Key takeaways
- Tech sales covers software, hardware, cloud and IT services, mostly sold business to business.
- Teams split the work across SDRs, account executives, sales engineers and account managers.
- Buyers expect demos and often a trial before they commit.
- You do not need to code, but you do need to understand the buyer's problem.
What roles are there in tech sales
Tech sales is a set of roles, each owning one stage of the buyer's journey. Smaller companies combine them; larger ones keep them separate.
- SDRs and BDRs: start conversations and book qualified meetings
- Account executives: run discovery and demos, negotiate and close
- Sales engineers: prove the technical fit and run trials
- Account managers and customer success: renew and grow existing customers
- Sales leaders and sales operations: set targets, tools and process
How does a tech sale usually run
A tech sale usually moves from first contact through discovery, demo, trial or evaluation, proposal and signature. Subscription software adds a further stage, renewal and expansion, because the first contract is only the start of the relationship.
An illustrative example: a 40-person logistics firm hears from an SDR about route planning software, books a demo with an account executive, runs a short trial with help from a sales engineer and signs an annual subscription once the finance director has seen it work on the firm's own routes.
What is the difference between tech sales and technical sales
Tech sales describes the industry you sell in; technical sales describes how technical the role is. A technical sales representative or sales engineer can work in technology or in other industries, such as chemicals or machinery, wherever buyers need detailed product knowledge.
How do you get into tech sales
Most people get into tech sales through an SDR or BDR role, which teaches prospecting and qualification before carrying a closing target. Useful preparation includes learning one product category well, practising short written outreach and understanding how businesses buy software.
Where Pebbles Ai fits
- CapabilityOutreach contentEmail and LinkedIn campaign templates with up to seven touches and a personality for each piece, with generated emails saved as drafts in your connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox.
- FoundationCompany IntelCompany Intel holds your offerings, approach and brand voice, built from your website, company information and files, so every assistant writes from the same product facts.
Common questions
Do you need a degree for tech sales?
Usually not. Many employers hire for communication, curiosity and persistence, and teach the product on the job.
Do you need to know how to code for tech sales?
No. You need to understand what the product does and why a buyer would care; sales engineers cover the deeper technical detail.
Is SaaS sales the same as tech sales?
SaaS sales is one part of tech sales: selling software delivered as a subscription. Tech sales also covers hardware, infrastructure and IT services.
About this page. Written by the Pebbles Ai team for people who run sales, marketing and growth. Last updated .
