The Essentials For a Sales Resume Part 1

by Ken Sundheim on May 11, 2012

Quotas – Employers, when assessing whether a job applicant can sell their product, want to see tangible numbers. Why? Selling a product or service that is $2,000 a pop is much different (in many cases) than selling product or services for 10x that amount.

This means that the sales representative will be dealing with new people who tend to be more senior and may have more shrewd negotiation and overall business acumen. It also means longer, more complex sales cycles. While this is not a rule of thumb, this is what employers want to see.

Though, don’t get discouraged. Work your way up and you’ll be in with the heavy hitters in no time at all.

Format – Sales representatives tend to like to write drawn-out, typically meaningless paragraphs, not thinking that there is a human being on the other side reading the document. Chances are that the person reading a sales resume is going to be drawn to a more bullet point format, which is easy to skim and make a decision.

Remember, the harder you make it on the hiring manager to read, the higher the probability for that email and, subsequent resume getting deleted.

All But Useless Terminology – Some business development professionals love to use terminology that not only clouds their resume, but also actually hurts their chances at getting the interview.

Some of these include:

A. “Entrepreneurial” – Nobody wants “entrepreneurial” (despite what they may say). Instead, they want employees. While some employees over time may learn to become corporate entrepreneurs, you can be sure the odds of them giving you that position off the bat are slim to none.

B. “Team Player” – Yes. The word “cheesy” comes into play when discussing resumes with this word on them. Using generic terms like this actually makes it seem like you lack a lot of creativity which could hurt you in the close.

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