Roles and responsibilities

The job titles and the tasks associated with sales/marketing positions have a large variety. Possible tasks may include a subset of the following activities:

Sales roles

• identifying potential new customers, and engaging with relevant staff within the company/institute/organization. 
• listening to and understanding the potential customer’s needs and challenges, then communicating the prospective value of relevant products; coordinate activities that will promote a sale – demos, calls with/visits of product specialists to answer specific technical questions, deliver trainings, etc; negotiating contracts and closing deals.
• account management: maintaining relationships with existing clients, identifying potential new requirements and any issues with purchased products.

• (for technical sales roles) developing and applying expertise in a specific product range, promoting this to potential customers.
• understanding the market and advising on the commercial potential of new products in the development pipeline. 
• business development: identifying potential long-term partnerships or licensing opportunities.

Marketing roles

• collating and assessing information on the market for products – trends, competitors, customer segments, current sales figures, market potential for new products etc. 
• deciding on the “positioning” of products and associated brands i.e. understanding what the primary needs of the customers are, the unique/best features of the product, and which messages are most important to convey.
• planning promotions/campaigns like product launches, exhibition stands, advertising and materials (brochures) for the company’s products. Running social media accounts. Coordination of any outsourced work (e.g. work with a design or advertising agency).

Career entry and progression

It is often possible to enter junior sales and marketing roles with no commercial experience. In particular, ‘inside-sales’ roles are one potential entry-level role – these are office-based, primarily communicating with customers by phone. Other junior sales roles include ‘sales representative roles’: these tend to be focussed on specific customers (usually in a specific ‘territory’), and building up a customer base in that area. Depending on the company, role and location, the customers may all be rather spread out requiring a lot of travelling– but sometimes they are localised in the region in which you live, requiring no overnight trips. 

Sales and marketing roles are closely related, and there is often the possibility to switch between these two roles. Career progression may also include managing teams of sales reps/marketing professionals and eventually more senior management positions, moving into product management, or other commercial roles. 

Example job titles:

• (Direct/Key) Account manager
• Sales representative
• Technical marketing scientist 
• Technical sales specialist
• Inside sales specialist
• Market development manager
• Scientific manager sales and marketing
• Sales and business development manager

Note: there is large variety between companies ; some roles may require experience in a more junior role first.

Knowledge and skills

In our careers and skills survey, 9 sales and marketing professionals told us the competencies they use most in their daily work  The most frequently selected competencies were:

• Delivering presentations (selected by 67% of respondents)
• Effective communication (selected by 56% and ranked top for success in the role)
• Broad scientific knowledge  (selected by 56% )
• Vision  (selected by 56%)