Sales resume example & writing guide

What should your sales resume include?   

Your sales resume needs to showcase your talent for persuasion and outstanding negotiation skills, along with your ability to build positive relationships with clients and close deals with key decision makers. Sales offers a plethora of job opportunities, but all of them require these core skills that should be included on your resume. You’ll also want to highlight your unique sales expertise, deal sizes, and quotas achieved.

Why use this sales resume example?

A sales resume has two key objectives: not only does it highlight your sales experience and background, but it can also "sell" you as a potential employee to hire. Our resume example starts with an impactful professional summary that provides the hiring manager with a snapshot of your success in sales. Focus on including the right sales language (prospecting, closing, and boosting) and use the job description for keyword inspiration as this will increase your chances of getting noticed by both humans and applicant tracking systems (ATS).

Additionally, this resume example shows you the best way to highlight not only your experience, but the all important sales facts and figures, as well as any training and technical expertise in the sales arena. If you have little or no experience in the sales field, you can use the terms and phrasing in this resume example to highlight your transferable skills and experience in customer service, communication, and teamwork via part-time jobs, volunteer work, or academic studies. 

Which key skills are relevant for a sales resume?

When listing skills for a sales resume, make sure they are relevant to the job you’re applying for and align with the job description. Hard and soft skills you will want to highlight on your sales resume include:

• Sales and business development

• Key account management

• Lead generation

• Presentation and pitch delivery

• Complaints resolution

• Client relations

• Motivational leadership

How should you describe your work experience in a sales resume?   

When highlighting your work experience, make sure you're focusing on quantifiable results, achievements, and actual numbers, including sales generated, units sold, or sales targets met. It's also important to include things like your sales region, the products you've sold/managed, who you've worked with (i.e. managers, developers, C-suite executives), deal sizes (and use specific figures), and what quotas you've met. 

Using the job description as your guide and working in reverse chronological order, provide recruiters with clear and concise information about your core responsibilities (in paragraphs) followed by bullet-pointed and quantified achievements. Hiring managers want to see that your experience is relevant to their organization and job opening, so targeting your sales resume will help you achieve more success.

How can you create a professional summary for your sales resume?   

The professional summary section is where you, as a sales professional, can craft your "pitch" to a potential employer, emphasizing your skills, abilities, and accomplishments as well as what value you’d bring to their company. Focus on displaying your personality in your sales’s resume and your ability to deliver first class service. This doesn’t need to be a lengthy introduction, two or three key sentences that outline your core skills and experience, as well as the value you can add, is perfect. 

Tips on developing an on-point education section for your sales resume 

Highlighting relevant education, professional certifications, and training is a major way to improve the performance of your sales resume. Here’s some key areas to focus on:

• Experience tends to trump education in a sales’s resume, so place your education section after work experience. If you’ve completed a degree in sales or a related field, make sure to include the details. However, including your highest qualification on your resume is still important, even if it's not directly related to sales, as this shows your ability to successfully complete academic studies. 

• Include any professional certifications and technical skills. Training could include business development, customer service, or leadership programs. Mentioning technical skills such as Salesforce, OrgChartPlus, or Yesware will also help you stand out in the candidate pool.

How to select a correct sales resume template?

The structure of your resume needs to be organized, professional, and impactful–all qualities an employer will be on the lookout for in their next sales guru. Stick to reverse chronological format, clean and modern resume design, and clear sections that make the resume easier to read for the hiring manager. You have only about seven seconds to impress a recruiter, so you need to make sure your format is on point.