do you know how to write a standout
sales resume you know having a polished
resume is critical for securing
interviews but do you know the best way
to do that i'm jen a career coach at
indeed and reviewing resumes is one of
my favorite parts of what i do today i'm
going to show you how to write a resume
like a pro by reviewing an example sales
resume and discussing tips for
improvement
and be sure to stick around until the
end for one critical piece of advice
that i give to all of my clients you
don't want to miss this one when writing
your resume i recommend breaking it down
into several important sections and i'll
be focusing on each component of this
example resume to show you how to
improve your writing and format let's
start at the top the header this section
includes your name contact information
and it's directly followed by
professional summary because our eyes go
to the top of the page first this is
where you want your name and key
strengths to be
let's see what our example resume is
starting with
this header is good information but the
formatting looks funky
i recommend combining the objective and
summary of qualifications into just one
professional summary objectives used to
be common on resumes but they've fallen
out of favor because they don't tell
employers anything unique about you as a
qualified candidate instead create a
professional summary that highlights
your skills and what you bring to the
table rather than focusing on what type
of job you want
some sales skills to include could be
territory management customer
relationship management sales pitch
development and sales software
proficiency
this summary of qualifications has some
good pieces of information that i would
keep in the revised resume but it
focuses too much on soft skills like
works well in high pressure environments
and brings positive attitude and strong
work ethic to any job anybody can write
these statements on a resume they aren't
unique skills
focus more on the hard skills and
tangible experiences relevant to sales
like negotiation techniques sales
presentations and product demonstrations
these differentiate and qualify you for
the job that you're interested in before
we move on if you've watched this far
let us know by giving us a like
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so how do we make this better now if you
want to follow along you can find the
final version of this resume on the
sales professional resume sample on
career guide
we start by cleaning up the contact
information here are some best practices
that everyone including sales
professionals should keep in mind use 16
to 18 point font include a middle
initial if you have a common name stick
to city state format and include
professional contact information that
includes your phone number email and
professional social media links in 10 to
12 point font next we'll simplify the
header
after your name this new summary
includes relevant skills and experiences
and succinctly describes you as a sales
professional the section highlighted in
green is an area that i would encourage
you to tailor for each job for example
cold calling may be a key skill for one
job but not for another
additionally major achievements like
winning sales representative of the year
are details that you must include
providing concise but specific examples
of success in your summary instantly
shows the recruiter your value
additional examples include dedicated
sales professional with more than eight
years of experience in the insurance
sales industry consistently maintained a
retention rate of new clients of 50 for
the past three years or accomplished
sales representative with a passion for
high quality customer service more than
three years of experience in the sales
environment with a proven track record
for increasing profits exceeding quotas
and managing large customer accounts
increase sales revenue by 23 in 2020.
now let's move on to the bulk of your
resume content professional experience
your professional experience tells
employers the story of your career
journey and the work experiences you've
had so far
in particular you want to select
experiences and achievements that are
directly relevant to the sales job that
you're applying for and yes that means
tailoring your resume to each job so
that employers can clearly see how your
past experience relates to the job at
hand
so let's go back and take a look at the
original resume now there are a handful
of updates that i'd make starting with
format
tables and text boxes
first we already know that you need to
get rid of those tables so you'll see a
more simplified format in the new resume
location details additionally you need
to add the location city and state for
each job or indicate if it was a remote
position
bullet points when referencing your work
experience i recommend using bullet
points that start with action verbs and
describe what you contributed and
achieved in each role bullet points help
to break up large blocks of text and it
makes it easier for recruiters to read
your resume
you may only have 7.4 seconds to make an
impression so streamline your experience
and stand out from other applicants
are you still with me i know it's a lot
but this information is priceless when
writing resume bullet points use the who
method
what you did how you did it and outcome
and it's important to quantify work
whenever possible and add more details
about the results delivered for example
looking at this work experience i want
more details about how many existing
accounts were managed how many product
demonstrations were performed and how
many new accounts were developed here's
a pro tip when reviewing each bullet
point ask yourself if it could be
written about somebody else working in
that same job if so modify it so that it
describes specifically what you achieved
in that position it should be so
detailed that it could only apply to you
and what you contributed in that
specific role this is how you highlight
your unique qualifications let's do a
bullet point rewrite lightning round
don't say new account acquisition by
cold calling customers
say acquired 25 new clients from cold
calling lead follow-up and relationship
development
don't say delivered sales quotes and
product demonstrations
say generated customized sales quotes
and demonstrated products to at least 20
different clients per month
don't say existing customer account
management say manage portfolio of 60
enterprise accounts purchasing companies
inventory management hr and financial
software solutions
let's look at how i've reformatted and
rewritten this experience
i've highlighted where you should add
the job location
and i've reformatted the job
responsibilities into five
action-oriented bullet points
highlighting where to add quantifiable
data and you should aim to have three to
five bullet points describing
achievements for each of your roles
you'll see that i've transformed each
work experience using that same format
i've also included brand new examples of
bullet points describing accomplishments
based on responsibilities or skills that
were mentioned in other parts of the
resume
the result is that instead of simply
submitting a list of your former job
responsibilities you now have a
compelling experience section that
describes your unique and valuable
impact
let's look at the original resume one
more time because i want to show you a
few other key areas that i've updated
scrolling down through the work
experience you'll see that there were
sales and customer service roles dating
back to 1994.
now it's a common misconception that you
need to include every work experience
you've had on your resume instead focus
on the past 10 to 15 years of experience
there are two key reasons for this one
relevancy sales strategy is also totally
different now than they did 15 years ago
employers really wanted to see the
results that you've delivered in the
last five to 10 years with an emphasis
in the past three to five years
two preventing age bias as much as we
don't want to admit it there can be
unconscious bias in the job search to
avoid this i rarely if ever recommend
including more than 15 years of work
experience and you'll see that i've only
included work experience back to 2008.
this showcases over 12 years of sales
success which is more than sufficient
for any employer to decide whether or
not they want to interview you
now let's talk about something i didn't
see on the example resume skills do you
want to know why you should include
these when you have a specific section
for skills it allows recruiters to
quickly qualify you as a candidate and
many employers use applicant tracking
systems or an ats to screen applications
and surface the most qualified
applicants including skills can help to
increase the number of ats keywords and
move your resume to the top of the list
now some people call this section skills
or area of expertise or for competencies
but it really doesn't matter which one
you choose
you'll see that i've included skills
directly relevant to the sales
profession and align them with the
common responsibilities of a sales rep
here's what you don't see generic skills
like outstanding communication or
teamwork which were included in the
original resume in the summary of
qualifications
instead i want to focus on the
competencies an employer would be
looking for in a sales rep like
techniques including sales presentations
job responsibilities like lead
qualification and software like
salesforce
for more advice on the do's and don'ts
of highlighting skills on your resume be
sure to check out this video
now let's address the section that can
move around on a resume education
you might have noticed that the original
resume didn't include an education
section so why would you want to include
one
well pursuing education in the form of
schooling or courses is beneficial to
show your relevant sales training so i
encourage you to at least include a high
school diploma or your highest completed
level of education plus any relevant
sales training courses that you've
completed
now dates and gpa are optional to
include what's important is that you're
showing all training and education that
you've completed some sales specific
training that you can take include
dale carnegie sales training
challenger sales method sandler sales
training hubspot certifications spin
selling franklin covey and salesforce
certifications now as you can see i've
highlighted in yellow where you would
want to add education information on
your resume now depending on where you
are in your career your education
section could either be placed before or
after your work experience if you've
graduated within the last three years
and you have limited work experience
place it before if you've graduated more
than three years ago or had lots of
relevant work experience place it after
and now for the one piece of advice that
i share with all of my clients who want
to improve their resume skip stylized
formatting a resume should present your
skills qualifications and contributions
clearly and quickly you want to stand
out from the crowd so it's easy to think
that using flashy fonts bright colors
and graphic elements is a quick and easy
way to do that and this example resume
demonstrated this major mistake trying
to impress the recruiter with stylized
formatting
as you can see use tables and text boxes
to structure the information which is a
major concern for an applicant tracking
system that we talked about earlier
most ats either can't read a table will
jumble words together or it'll
completely leave information out
essentially fancy formatting can make
your resume unreadable fixing your
formatting can take very little time and
it's one of the first things i address
when i revise a resume and it can have
the biggest impact on whether or not you
get called for that interview
let's recap the key ways to revise your
sales resume
header craft a tailored professional
summary highlighting your most relevant
sales skills and any major sales
achievements
professional experience create bullet
points that start with a strong action
verb and use the who method to show
impact on kpis or company results
skills include a distinct section of
sales specific skills to improve your
ranking with an ats
education include all degrees
certificates and training
and my bonus tip skip stylized
formatting use formatting that will help
you get seen by an ats and doesn't
filter you out
if you found this helpful please hit the
like button down below and subscribe to
our channel for more tips on career
development i recommend checking out
this playlist
and i also recommend checking out this
video on indeed's resume review services
i hope that you're able to apply this
advice the next time that you update
your resume and don't forget you can
find this resume example as well as
other sales resumes on the indeed career
guide thank you so much for watching
we'll see you next time