MBA Degree in Sales Engineering

How do you best sell high-tech products? By knowing it in detail. Anyone who wants to develop his skills as a sales engineer and qualify for special management positions can be well advised with an MBA sales engineer. But there are also suitable alternatives. We have the overview.

Engineers – they are technicians. Mechanical engineer, mechatronics engineer, packaging technician. And the sales engineer? He is almost Marketing specialist, business administrator and engineer in personal union. His field of activity is to explain technically sophisticated products to potential customers and ultimately sell them.

Sounds like one Door salesman job? Is not it, because the machines and products that engineers sell are often several million euros expensive. For those who are already on the career ladder in this profession and want to go higher or are interested in career change for this profession, the MBA sales engineering the right qualification his.

MBA Sales Engineer: Information, Testimonials, Degree Programs

What you should know about studying

Several ways lead to the goal to work as a sales engineer. There are several bachelor and master programs, but also specializations in other engineering courses. You can find out more on our partner portal ingenieurwesen-studieren.de. An MBA sales engineer is currently only available at a few universities. If these are not an option, there are also very good alternatives for sales engineers who want to further qualify with the MBA.

These MBA programs are suitable:

Specialized MBA Degree in Sales Engineering

Especially recommended for those who want to change jobs and do not have the necessary know-how. For this, e.g. Sales managers or business administrators who want to expand their knowledge of engineering skills. Even engineers who have not yet chosen specialization in sales in the initial degree program could be right with a sales engineer MBA.

Advantage: By focusing on the degree program, you are optimally trained to work in this field.

Disadvantage: Such a specialized MBA can be less valuable if you change the industry or the profession.

More general sales / sales MBA programs

Anyone who has completed an engineering degree, brings along technical know-how and would like to “only” develop his sales skills academically, can also be right with a general Sales MBA.

All information can be found in our detailed article on the MBA Sales / Sales.

Generalist MBA

Originally, the Master of Business Administration was intended as a broad-based management degree course without industry orientation, so that Engineers or scientists can expand their rudimentary existing business administration knowledge. The specializations, such as the MBA Sales Engineering, were added later.

A generalist MBA, such as the MBA General Management, is therefore e.g. recommended for engineers who have already learned content in the field of sales during their first degree. Or, of course, for those who have completed a complete sales engineering degree course. They would benefit less from a specialized MBA than from a generalist one.

Study course and duration

There are different study models for the programs. For example, e.g. The MBA Sales Engineering of the University of Kaiserslautern as (extra occupational) distance learning created. They learn the content through a mix of different teaching materials such as written materials, e-learning sessions and classroom sessions. The program lasts four semesters. At the zfh – Center for Distance Studies in the University Network you can also complete the MBA Sales Engineer as a distance learning course. The MBA at Furtwangen University, on the other hand, relies on one extra occupational attendance study. This means that the lecture times are distributed over about ten weekends (Friday and Saturday) plus one attendance week per semester.

The Normal period generalist MBA degree programs also lies between three and five semesters, depending on the study model (full-time, extra-occupational attendance study or distance learning).

universities

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universities

requirements

A special feature is the sales engineer MBA of the University of Kaiserslautern: You can even without first degree be enrolled. Prerequisite is then the university entrance qualification (Abi / Fachabi / etc) plus three years of professional experience in a suitable area plus the passing of an entrance test.

For prospective students with first university degree Usually the usual conditions apply to Sales MBAs: At least one year of employment and proof of English language skills.

costs

The costs of a Master of Business Administration in Sales Engineering / Sales Engineering are in the four-digit range:

In addition there are travel expenses for stays abroad, overnight stays at the place of study and teaching materials. Nevertheless, the MBAs are still among the cheapest study opportunities. Generalist MBA programs usually cost between 15,000 and 50,000 euros.

Did you know that.

. in the study both technical contents, as well as business administration, psychology, law, foreign languages and rhetoric are to be taught?

. Furtwangen University designed the first degree program in sales engineering in the mid-1980s?

. Of course you can also sell refrigerators to Eskimos? This will prevent their food from freezing.

User reviews

To get a look behind the scenes, we have written to Xing graduates of the various courses and asked for testimonials. All reports are 100% independent and authentic, but because not every respondent wanted to be recognizable by name, we usually publish only the first name.

The MBA was worth it for me / not worth it, because.

"a) Broadening horizons: The MBA at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern is a broad, in-depth study of higher education, i. I gained a deep insight into how business works. As an environmental scientist, I had almost no idea about it before. Only from newspapers, news, etc., you learn that in my opinion not.

b) Career progression will be much faster / easier due to my MBA (not yet happening, 8 months have passed since graduation, no matter, I’m confident). My first university degree was a bit exotic / meaningless. Now I can not call myself just an MBA but also a sales engineer. The prerequisite for this was a first degree in natural science.

In Germany, the title engineer is known to have a very high priority, i. the new degree gives me more job security.

For whom is this study recommended and whom would you advise against?

The MBA is recommended if the appropriate conditions are met: private situation, a strong will / great self-motivation, about 10,000 euros that you want to invest.

That’s why I decided to study for an MBA:

"The MBA in Sales & I did extra service engineering to expand my horizons, to quench my thirst for knowledge and to have an exchange with other experienced students. We discussed and learned many new topics in small groups about different topics in the area of sales engineering, management and marketing. Based on case plays from different industries, business plans were set up or management tasks were simulated.

In addition, as part of my MBA studies, I was able to attend technical lectures of your choice to expand my basic technical knowledge."

The MBA was worth it for me / not worth it, because.

"Whether the MBA was worth it. well, it’s always a question of how to rate that. However, my horizons have definitely widened, I have been able to make new contacts and, with the additional lectures, I have been able to expand my technical skills. A pure MBA, which only works on networks, e.g. Contacts in China, etc., is not meaningful for me and in my view. Here you buy more of a network and a title."

3 Sales Engineering MBA degree programs

zfh – Center for Distance Studies in the University Network

Furtwangen University

University of Kaiserslautern

Development after graduation

Sales experts have always been on the Winning side of the job market. Anyone who helps a company achieve more sales and profits is well rewarded and can quickly make a career that leads to top management.

Examples:

Rainulf Diepold, Board Member Sales and Marketing at Krones AG (around 13,000 employees, around 3 billion euros in sales) has started his career as a sales engineer.
Karlheinz Kaske, Chairman of the Management Board of Siemens AG until 1992, started as a sales engineer in the field of power engineering.
Bernd Paulini, member of the Group Executive Committee of Kromi Logistik AG (around 140 employees, around 60 million euros in sales) began as a sales engineer after graduation.
Robert Tittl, CEO of Nucletron AG (around 40 employees, around 14 million euros in sales) is a sales engineer.

This list can be supplemented arbitrarily, but it shows: From large corporations to small and medium-sized enterprises, sales engineers are sought-after executives.

The Meaningfulness of an MBA, To qualify for these leadership positions, experts such as Sales trainer Michael G. at Xing “The MBA is a perfect training to understand the relationships, processes, etc. even better in sales and above all to be able to benefit. I can only recommend everyone to continue their education and to invest in themselves. “

Psychologist Monika Becker also says: “In principle, an MBA program can also be useful for sales employees. This applies all the more if the first training is in the technical field. Then the MBA program can help, even more knowledge about commercial topics how to achieve corporate strategy. However, an MBA is only useful for sales people if they have proven themselves with successful numbers for a few years and are preparing for the next step towards management. “

Prof. Dr. Toemmler-Stolze, Professor at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and responsible for the MBA Sales Management, also writes at Xing: “I have always been asked what the MBA brings to a sales engineer. I want to answer this with three points:

The value of his qualification profile increases by at least 10,000 euros based on an annual salary (immediately noticeable when changing jobs!)
The sales process clearly improves in terms of quality of advice and time through technological and psychological expertise and good time management (good advice creates customer loyalty and faster deals mean automatically more commissions!)
The perspective of his professional development is widening, moving towards personnel responsibility and sales leadership (that is, better market performance and thus better earnings). “

Speaking of salary development

Specifying a salary after the MBA sales engineer is impossible because such detailed figures are not collected.

However, one can approach the salary development somewhat: The graduates of the MBAs of the Gisma Business School give as content in the five-year average around 61,000 euros. The Handelshochschule Leipzig (HHL) cites an average of 59,600 euros over the past three years. "About 40% of those whose annual income was less than 50,000 euros grow into the category 50,000 – 75,000 euros through an MBA", says Christian Martzel, student advisor from Cologne.

More output than just more salary

Above all, you should get the title "Master of Business Administration" not just as an argument for salary negotiation. Many graduates, even those who missed the hoped-for salary jump, state in their reports that they personally benefited.

Patrick, project manager at a German company
MBA Sales & Service Engineering at Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences

The MBA has worked out for me because I gained work experience during my studies (I was working parallel to my studies), was able to expand my knowledge and experience (through another college) and I completed the MBA trainee program at the company [XY] could start (in my opinion this would have been rather difficult at that time without a diploma).

Christian, Sales Manager at a medical device company
MBA Sales & Service Engineering at Furtwangen University

The MBA was worth it because unlike the bachelor program, you get a real picture of the processes, the pressure / stress level, finding the information, etc. After graduation, the salary is much higher in comparison to the Bachelor’s degree.

Käte, consultant for IT consulting
MBA Sales Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern

The Sales MBA degree in Zweibrücken has a strong business administration orientation. Most of the participants came from engineering and were thus able to climb into management positions, as they were able to demonstrate their business management knowledge.

Nicolas, Sales Director of an energy company
MBA International Marketing at ESADE

Whether the MBA was worth it? A question that you may not be able to answer directly. Would I be where I am now, without the MBA? Nobody can answer that. When I started my MBA in 2008, the crisis started and peaked in 2009, when I started looking for a job. At that time I had to remember what I was good at → Sales. Fortunately, I was able to switch to the industry I wanted to go to, and I was told by my then boss that he had chosen my CV because of the MBA.

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