Turn your scientific mind into a $140K+ technical sales role without selling out

I teach scientists & engineers how to sell. So you can land your first commercial role, then beat the quota behind it.

Alexei Kazarine on a scientific conference floor
Alexei Kazarine, PhD·Technical sales trainer and coach
8 figures in revenue selling scientific technology
Scientist → Sales Leader 7+ years of technical sales expertise
Hired and trained STEM sellers to quota
3× top performer at Oxford Instruments

Nobody taught you how to sell.

Not in the lab

"I want one of these jobs. But I've never sold anything in my life."

You have. You sold your science to committees and conference halls for years, but nobody called it selling. So you never learned to do it on purpose.

Not in the job hunt

"I've sent 40 applications. Not one screening call. Why can't they see I'm qualified?"

You are. Applying got you every position you've had. But a job search is a sales process: find who'd hire you, then show them the problem you'd solve.

Not even once you're in

"My manager handed me a $1.5M quota. I don't even know where to start."

Nobody does. Your onboarding was a product deck and a "good luck." You're stuck teaching yourself, one lost deal at a time.

Which is a shame, because a technical expert who can actually sell is the rarest hire in the industry.

Rare earns a premium. Here's what every year of waiting costs you:

$121,520
median sales engineer
(BLS, 2024)
$63,480
postdoc salary, year 0
(NIH)
=
$58,040/yr
what waiting costs you

BLS figures include commission. The top 10% clear $200K.

Why would a company pay this much? Because it's cheap. A technical seller is handed a quota of $1–2M in sales a year. Against that, $121K is under 10% of the revenue the role produces.

And they can't fill the role with a smooth-talking used car salesman. The buyer is a scientist who spots BS five minutes into a demo.

The only seller who wins that room is another scientist.

You can teach a scientist to sell.
You can't teach a salesperson six years of science.
Book your strategy session

So I built the sales training nobody gave us.

Selling is making your buyer's problem feel so clear that solving it becomes inevitable.

It took me the better part of three years to figure that out. It took leading a technical sales team across the Americas to turn it into a science.

Here's the method I'll coach you through:

01

I start with the career, not just the craft.

  • The language of sales: quotas, OTEs, forecasts, pipeline reviews. And what your sales manager expects of you (including what they won't say out loud).
  • What gets you hired as a technical sales rep or application scientist, plus the 5 instant red flags that get your application dropped in 4 minutes.
  • How to run your territory like a small business owner, building your own demand digitally instead of waiting to be fed leads.
02

I build the craft from first principles.

  • Why buyers say yes (and no): the cognitive science behind how technical buyers decide.
  • How to diagnose the real problem your buyer needs solved, not the first one they name.
  • How to turn boring spec sheets into the outcomes buyers pay for, before they ask for a discount.
03

I iterate with science.

  • Building your value hypothesis, the go-to-market plan most sellers never have. Who has the problem you solve, and where to find more of them.
  • How to reverse-engineer a quota that feels impossible into daily actions that don't, so you know by month two whether you're on track.
  • How to use AI to scale what's already working, without a dozen new tools or a PhD in machine learning.
Alexei Kazarine presenting at a company meeting, the room behind him blurred and the projector screen stamped top secret
My expertise lies with hiring scientists and turning them into high performing sellers.

Ready to put this to work on your situation?

Let's build your plan.

Book your strategy session

Land the role. Then earn the commissions behind it.

The same skill that gets you hired, gets you paid.

Breaking in

From technical expert to sales professional

  • A shortlist of companies where your technical experience makes you the obvious hire.
  • A CV and profile that give a hiring manager the seller signal.
  • Outreach that leads with value, built from your background.
  • Answers to the interview questions that quietly disqualify most technical candidates.
  • A real territory and 30-60-90 plan you can walk a panel through with confidence.
Already selling

From sales professional to expert seller

  • A real go-to-market plan built from your own territory instead of a marketing powerpoint.
  • Discovery calls that stop ghosting in its tracks.
  • Deal hygiene that kills "Schrödinger's deals" for good.
  • A path through procurement and legal that doesn't bury the deal you already won.
  • A forecast you can defend to your manager without anxiety.
Book your strategy session

I walked every step of this path.

I spent 5 years building microscopes for a PhD in biophysical chemistry. The next 7 years took me from sales engineer to regional sales manager, delivering 8 figures in scientific product revenue.

When I started out, the more I tried to apply "traditional" sales methods, the more my analytical brain fought back.

So I turned to the skills that actually made me a scientist: I studied the cognitive science behind how technical buyers decide, and built a system that worked with my scientific mind instead of against it.

Along the way, I won multiple top performer awards, and 3 years in I was promoted to lead the team I started on: taking over sales, applications and customer success for the Americas.

After receiving so many comments at conferences and career panels, from scientists who had no idea that a lucrative, high-impact commercial career was hiding in plain sight, I started to share my journey and playbook online.

I now coach STEM minds how to break into technical sales roles and beat their quota, without selling out.

Alexei Kazarine at his first sales engineer event, staffing the Bitplane (an Oxford Instruments company) booth in company shirt and badge
My first field event as a sales engineer, working the Bitplane booth.

How it works

1
Book your strategy session

60 minutes, 1:1. Bring where you are and where you're trying to get.

2
Get your Next-Stage Plan

A one-page plan written up and sent within 48 hours, plus the recording.

3
Execute together

Want help running the plan? The session fee credits toward 1:1 coaching.

Questions scientists and engineers ask

Can't I just figure this out with free online content?

Some of it, sure. I send a full framework every Sunday for free.

But that's rarely where people actually get stuck. You read it, you get the idea, and nothing changes. It's not that you don't know what to do in general. It's follow-through: doing it consistently, or hitting a specific setback along the way that no framework accounts for because it's specific to you.

What my free content can't do is read your outreach email and catch the line that's getting you ghosted. Or tell you exactly where your last interview went sideways. Someone catching what's actually breaking down in your execution. Not another article to read.

How do I know if I'm actually ready for coaching?

If you've already read the free stuff online, maybe tried applying it, and you're still circling the same problem weeks later, that's a good place to start.

That's why I offer a 60 minute strategy session, to help you diagnose what's keeping you from reaching your technical sales career goals. We'll work together to build a plan so you're not left guessing on your next move.

A plan I'll send you within 48 hours of our session, yours to keep.

Who is this for?

This is for scientists and engineers who want to break into technical sales and hit the ground running.

Most likely you're a STEM graduate or postdoc trying to land your first commercial role in technical sales or applications.

Or you've already made it in, but never got a real onboarding, so you feel totally lost when you think about how you'll be hitting that first quota.

I'm already selling technical solutions, is this still for me?

Yes.

Much of my work is with technical sales professionals who made it into a role but haven't yet found their clear path to sales success. I help you figure out what's missing, so you can maximize your potential in your role.

Who is this not for?

Not from STEM, engineering, or a technical background? This isn't for you. Partly because that's the path I lived. Mostly because scientists and engineers get taught this the least, and it costs them the most in missed opportunities.

If you're not already eligible to work in your target country, this isn't for you either. Most companies won't sponsor a visa for a career-switcher moving into technical sales, and no amount of coaching changes that. You'd do the work and still hit a wall that was never about your skills.

I'm not a recruiter, I don't place you in a role. I prepare you to win one, whether it lands in your inbox or you go create it yourself. Getting there is on you.

How many hours a week will this realistically take?

Our first strategy session is 60 minutes, once. That's where we build the plan for your next move.

If you continue into coaching, plan on roughly one hour a week with me, and more time than that actually executing the plan between sessions.

This works if you're willing to put in that time. It doesn't work if you're hoping I'll do it for you.

Do you guarantee I'll land the job or hit my quota?

No. And please be careful of anyone who promises you that.

What actually lands it is your effort, the market, the budget companies have that quarter, and how you perform in the room, none of which I control.

What I do guarantee is direct, specific feedback from someone who's hired and managed technical sellers, and sat on the hiring side of that exact table.

Ready to plan your next move?

Pick a time, answer a few quick questions, and we'll get to work.

Questions before you book? Email alexei [at] kazarine.com

Not ready to book? Take the free path: the same playbook, one Sunday at a time.

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