My advice to people writing resumes is always to toot your own horn – after all, if you don’t, no else will. But this advice applies even more for sales professionals. After all, selling is what you do. Your resume should showcase your confidence and sales abilities – in other words, you need to brag shamelessly!
Here are 5 ways you can demonstrate that confidence to potential employers when writing your resume.
Sales Resume Tip #1 – Put your Best Stuff Upfront
Highlight sales achievements right up front in your resume introduction. Choose the best 3 or 4 results and put them in a prominent place where they won’t be missed. This will ensure that the employer sees your sales success before getting to the career history section of your resume. You will immediately make a positive impression.
This is even more important if you’re looking to change industries – great sales results can go a long way towards easing fears about your ability to make a change.
Sales Resume Tip #2 – Pack Your Resume With Results
When you do get to your career chronology, make sure that the entire section is packed with results. Spend very little time on your job responsibilities – everyone knows what a salesperson or sales manager does. Instead focus on what you achieved. Show things like:
- Sales increases
- Market share growth
- Sales rankings within your company (or industry if you know)
- Client base growth
- New accounts signed
- Awards received
Sales Resume Tip #3 – Highlight Awards
The last point about awards should be emphasized. If you have won awards or honors for your sales performance, make sure those are highlighted prominently. If you have lots of them, you may even want to list them right upfront in your resume introduction.
Awards are proof positive of your skills and talents. Make the most of them!
Sales Resume Tip #4 – Include Training & Certifications
List training or sales certifications. Many companies want their sales people to know a certain sales approach and others want to invest in developing their staff. If you already have the training, that can make you very appealing over another candidate who will need to learn.
Sales Resume Tip #5 – Know Your Audience
You would never try to sell a product without knowing your target audience and the same applies to your resume.
Figure out who will be reading your resume and what their concerns are. Are you interested in smaller companies? Then you may want to show you can compete successfully with bigger corporations, or open new markets. If you’re a manager or executive targeting smaller companies, you’ll want to show that you’re not just someone who directs events from 30,000 feet but that you also roll up your sleeves and do the work.
In larger companies, the opposite will apply. Have you managed large budgets? Big sales teams? Led major product launches? Worked on international sales?
Perhaps you’re targeting companies in a certain industry. In this case, you’ll want to show knowledge of that field or at least transferable skills.
So before you start writing, make some notes on your target companies and what they’re looking for. (Not sure? Check out job postings online for clues).
In Summary
The best sales resumes convey absolute confidence that the candidate can meet the needs of employers. By using these 5 strategies, you can make sure that yours is one of them!
If you’d like some idea, check out some of our sales resume samples and for more resume help, you’re welcome to sign up for our free resume writing course.