You’d think a salesperson resume would be easy to write. Because if you’re in the business of selling things, it should be easy to sell yourself, right?
That’s not always the case. While sellers often have multiple chances to convert a prospect into a paying customer, you really only get one chance with your resume. And figuring out what to include can feel overwhelming, especially when you have a non-linear career path or how many sales reps have made a career pivot.
Reading: How to create a great sales resume
Nervous? You’re not alone. That’s why we wrote this guide. Below we provide all the tips (and some example examples) you need to create the perfect sales resume and stand out from the crowd.
How important is a resume when it comes to sales ?
Your sales resume is critical on two levels. It helps convey your work experience and background and serves as a test run for your persuasion and sales skills. For a sales professional, selling their own experience, expertise and value is the most important sale they can ever make.
What should your sales resume cover?
Use this checklist to make sure you don’t miss any essential elements:
Name, Role and Contact Details
Be careful here. Any spelling mistakes, particularly in contact information, may result in unnecessary back and forth or rejection.
What should you include?
Mention your full name, title, phone number and email -Address. Avoid nicknames or abbreviations of your name.
Avoid giving your location if the company you are applying to is in a different region. The recruiter may have site reviewers who automatically reject applicants from other states. So consider whether it’s absolutely necessary to provide your location.
Tips for this section
- Spell Check! Typos in contact information can be a barrier to return calls.
- Make sure all details are formatted correctly when converting them to the format you will be sending them in. For example, when creating your sales resume on Google Docs, converting it to Word or PDF may change the placement of your name and contact details.
- Make sure the email id you mention is correct sounds professional. You can also add your LinkedIn profile if it’s up to date.
Example
Target/Summary/Profile
Your summary defines how you want the hiring manager to perceive you as a professional. It indicates what is to come in the rest of your sales resume. You can also use this as a space to clarify career transitions. It might seem daunting to suggest that your career should transition to sales, but positioning is the whole point of this section.
What should you include?
Resume goals should come last Be an element of sales resumes that you should frame. Based on all other sections, create a short statement that highlights your technical skills and goals. The summary should not exceed 50 words.
Tips for this section
- Mention the name of the company you are applying to. This shows a level of personalization.
- Add action verbs and some dates to help highlight important responsibilities you have taken on in the past.
- Also consider whether the company you are applying to , career goals in resumes appreciates place. Recruiters are often divided on this topic, so it’s better to see if you’re accused of including this section.
Example
- Beginner sales engineer with industry expertise in biomedical devices seeking a position with XYZ Company;
- Entry-level sales representative with a 2 year track record of exceeding annual sales targets and curating successful sales strategies to increase XYZ’s sales revenue
Professional experience
There are several ways to do this. The most common is to present your sales experience in reverse chronological order. Or if you want to stack your experiences (leadership experience, customer facing experience, etc.) you can do that too. And if you’re applying for an entry-level sales job with minimal work experience, focus on the soft skills you’ve gained, such as time management and other organizational skills, as well as verbal communication skills.
What should you include?
Add responsibilities and achievements directly related to the position you are applying for. If you have experience in unrelated jobs, consider including it on your sales resume.Newcomers without professional sales experience can design their extracurricular activities to highlight relevant soft skills.
Highlight technical skills that are critical to sales if you do not have professional sales experience relevant to the job .
Tips for this section
Follow the same format for each role you list below. This could be:
- Job Title: Check the official title for your job or the industry-standard title for it. Don’t use “sales ninja” or “lead generation wizard” or other more casual terms.
- The official name of the company.
- Length of employment: Enter the month and year to .
- 3-4 bullet points that mention your responsibilities and accomplishments: Start with an action verb. Focus on the impact and outcomes rather than the mechanics of your shared responsibilities.
Example
Skills
This is where you boost the competency-related keywords. Look up the skills relevant to the sales position you are applying for. This could be sales planning, customer relations, customer acquisition, product knowledge, or other niche skills.
What should you include?
If you’re comfortable with certain sales-related tools, mention that. Companies are always on looking for platform experts. Don’t add generic skills like “Leadership” unless you can back it up with an award or recognition you’ve received.
Tips for this section
- As you dress You don’t have to list soft and hard skills separately, just list one phrase first, followed by the next.
- Once you have listed all the skills, cross out the skills that are given or irrelevant.
- The goal is to list 4-5 niche skills for which you can demonstrate experience with examples. Prepare stories to prove each of them.
Example
A set of skills could include:
- Customer relationship management or CRM ( Salesforce)
- Lead management
- Cold calls
- Product demonstrations
- Tableau
- Trend forecasts
Educational Qualifications
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This section is a sample of your educational background and achievements. The layout of this section depends on how long it has been since you graduated. If you’re a sales professional with more than a few years of experience, your educational credentials shouldn’t dominate your sales resume.
What should you include?
Add your degrees completed or underway have. You can get a job in sales without a degree, so don’t worry if you haven’t graduated or are about to graduate.
Tips for this section
- Make sure you meet the degree requirements outlined in the job description.
- Follow the same format for each educational degree you list. If you are required to report an uncompleted degree, include how many credits you have completed.
- If you have a college degree, refrain from dwelling on your high school diplomas too much.
- If you are in the middle of college, list the year you expect to graduate.
- If you completed your GED or attended a trade school after high school, list their name and the year you graduated.
- You can also highlight any semester exchanges you’ve completed with a highlight of the coursework you’ve completed.
- Consider adding sales bootcamps or certificates if you don’t have one relevant degree.
Example
Zerti Certifications, licenses, awards and recognition
You can add certifications, licenses and awards to your resume as long as they are relevant and recent (in the last 3-4 years).
What should you include?
This could be scholarships, academic awards, or awards for best performance during a course or role. You can either list them in a separate section or under the appropriate organization that gave you that award or recognition.
Tips for this section
- Add any relevant sales certifications along with their validity periods.
- For certifications and licenses, follow this format: [Name of certification], [name of institute offering it], [completed year].
- For awards and recognition, if you list them as a separate section, follow this format: [name of award] , [year you received it] for [your contribution/impact]
Example
5 Awesome Sales Resumes (And What Makes Them Work)
Here they are here are five excellent resumes to inspire you:
Example 1
What makes this resume good?
This section does a great job of making the quantifiable impact demonstrate the candidate had. Mentioning the increase in sales and decrease in response rate are great ways to communicate your effectiveness.
Example 2
What makes this resume good?
This section of the candidate’s work experience is brief and specific to tasks on a weekly basis and the results they bring to the company.
Example 3
What Makes This Resume Good?
As the candidate, notice each bullet point begins with strong action verbs, resulting in more dynamic sentences.
Example 4
Source: Cloudfront What makes this resume good?
This objective/summary is packed with information. Note the title, years of experience, and areas of expertise (note how well the candidate determines what they are good at). This summary provides an informative first impression.
Example 5
What makes this resume good?
This sales resume appears to have captured numerous keywords that might be relevant to the job. Product returns, alternative goods, sales representatives, product presentations, promotional materials, sales team members and sales techniques are listed here, giving the impression that the candidate is well acquainted with the job description.
Tips for creating a sales resume that stands out from the competition
If you follow these tips, your sales resume will be at the top of recruiters’ lists:
Stick to a single page
You’ve probably read those blogs with stats that say recruiters only spend a few seconds on each resume before moving on to the next. But that’s not the only reason to keep your resume on a single page.
If you have a one-page resume:
- It’s easy for the recruiter to find keywords they’re looking for.
- You will become a laser-focused background of your career.
- You are forced to identify what is not required.
Use an easy-to-read resume format and design (Make sure it so is ATS friendly)
Remember, you are not only serving a human (the recruiter) but also a machine, i. H. the Application Tracking System (ATS). You may have all the credentials, but if the ATS tool is unable to parse or “read” your sales resume due to an inappropriate format, this can result in an early rejection.
Some ways to improve your sales Making your resume ATS-friendly includes removing:
- Creative fonts or fancy formatting
- Tables and columns
- Headers and footers
- Abbreviations that are not industry jargon
- Any other format except .docx and .pdf (avoid CVs generated by Canva and other platforms which may be unreadable
Stick to a standard chronological format if you have relevant sales experience, if not, opt for a composite or functional resume format.
Use a template
You can find thousands of resume templates on the internet running templates appropriate to the position you are applying for. These websites offer free resume templates that can help you plan your outstanding sales resume:
- Wonsulting Resume Template (Enter your f field as sale to get the relevant resume template)
- Sample Sales Resumes | LiveCareer (select the exact sales role you want to create your resume for)
- Harvard’s resume templates about its career services (although not sales specific, this will help you identify the general sections to include)
Provide data and numbers to quantify your experience
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Consider these two descriptions:
“Facilitated sales demonstrations and known for closing sales for technology company.”
“Managed 250+ sales presentations and sales pitch development for CEOs and Sales Executives of top B2B companies, resulting in XYZ dollar conversions and an X% increase in customer retention.”
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Both describe the same thing, but the latter leaves a greater impact.
Use keywords from the job description
An easy-to-use resume hack is to focus on keywords. Each job description has a few keywords that you can use as a framework. Use these exact keywords to explain your background. Once you have those keywords, frame your strengths and expertise around those keywords and you’re good to go.
Make sure you include them naturally. With these keywords, an ATS will have you greenlighting your resume in no time.
Be specific and avoid it right away
This ties in with the first tip, your sales resume on one page to restrict. Don’t use wordy sentences that require multiple reading attempts. Some examples of “fluffy” statements that you can delete or tweak are:
- “Responsible for…” or “Duties Included…”. Each bullet point under your experience is part of your duties and what you are responsible for. Instead, replace those two words with strong action words that express exactly what you did.
- Discard subjective expressions such as “daredevil”, “challenging positions”, “growth opportunities”, “growth-oriented”, etc. Also, all generic adjectives such as “passionate”, “innovative”, “expert” etc. are redundant.
Match your resume for the role
If you think the same resume can be sent to two places, you haven’t researched the company enough. Customizing your resume goes beyond including the relevant keywords from the company’s job description.
Start with a “master resume” that includes everything you’ve ever done. Don’t leave anything out. Use this as a basis for specific resumes you send out. Choose what is relevant to a specific company. Redesign them using the keywords provided.
Look for other business requirements such as B. including references, portfolios, etc.
Fly through the profiles of people in similar roles at the company and see what they have mentioned in their LinkedIn section Work Experience.
In In this process you may find “hidden” basic skills that you have but ignore. The better you understand what the company values, the more you can identify applicable skills and strengths that you may not find important enough.
Don’t forget to proofread
Use free grammar checking tools to weed out misspellings and other language and punctuation errors. Watch out for repeated phrases, keywords, or too many keywords filled in unnaturally.
Other things to look out for:
- Incorrect or missing information ( email , contact number)
- Outdated or irrelevant details
- Significant gaps in the timeline that you may need to explain
- Abbreviations related to either your industry or generally refer to the likes of NY (New York), UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), etc.
If you can, ask a mentor or friend in the industry (and one who it is not). ) to review your resume.
FAQs for creating a CV
We have the answers to your most frequently asked questions.
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