So You Want a Job in Sales, Huh?
One of the most important pieces of advice you, as a job seeker, can receive about your resume is to format it according to the position for which you are applying. If you are looking for a role in management, you should tailor your resume to list your management experience and highlight how you specifically manage your employees well. If you are looking for a role in engineering, you should tailor your resume to demonstrate your engineering experience and knowledge. Many times, a more experienced job seeker will have more than one resume to match his various experiences.
So, what is the best way to showcase your sales experience and knowledge to create a resume that will attract the attention of a recruiter or hiring manager?
DETAIL
Give a Brief Description of the Companies listed on your resume. Often times, a hiring manager won’t know what the smaller companies do, so instead of having him or her research it online, provide a short summary on your resume.
Example: Betts Recruiting, A boutique recruiting firm that specializes in developing the sales and marketing teams for technology startups
LIST
List Your Achievements from previous sales positions, including quota achievement, revenue brought in to the company, ranking within a sales team or within the company. You want your sales resume to look like a baseball card, in that your statistics are your actual metrics – the more numbers showing your strong sales experience, the better.
TRACK
If You Received a Promotion or job title switch within a company, it should all be listed under the same company name. If you list the company name each time for each role, it makes it look like you have switched companies more often than you actually did. By listing all roles for one company, it shows your success instead of falsely showing lots of movement.
Company Name, A brief description of the company explaining 2009- Present who they are and what the company does
Senior Account Executive 2010 – Present
- Managed 10 clients at any given time
- Trained new hires to show them the best recruiting practices
- Placed 52 candidates in 2011, highest number of placements in one year in history of company
- Brought in $500,000 in revenue since 2009 – 2011 Q4
Account Executive 2009 – 2010
- List your role objectives and responsibilities
- List your achievements and rankings, such as Achieved quota 2009 Q1, Q2, Q4; 2010 Q1, Q2
- Try to keep bullets under one position to 4-6 bullets
- Placed 40 candidates in roles in 2010
EDIT
Have a Colleague Edit your sales resume for any typos or errors you may have missed. Misspellings and errors are a red flag to recruiters and candidates indicating that a candidate might not care as much as the next candidate. Be sure that all type is in the same font, the formatting is parallel (i.e. All company names are bolded, descriptions italicized, etc.) and be sure your name and contact information is listed at the very beginning at the top.
If you create a sales resume following these guidelines, you will be more prepared to jump into the job search for a sales position – and will find your next move in your career even sooner!