A Quick Guide To Writing The Ultimate Sales Resume

If you’re applying for a sales job, your resume serves two purposes. For the most part, it showcases your professional abilities but it also acts as a test of your persuasion skills. As a professional in sales, ‘selling’ your resume is one of the most essential things for your career. In this article, we’ll go over what you could do to make your sales resume stand out and why you could consider using AI Resume Builder.

7 Points To Keep In Mind When Writing An Incredible Sales Resume –

How do you get your resume to stand out from amongst the piles that are probably sitting on a recruiter’s desk? Your qualifications and skills will take center stage of course, but the way you present yourself on paper makes a huge difference.

1. Pre-Resume Prep

Before you sit down to write out your resume, it’s helpful to compile a list of relevant skills, experience, and achievements that you could connect with the current position. Put your thinking cap on and reflect on what you bring to the table that others do not. Even if you have a non-sales background, you could talk about how your experience as a marketer or a writer gives you the right mix of skills for the position.

Pro Tip: A sales resume is about making yourself look good on paper. Tools like Simplified are an excellent way to give your resume a bit of polish.

2. Career Objective or Career Summary?

Hiring managers only spend a few seconds on each resume, usually because there are so many to go through. Structure your sales resume in a way that they can take in the key points at a glance. Remember that this bit needs to be outstanding. If it catches the recruiter’s eye, you’re a shoo-in. If it’s not well written, potential managers may have a dim view of your abilities. Tailor the career objective to the current job description. A career objective is slowly being seen as an outdated part of resumes so you could consider adding a summary instead. But the consensus is that if there isn’t any room for a summary, it’s fine to leave it out.

Pro Tip: If you’re just starting your sales career it may be helpful to keep a career objective. But if you already have a lot of experience, it may be less helpful.

Also read: 8 AI Presentation Makers That Will Help You Win Over Your Audience

2. Customize Your Sales Resume

Don’t make the mistake of sending out the same resume for every position you apply to. Targeted efforts usually get you better results. Since sales jobs tend to vary greatly from one company to the next, it helps to customize your resume to suit the specifics of the job you’re angling for.

Pro Tip: Every industry has jargon specific to it, use those keywords or metaphors in your sales resume to demonstrate your knowledge in this field.

For instance –

The term ‘sales funnel’ is often used to help visualize the sales process, and the term ‘BOFU’ is where deals are closed.
An ‘intellectual sale’ refers to a sale that’s closed by appealing to someone’s practical reasoning abilities rather than emotions.
On the other hand an ’emotional sale’ is the opposite and is based entirely upon emotions. The

sale will appeal to a prospect’s logical reasoning, and their need for a quick, affordable solution to a problem. An intellectual sale is more business than an emotional or personal sale.

3. Don’t Forget To Do Your Homework

It helps to take into account the culture of the company you’re looking at, its size, and its industry. An established company will probably have different expectations of you than a startup.

Pro Tip: Your references are probably happy to give you a glowing recommendation but it’s good to get in touch with them beforehand so they’re expecting a call. You can make sure that their contact info is updated. It’s also a great opportunity to update them on your latest accomplishments.

4. Cut Out The Fluff

Building a resume is a bit like building a story or an argument about why you’d be great for a specific job. Focus on the plotline and cut out the extra bits. For instance, you should leave out the temp job you did after high school. Go through your resume to remove roles that are not relevant to the position you’re applying to.

Some examples of temp jobs would be:

The summer you had a paper route
The seasonal jobs you had waiting tables
The hours you spent babysitting kids through high school

5. You Can’t Argue With The Numbers

The ultimate way to make a case in sales is to show them the numbers. Quantitative data provides strong evidence of your abilities to perform in your new role. Adding data points is especially useful for managerial positions. Mention details like a rise in average contract value, generated sales, or achieved targets.

Here are some examples of how to phrase your achievements (and how you can write sales numbers on your resume) –

Averaged over $2,000 in sales (annually)
Exceeded quotas, contributing to an X% of increase in revenue in 10 months
Excellent product knowledge in X sales

6. Talk Yourself Up

According to a Harvard Business Review women, even top female entrepreneurs are less likely to self-promote than men. Your resume is not the place to be modest. Be honest about your accolades, the large accounts that you landed, and the incredible marketing strategies or promotions. If you can’t fit everything into your resume, prioritize your achievements. It should be structured in such a way that the best accomplishments are at the top.

Examples of accomplishments that you shouldn’t hesitate to put down in your resume are;

Delivered presentations to decision-makers that resulted in a 25% improvement in lead conversion
Worked very closely with customers to better understand their needs and create $300,000 in retention revenue
Carried out the training of over 50 employees in customer services, POS operations, opening and closing procedures

Pro Tip: Remove the buzzwords in your sales resume. When everyone is ‘a great communicator’ or ‘values a strong client relationship’ it becomes less impressive. Instead, use the key skills section of your resume to write specific examples of projects you excelled at or accounts that you landed.

7. Don’t Ignore Your LinkedIn Profile

While resumes are a formality, hiring managers are looking at more than just that. Update your LinkedIn profile (with the aid of LinkedIn automation tools, if necessary) and solicit the necessary endorsements, preferably with comments and feedback that speak specifically to your communication abilities. Add the link to your LinkedIn profile in your resume. And if you’re wondering if LinkedIn Premium is worth it? It is! You may also want to consider the do’s and don’ts of reaching out to a recruiter on LinkedIn.

Even those of us with excellent command over the language can hit a roadblock when it comes to writing about ourselves. Especially for a formal piece of writing like a sales resume. Luckily, the best AI writers like Simplified make this task much easier.

3 Excellent Examples Of Sales Resumes by Simplified And Why They Work

Below is an excerpt from Simplified AI writer for a sales resume. You can see that it makes a great case for this applicant, highlighting their skills and achievements.

Here you’ll see that with just minimal inputs, Simplified can create a structured format with engaging text.

Highlighting awards and relevant accomplishments is a great way to stand out from the crowd. This last example is a great way to bring your accolades to the fore.

Have a Professional Sales Resume Ready In Seconds!

Need a professional sales resume made? Simplified can have one ready for you before you can say ‘sold’! All you have to do is input your work experience, skills, and education. Choose an industry and level of experience you’re aiming for. And then sit back and let Simplified do the heavy lifting!