Resume Writing Tips for Sales Reps with Examples
Are you frustrated by the lackluster response to your applications? Sales reps play a critical role in the success of every company. So, sales recruiters and hiring managers look for top talent to fill positions. Whether you’re a born salesman or acquired your skills, you can’t expect to land a sales job without a compelling resume. Your resume should hold recruiters’ attention long enough for you to convince them to give you the first interview. To get noticed and land more interviews, learn how to write a persuasive resume. Here are the top resume writing tips for sales reps with examples:
How to Write a Sales Representative Resume
A compelling resume is attention-grabbing and demonstrates why you're the best salesperson for the job. So, you cannot use one resume to apply for entry-level and executive sales jobs. Before writing a sales rep's resume, make a list of keywords and choose the right format.
Keywords. Analyze the job description and make a list of the words used to describe the requirements. Use these keywords in the education, experience, and skills section to align your resume with the job’s requirements. It can convince the recruiter that you’re the best sales candidate for the job. Some sales recruitment agencies in Dallas use ATS software to sort applications based on keywords. Without the right keywords, your resume may never reach the recruiter.
Choose the best resume format. When writing a sales rep CV, use a resume format that displays your strengths more than your weaknesses. For example, you should list your degree first if it is highly relevant to the role. It can reduce the impact of being inexperienced. If you have years of experience, the ideal sales resume format should put your experience first to emphasize your strengths.
Once you’ve listed the keywords and selected the appropriate format, focus on writing persuasive sales resume content to sell yourself.
Secrets to Writing Persuasive Sales Resume Content
To write a convincing CV, determine the top skills to put on your resume for a sales representative. Also, learn how to describe sales experience on a resume. So, how do you write persuasive sales resume content? First, craft your resume objective or statement.
Crafting a powerful resume objective
Example 1: Describe your experience relevant to the role.
“Motivated sales professional with extensive digital marketing experience.”
Example 2: Use persuasive adjectives to describe your strength, such as personality.
“Personable, charismatic, and driven to work with the team and achieve sales goals.”
You can use these examples to create a compelling personal statement or objective for your sales rep's resume. The trick is to narrow down your strengths or most valuable assets into one powerful sentence.
Describe your sales experience
Sales are more practical than theoretical, which is why hiring managers treasure the experience. When it comes to describing your experience, stick to the adage “Show, don’t tell.” Show how your experience helped you push more deals through your sales pipeline. Did you establish a method that works for you? As a sales representative, you’ll work with other team members to fulfill sales goals. Show how your experience can help the team. Here are examples of how to describe sales experience on a resume:
“Helped the team exceed all quotas, resulting in XX% revenue increase with XX months.”
“Averaged more than $XXXX in annual XXX sales.”
If you’re applying for a sales job before graduation, you can highlight all your experiences. For example, how successful was your childhood lemonade stand?
Showcasing relevant sales skills
To write a compelling sales rep resume, showcase both soft and hard skills relevant to the job. First, determine the most valuable skills to put in your resume for a sales representative. Soft skills valued by sales recruiters include storytelling, negotiation, persuasion, relationship building, objection handling, and active listening. Your sales expertise, such as prospecting, lead discovery, KPI software know-how, consumer behavior, and data analysis, make up your hard skills. In most cases, these valuable skills are also the keywords. Use these keywords to showcase relevant sales skills. Here is an example of how to describe your skills in a sale rep resume:
“Strong product knowledge in the latest software solutions, with exemplary sales abilities.”
Using the right keywords to showcase the results of your skills will optimize your resume and help you pass the ATS system. When you define your skills in the recruiter’s language, it demonstrates that you're a good fit for the sales rep role. It also proves to recruiters and hiring managers that you're talented, which increases your chances of progressing to the interview stage.
Create and Customize Your Cover Letter
While a cover letter is not always required, think of it as extra credit. Hiring managers and sales recruiters can give you some points for the effort. When applying for a sales representative job, a cover letter gives you extra space to provide context for the employer. Focus on what you’ll bring to the company and how your skills and education align with the employer’s objectives. To avoid boring recruiters and hiring managers, write a brief cover letter with around 300 words.
Before you submit your resume to sales recruiters, spell check and proofread line-by-line several times to catch hidden typos and misspellings. You can ask a friend, family member, or colleague to go through your resume to ensure you never missed some errors. The last you need is for a typo to reduce your chances of landing your dream sales job.