When you’re writing a sales resume, you need to market yourself; more than ever! Selling is your passion, and your resume needs to reflect that.
Your resume needs to answer this question -- Why me?
The recruiter naturally looks for certain key elemental keywords like Sales Management, Business Development, Customer retention, Sales Forecasting, Negotiator, Communicator, etc. These are tell-tale signs of a salesperson, and if these terms aren’t seen enough, then off the resume will go in the discards.
Here are 5 basic elements which are a must-have in a sales resume format!
1. Best of the Rest Skills
Your resume should talk about your sales skills all the time. Here’s a tactic to ensure the best of you is seen at the first go itself. It’s okay even if you don’t add a summary, but pick out 3-4 best skills that show your strengths, and add it to the top left area of your resume along with your name.
Directly talk business. Cut it short. Make it impactful like-- XYZ, Expert in Sales Cycle Management, Sales Support and Cold Calling. Doesn’t this give your best strengths away at the first instant?
You’ve already given the recruiter what he wants without wasting his time.
2. Include Results & Output
Every sales career is driven by one very important aspect--targets. Every salesperson runs for targets and achieves them. Be sure to include these results and the output of those targets in your resume, left, right and center.
A salesperson’s job responsibilities are quite commonly known, so rather than wasting time there, you can meanwhile talk about the results. For instance, market share growth, increase in sales, increase in goodwill, increase in client base, etc. The recruiter wants to know how much you sold to whom, and what happened as a result. Write it down tactfully.
3. Rewards & Recognition
All sales companies keep rewarding the best performers something or the other to keep up their spirit of selling. Keep all the certificates and emails of appreciation safe, as they will be useful now to you. Write down whatever you achieved when you performed well.
People win awards for achieving targets. If you have won any, do mention them in the summary itself. Awards and rewards are proof of your work and talent, and a recruiter will be impressed looking at the same.
4. Include Certifications
In sales, it is all mostly on-the-job training. But there are certain skills that need to be learned if told by the organization. It could be for sales management, deal closing, or even relationship management. Keep updating these upskilling activities on your resume, along with any other pieces of training you might have taken. All this increases your credibility and will matter when the manager has to decide on promotions.
5. Education
Honestly, a sales career doesn’t need a particular academic background; right from an engineer to a doctor also can do sales. It’s a passion-driven field and has got nothing to do with what you’ve studied. But, of course.
While any degree in Business, Business Management, or Management studies is great and very much contributes to the nature of the job, it’s not essential to have one of them. Do include your successful sales stints instead, add certifications (future and now), add your achievements.
This is more important in the case of freshers, as sales experts can do away with this section altogether.
Ultimately, keep your resume always updated with the latest metrics. It should always be persuasive, a bit braggy but professional, and on-point--it will never fail to impress the recruiters!