Career Profile: Sales and Marketing

The sales and marketing career at a glance

A career in physics sales and marketing allows you to put your critical thinking skills to work helping clients manage their resources or develop ways to market their product more effectively.

• Education: All degree levels, with a bachelor's of science being the most common
• Additional training: No formal training, but ability to communicate technical content a plus
• Salary: For B.S. and M.S. education levels, salaries start around $60,000, and at the Ph.D. level, salaries start around $125,000.
• Outlook: There is a growing job market for physicists in this industry — many companies prefer people with a technical background to represent products.

What they do

At the bachelor's level, a physicist in a sales and marketing role may work on developing technical documentation, customer relations, and selling products. Their day-to-day might include:

• Writing product descriptions and user manuals
• Working with customers to understand specific needs and requirements for a product and recommending relevant products
• Preparing quotations, processing sales orders, and answering customer queries
• Developing and managing key customer relationships
• Managing customer database software

At the Ph.D. level, physicists in sales and marketing roles may be responsible for managing the company's resources, and/or exploring new and more effective ways that the company can market their product. These activities might include:

• Setting product pricing to balance production costs vs. market forces
• Finding optimal suppliers of raw materials, contractors outside the company who handle certain aspects of the product production, and manufacturers up the supply chain
• Doing market research to identify new potential customer groups
• Developing marketing strategies for targeting new customer groups
• Meeting with clients to assess their needs and recommend products/services
• Traveling to trade shows and professional meetings to speak with attendees about the company/product
• Managing international distributors, which can involve significant travel

At the M.S. and B.S. level, the work responsibilities would be primarily identifying and pursuing potential customers, informing them about the product, and remaining current on industry trends. They would also work closely with established customers to ensure that their needs are being met and a good relationship is maintained between the customers and the company. However, with only a few years experience, a physics B.S. or M.S. graduate may see more of the items listed above added to their responsibilities.
Scientists in sales and marketing roles at all degree levels frequently attend professional meetings and trade shows to promote and answer questions about their products. So frequent travel can be a feature of this career path.

Education and background

Roles that require a more strategic management skillset or increased interaction with clients in academia would likely require a PhD. For positions that are more focused on discovering new markets and building/maintaining client relationships, a B.S. or M.S. degree is preferred.

Additional training

Scientists in sales and marketing careers spend much of their time explaining the technical products to people, some of whom may not have a scientific or technical background. Therefore having some teaching, outreach, and/or conference presentation experience will increase your chances of becoming a successful candidate for these roles, as it demonstrates your ability to explain difficult concepts to a variety of audiences. Consider seeking out research opportunities and conferences where you can present your research.

Furthermore, a basic familiarity with business concepts like cost benefit analysis (how companies balance resources with product cost to ensure that they continue earning a profit) and budgeting is also beneficial. A wealth of information about these topics is available online from sources like Coursera or LinkedIn Learning. You may also want to look into taking some basic business electives at your institution. Though having these experiences will make you stand out compared to many other candidates, once you're hired many companies will provide additional needed training.

And as is the case with most career paths, utilizing your network effectively to discover and apply for jobs in sales and marketing is also important. For tips on this, check out our chapter on building a strong network in our Career Navigator.

Career path

Many physicists who come to sales and marketing at the Ph.D. level enter the field having previously done scientific research, either in an academic or private sector setting; often, said research is related to the products they are selling. Such candidates are in high demand for sales and marketing jobs because they thoroughly understand the technology and can therefore easily address questions from their customer base. Physicists who have had experience in independent research settings are also accustomed to thinking strategically in order to move a product to completion. Successfully overseeing the development of a new product or patent is one of many achievements which can lead to promotion in this career path.

At the B.S. and M.S. levels, candidates are usually hired into the company directly after receiving their degrees. Success in this career path is governed by factors such as the size or difficulty of the sales deals closed by the employee, as well as that employee's customer retention rate.

Physics graduates in these roles are often competing with graduates with other technical or business degrees. The advantage of a physics degree is a better familiarity with the company's technology or product portfolio. At the same time, business graduates may be better trained in communication to specific audiences. So, cultivating those additional skills is the key to success and advancement in the company for physics graduates.