questions about goods or services.
- Estimate costs or terms of sales.
- Explain technical product or service information to customers.
- Demonstrate products to consumers.
- Discuss design or technical features of products or services with technical personnel.
- Develop content for sales presentations or other materials.
- Recommend products or services to customers.
- Arrange delivery of goods or services.
- Maintain records of sales or other business transactions.
- Prepare financial documents, reports, or budgets.
- Identify potential customers.
- Share sales-related or market information with colleagues.
- Coordinate sales campaigns.
- Advise customers on the use of products or services.
- Verify customer credit information.
- Study product information to acquire professional knowledge.
- Distribute promotional literature or samples to customers.
- Stock products or parts.
- Attend events to develop professional knowledge.
- Monitor market conditions or trends.
- Monitor sales activities.
- Deliver promotional presentations to current or prospective customers.
- Explain financial information to customers.
Schools
California Institute Of T...
Columbia University - Ny...
Georgia Institute Of Tech...
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute O...
Northwestern University-...
Princeton University
Scripps Research Institut...
University Of California-...
University Of California-...
University Of Chicago
University Of Illinois At...
University Of Michigan- A...
University Of North Carol...
University Of Pennsylvani...
University Of Texas- Aust...
University Of Wisconsin-...
Yale University
Lakehead University- T...
Mcgill University
Memorial University
University Of Alberta
University Of Prince E...
University Of Toronto-...
University Of Toronto-...
University Of Victoria
University Of Waterloo
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$49,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$106,000.00 /yr
High End:
$195,000.00 /yr
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.