- What should your automotive sales professional resume include?
- How can you create a professional summary?
- How should you describe your work experience as an automotive sales professional?
- Include a fitting automotive sales professional resume education and certifications section
- Which key skills are relevant for an automotive sales professional resume?
- How to select the most impactful automotive sales professional resume template
- Copyable automotive sales professional resume example
- Key takeaways for writing an automotive sales professional resume
As an automotive sales professional, you drive sales for the business and help clients make the right decision when deciding to purchase a vehicle. While you may be a whizz at selling cars, it can often be easier said than done to market yourself via your resume.
This resume guide and example will help you position yourself as the sales professional to hire, including:
What should an automotive sales professional resume include?
Advice on each section of your resume (summary, work history, education)
Adding relevant key skills to your resume
Choosing the right resume template for an automotive sales professional
What should your automotive sales professional resume include?
To advance your career in automotive sales, your resume needs to highlight your proven success in consultative sales and extensive knowledge of car models, specifications, and features. This includes expertise in automotive sales management, client relations, and key contract negotiations. Highlighting these skills, as well as cherry picking stand-out achievements, is key to maximizing your chances of success in the job market.
Your automotive sales professional resume should contain the following elements:
The resume header with your contact information
The professional summary
The employment history section
The resume skills section
The education section
How can you create a professional summary?
Your first chance to place yourself in pole position is via your professional summary. This is a snapshot of your relevant skills, experience, and success in automotive sales. Highlighting your ability to confidently drive sales and revenue growth while simultaneously delivering an optimal customer experience, is one way to increase your chances of moving forward in the hiring process.
Consider including a “branding statement” at the beginning of your profile as this is a great way to spark the hiring manager's attention. This short, catchy statement (15 to 20 words) should outline the scope of your sales expertise and the results you have delivered.
See our adaptable automotive sales professional resume summary below.
Experienced executive with 15+ years of success driving automotive sales team performance, developing strategies, and generating sales in dynamic environments. Extensive experience with assessing risks, capturing opportunities, and delivering customer satisfaction. Proven expertise negotiating contracts, cultivating relationships, collaborating cross-departmentally, and executing administrative duties. Highly talented at managing loss, finances, and multiple locations. Talent for maximizing profit and enforcing policies. Results-oriented; poised to excel in Senior Management Role.
How should you describe your work experience as an automotive sales professional?
The work experience section is the crown jewel on your resume. Every hiring manager will want to get up to speed with what you have done and what you have achieved as an automotive sales professional. Provide a brief, one-line synopsis for each role first, then follow this with a short paragraph (three or four sentences) that detail core responsibilities.
In a professional sales resume, quantifiable results will set you apart. These achievements should closely follow your paragraph of core responsibilities in a bullet pointed list. Boosting sales by X%, cutting losses by $X, and winning sales awards are examples of accomplishments that will impress the dealership manager.
One way to make these all-important results really pop is to embolden specific results. For example:
Sustained record-setting 9% client retention rate by optimizing service processes and procedures.
Take a look at the adaptable automotive sales professional resume employment history section below.
Used Car Manager | Sub-Prime Manager at AUTONATION TOYOTA, Leesburg, VA 2017 - Present
Provide executive management of workforce and sales operations concurrently driving sales performance.
Perform administrative duties and utilize expertise to supervise operations including driving sales team performance, soliciting business, reducing loss, training on sales techniques, and analyzing data.
Oversee inventory control, budget, strategies, process improvement, and profit generation to ensure success. Adhere to stringent 60-day turn policy.
Delivered turnaround of used car operation, boosting units and PVR by 150%.
Monitored appraisals and reconditioning costs, decreasing losses from $20K to $5K in profit (each month).
Streamlined and rolled out improved processes, achieving faster trades online (two-day average).
Supplied training and boosted sales by 150%, earning highest PVR across AutoNation Zone ($3400).
Independent Contractor Sub-Prime at ROSENTHAL AUTOMOTIVE GROUP, Reston, VA 2014 - 2017
Identified and captured sales opportunities while maximizing sales gross profit for one of the largest dealership groups.
Directed daily functions, performance activity, and sales operations. Secured potential opportunities, developed targeted advertising process, and utilized BDC (producing appointments).
Forged partnerships with dealers group, operated subprime operation in dealership locations, and closed incremental used car sales. Ensured 100% adherence to regulations.
Generated increase in profits, maximizing vehicle sales profit to 205% (group average $6100 per vehicle).
Ensured CTI of less than 5 days by establishing protocols and regulations on all sales/delivery processes.
Used Car Manager | Sub-Prime Manager at AUTONATION HONDA, Dulles, VA 2012 - 2014
Oversaw full accountability of sales activities sustaining ranking of highest spot in district for 350 car month dealership.
Controlled all functions, finances, and inventory. Fostered client-focused environment while developing workforce and solidifying partnerships.
Leveraged experience to implement, train, and execute activities encompassing sales processes, procedures, infrastructure, finance and insurance administration (F&I), profit generation, and employee management.
Performed cross-functional collaborations, assessed risks, analyzed performance, exceeded sales targets, and implemented new sales strategies.
Delivered integral support to accomplish/maintain rank of #1 and #2 dealership spot in district.
Set bar of excellence by achieving/sustaining average CSI greater than 98%.
Stabilized management team by establishing collaborative cross-departmental communication.
Trained group/one-on-one, generating an increase in sales of approximately 150%, simultaneously owning/sustaining highest front and rear PVR spanning Washington Zone ($800 and $1600 respectively).
Expert Tip
Make your resume pop with the right action verbs
Your resume needs to position you as an achiever in sales rather than a doer. One way to achieve this goal is to use action verbs across your resume to present your skills, experience, and achievements in a dynamic and compelling way. For example, instead of managed try orchestrated, or replace changed with transformed. Check out our article for some effective action verbs.
Include a fitting automotive sales professional resume education and certifications section
While education will be more of a backseat driver on your automotive sales professional resume, recruiters will be keen to see if you’ve completed any specialized training. Here’s some key areas to focus on when crafting your education section:
List any professional development programs in reverse-chronological order. Just ensure these are relevant to automotive sales and simply list the name of the program and the provider.
Highlight relevant professional associations and training courses too. Registration with professional associations and completing ongoing sales training will show your commitment to CPD and staying at the top of your game.
Dealer Candidate School at Chrysler Corporation
Implementation and Management at Ryan School of Automotive Finance
BDC Development, Implementation and Management at Proactive Dealer Solutions
Which key skills are relevant for an automotive sales professional resume?
One thing you can be sure of is that hiring managers will scour your resume to find out whether you have the key skills they need. They may also use ATS during the screening process to electronically scan your resume for these very same keywords. So, ensure you tailor your resume as much as possible to the job description.
For an automotive sales professional, a few critical skills might include:
Full lifecycle sales management
Automotive retail operations
New business development
Key contract negotiations
Inventory control
Client relationship management
Sales training
How to select the most impactful automotive sales professional resume template
Most recruiters favor a straightforward resume format. When you consider the amount of resumes they receive, this makes sense. Stick to clear sections, consistent font and spacing, and use bullet points to enhance readability. Avoid design-heavy formats as this can result in ATS being unable to scan information from your resume correctly, meaning your resume might not even get through to the hiring manager.
Reverse chronological order is the best format to show off your career progression as a top-performing salesperson. In terms of length, your resume should be one or two pages. Anything longer can fall into the remit of information overload.
When exploring our many resume templates in our resume builder, start by selecting the resume layout that fits your situation best. Find inspiration with our over 100 available resume examples.
Copyable automotive sales professional resume example
Summary example
Experienced executive with 15+ years of success driving automotive sales team performance, developing strategies, and generating sales in dynamic environments. Extensive experience with assessing risks, capturing opportunities, and delivering customer satisfaction. Proven expertise negotiating contracts, cultivating relationships, collaborating cross-departmentally, and executing administrative duties. Highly talented at managing loss, finances, and multiple locations. Talent for maximizing profit and enforcing policies. Results-oriented; poised to excel in Senior Management Role.
Employment history example
Used Car Manager | Sub-Prime Manager at AUTONATION TOYOTA, Leesburg, VA 2017 - Present
Provide executive management of workforce and sales operations concurrently driving sales performance.
Perform administrative duties and utilize expertise to supervise operations including driving sales team performance, soliciting business, reducing loss, training on sales techniques, and analyzing data.
Oversee inventory control, budget, strategies, process improvement, and profit generation to ensure success. Adhere to stringent 60-day turn policy.
Delivered turnaround of used car operation, boosting units and PVR by 150%.
Monitored appraisals and reconditioning costs, decreasing losses from $20K to $5K in profit (each month).
Streamlined and rolled out improved processes, achieving faster trades online (two-day average).
Supplied training and boosted sales by 150%, earning highest PVR across AutoNation Zone ($3400).
Independent Contractor Sub-Prime at ROSENTHAL AUTOMOTIVE GROUP, Reston, VA 2014 - 2017
Identified and captured sales opportunities while maximizing sales gross profit for one of the largest dealership groups.
Directed daily functions, performance activity, and sales operations. Secured potential opportunities, developed targeted advertising process, and utilized BDC (producing appointments).
Forged partnerships with dealers group, operated subprime operation in dealership locations, and closed incremental used car sales. Ensured 100% adherence to regulations.
Generated increase in profits, maximizing vehicle sales profit to 205% (group average $6100 per vehicle).
Ensured CTI of less than 5 days by establishing protocols and regulations on all sales/delivery processes.
Used Car Manager | Sub-Prime Manager at AUTONATION HONDA, Dulles, VA 2012 - 2014
Oversaw full accountability of sales activities sustaining ranking of highest spot in district for 350 car month dealership.
Controlled all functions, finances, and inventory. Fostered client-focused environment while developing workforce and solidifying partnerships.
Leveraged experience to implement, train, and execute activities encompassing sales processes, procedures, infrastructure, finance and insurance administration (F&I), profit generation, and employee management.
Performed cross-functional collaborations, assessed risks, analyzed performance, exceeded sales targets, and implemented new sales strategies.
Delivered integral support to accomplish/maintain rank of #1 and #2 dealership spot in district.
Set bar of excellence by achieving/sustaining average CSI greater than 98%.
Stabilized management team by establishing collaborative cross-departmental communication.
Trained group/one-on-one, generating an increase in sales of approximately 150%, simultaneously owning/sustaining highest front and rear PVR spanning Washington Zone ($800 and $1600 respectively).
Education example
Dealer Candidate School at Chrysler Corporation
Implementation and Management at Ryan School of Automotive Finance
BDC Development, Implementation and Management at Proactive Dealer Solutions
Skills example
Sales Management/Operations (All Stages)
Sales Team Management/Sales Training
Negotiations/Partnerships
Sales/Profit Generation/Costs Control
Customer Satisfaction/Client Retention
Policies & Procedures/Finance Management
Key takeaways for writing an automotive sales professional resume
Working as an automotive sales professional can be challenging, but it’s also an exciting and fulfilling career if you love interacting with people and have a passion for the automotive industry.
If you’re looking to land your dream automotive sales role, you’ll need to highlight your customer-centric approach and your ability to deliver tangible results.
Target your resume by including keywords in each section, such as automotive sales, dealership, customer service, and communication skills.
Make your life easier by using our online resume builder to create your automotive sales professional resume with adaptable templates and AI powered content.
