Business sales executives
Business sales executives provide advice to existing and potential customers, and receive orders for specialist machinery, equipment, materials and other products or services that require technical knowledge.
- Employees (UK)
- 165k
- Median annual pay
- £36,498
- Exposure score ?
- 1.3/10 Minimal 9.5/10 Very high strict reading, with tools is 9.5/10 with-tools reading, strict is 1.3/10
- Wage exposure
- £783m £5.72bn
Higher exposure than 65% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Almost every routine task in this role is within reach of today's models. Roles like this are being rebuilt, usually not by disappearing but by one person using AI to produce what several did.
If you are in this role
Be the person doing the rebuilding. People who learn to run this kind of work with AI become very valuable, and the ones who wait tend to have the change made for them.
Where the work usually starts.
These are the most important tasks a language model can already handle directly. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around them, so they stop eating the team's time.
-
Prepare and submit sales contracts for orders.
-
Maintain customer records, using automated systems.
-
Quote prices, credit terms, or other bid specifications.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
-
Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements.
-
Prepare and submit sales contracts for orders.
-
Sell service contracts for technical or scientific products.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products" (41-4011.00).
What AI can already do
5 of 33 tasks, unaided
Prepare and submit sales contracts for orders.
Maintain customer records, using automated systems.
Quote prices, credit terms, or other bid specifications.
Complete expense reports, sales reports, or other paperwork.
Verify accuracy of materials lists.
What still needs a person
28 of 33 tasks
Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements.
Visit establishments to evaluate needs or to promote product or service sales.
Sell service contracts for technical or scientific products.
Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, or credit terms.
Contact new or existing customers to discuss how specific products or services can meet their needs.
Emphasize product features, based on analyses of customers' needs and on technical knowledge of product capabilities and limitations.
Compute customer's installation or production costs and estimate savings from new services, products, or equipment.
Demonstrate the operation or use of technical or scientific products.
Provide feedback to product design teams so that products can be tailored to clients' needs.
Select or assist customers in selecting products based on customer needs, product specifications, and applicable regulations.
Prepare sales presentations or proposals to explain product specifications or applications.
Verify that delivery schedules meet project deadlines.
Identify prospective customers, using business directories, leads from existing clients, participation in organizations, or trade show or conference attendance.
Arrange for installation and testing of products or machinery.
Inform customers of estimated delivery schedules, service contracts, warranties, or other information pertaining to purchased products.
Collaborate with colleagues to exchange information, such as selling strategies or marketing information.
Initiate sales campaigns to meet sales and production expectations.
Provide customers with ongoing technical support.
Advise customers on product usage to improve production.
Verify customer credit ratings.
Consult with engineers regarding technical problems with products.
Sell technical and scientific products that are environmentally sound or designed for environmental remediation.
Study documentation or other information for new scientific or technical products.
Stock or distribute resources, such as samples or promotional or educational materials.
Attend sales or trade meetings or read related publications to obtain information about market conditions, business trends, environmental regulations, or industry developments.
Visit establishments, such as pharmacies, to determine product sales.
Present information to customers about the energy efficiency or environmental impact of scientific or technical products.
Inform customers about issues related to responsible use and disposal of products, such as waste reduction or product or byproduct recycling or disposal.
Tasks via O*NET "Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products" (41-4011.00).
What AI can already do
30 of 33 tasks, with tools
Negotiate prices or terms of sales or service agreements.
Prepare and submit sales contracts for orders.
Sell service contracts for technical or scientific products.
Maintain customer records, using automated systems.
Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, or credit terms.
Quote prices, credit terms, or other bid specifications.
Contact new or existing customers to discuss how specific products or services can meet their needs.
Emphasize product features, based on analyses of customers' needs and on technical knowledge of product capabilities and limitations.
Compute customer's installation or production costs and estimate savings from new services, products, or equipment.
Provide feedback to product design teams so that products can be tailored to clients' needs.
Select or assist customers in selecting products based on customer needs, product specifications, and applicable regulations.
Prepare sales presentations or proposals to explain product specifications or applications.
Complete expense reports, sales reports, or other paperwork.
Verify that delivery schedules meet project deadlines.
Identify prospective customers, using business directories, leads from existing clients, participation in organizations, or trade show or conference attendance.
Arrange for installation and testing of products or machinery.
Inform customers of estimated delivery schedules, service contracts, warranties, or other information pertaining to purchased products.
Collaborate with colleagues to exchange information, such as selling strategies or marketing information.
Initiate sales campaigns to meet sales and production expectations.
Provide customers with ongoing technical support.
Advise customers on product usage to improve production.
Verify accuracy of materials lists.
Verify customer credit ratings.
Consult with engineers regarding technical problems with products.
Sell technical and scientific products that are environmentally sound or designed for environmental remediation.
Study documentation or other information for new scientific or technical products.
Attend sales or trade meetings or read related publications to obtain information about market conditions, business trends, environmental regulations, or industry developments.
Visit establishments, such as pharmacies, to determine product sales.
Present information to customers about the energy efficiency or environmental impact of scientific or technical products.
Inform customers about issues related to responsible use and disposal of products, such as waste reduction or product or byproduct recycling or disposal.
What still needs a person
3 of 33 tasks
Visit establishments to evaluate needs or to promote product or service sales.
Demonstrate the operation or use of technical or scientific products.
Stock or distribute resources, such as samples or promotional or educational materials.
Stay on top of this.
An email when there is something worth reading: what is real in AI at work, what is noise, and what operators are doing about it.
Free. Unsubscribe any time.
Related occupations.
Other roles in Associate professional occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons