IT Architect/Sales

MSP-IT · August 2013

Does such a role exist, and if so, does anyone here hold this type of position? I'm quite intrigued by business, and if you can find a position that pays IT wages (requires high-level networking knowledge) plus commission, I'm sure it could be quite lucrative. Does anyone have experience with this type of position?

networker050184 · August 2013

Sounds like you are looking for Sales Engineering type positions.

NetworkVeteran · August 2013

a position that pays IT wages (requires high-level networking knowledge) plus commission, I'm sure it could be quite lucrative.

A sales engineering role averages about $10k more than a network engineering role. For important sales opportunities sales managers, sales engineers, and network engineers typically work hand-in-hand.

MSP-IT · August 2013

Do either of you have experience in a position like this?

networker050184 · August 2013

I've never been a Sales Engineer, but as NetworkVeteran pointed out I have worked very closely with them a lot. They usually act as the technical recourse for the sales team, answer customer technical questions, give technical presentations to customers, assist customers in buying/design decisions, etc. Too much customer facing for my liking though the commission would be nice.

NetworkVeteran · August 2013

Nope! I'm a network engineer, who makes technical presentations, and receives a bonus when those result in sales.

Like networker, I'd prefer a straight commission, but see a clearer career path for me in the technical.

pinkydapimp · August 2013

I have been working in a sales engineering role for about 9 years. Its great. if you have soft skills like being about to relate tech to non tech folks you can do very well. Most sales engineering roles pay very well and can get you well into six figures. did you have any specific questions?

pinkydapimp · August 2013

So a few things while i have some time. I think there are many misconceptions about these types of positions. I think many folks when they think of sales they think of the computer sales guy at best buy. Positions such as: Sales Engineer, Pre/Post Sales Engineering, Field Engineer, Systems Engineer - tend to represent someone who works in a customer facing role. Most of these roles are very technical, they require a strong IT foundation as well as expertise in certain fields. There are some differences in these roles:

Pre-Sales Engineer - this role is to support everything before the sale happens. So, you typically work along with a sales person as the technical expert in the room. Think about it, if the sales person is selling VMware products to the Director of IT or the System Admin, they are going to have serious technical questions that someone not working in IT will not be able to answer. Thats what this role does. You do product presentations, Installations, demonstrations and assist in helping the customer understand why(or sometimes why not) they need the product and how to implement it. In addition, you will need to assist them in understanding how the product will help the business, as they are the ones typically spending the money. Now, these roles can be very technical. Many people think that such a role they will lose their technical skills. Depending on the role you wont. My current role is very technical and has me working with many different server OSs, SQL, Sharepoint, NAS devices and such. Also, the benefit to being able to work with many different environments is that you get to see how different people do things, and begin to understand how to best setup and maintain an IT infrastructure. Beneficial knowledge that you can one day bring to an organization.

Post-Sales Engineer - This role typically takes place after the sale has occurred. Typically its more technical than the pre sales role. This could be a nice entry point for someone looking to transition to such roles. In this role, you spend most of your time delivering services like: Installing software, training, configuring software, troubleshooting issues and other post sales tasks. Most important, while doing those tasks, is that the post sales engineer is able to try and upsell. So building relationships with the customer are very important. Some of these roles have commission/Bonus, some do not.

Field Engineer - typically this is another name for a post sales engineering role. However, can have some pre sales aspects as well depending on the company. Always good to ask.

Sales Engineer - Typically refers to pre-sales, however, againk check with the company because some places dont separate pre sales and post sales. IMO doing both pre and post sales is nice if you want to stay heavily immersed in tech stuff. However, the closer you are to the pre sales stuff the more money there is for you.

Career outlook - IMO this field is in heavy demand and will be around for a while. As IT depts try to do more with less resources(i.e. people) we are seeing them depend on 3rd parties for services and technology. Therefore, people tend to purchase software solutions which allow them to do more with less. And lets face it, every year someone develops a new technology to assist with this. However, the more things get developed to automate IT processes, the less in house IT staff needed. However, the companies will need sales engineers to sell it and post sales or field engineers to implement and support it. As i look on the job boards i see tons of these jobs. However, i will note, i don't see too many that are entry level. They are very technical roles however they are well compensated roles where i see salaries pre-bonus ranging from 65k-130k easily. And bonus/commissions can be nice as well.

To get into the field - I think most important is that you develop those soft skills like being able to converse with folks. You should be able to discuss technical information with people of all types. So that may mean explaining something completely technical to someone who knows nothing about technology. You should get experience in a customer facing role. You will want to practice presenting and public speaking as this is typically required in some fashion in these roles. Other than that, there seem to be sales engineering roles that fit all types of expertise from networking, to security, to microsoft...

That's about all i can think of. So if you have any questions, let me know.

SteveO86 · August 2013

As mentioned above, Sales engineering is the next best thing. However some companies have what they call Solutions Achitects, where it is the same thing but with a fancier titles and it is much more design oriented andd customer facing. Where you are not always dealing with engineering teams but also dealing with management (Directors/ C-Level guys) to discuss why you pick certain products or designs more so because off name brand or budget reasons (Op-Ex vs Cap-Ex type stuff)

Flying out to meet the customer and discuss bussiness needs, design caveats, create the BOMs, and hash out the nitty gritty details, and then the implementation/configuration is passed down to another group to actually perform the configuration and handle the turn-ups/cut-overs.

However every company is different, but that has been experience Sales Engineering and Solution Architect positions.

IT Architect/Sales

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