Salespeople get a bad reputation—think of used car salesmen—but they're perhaps the most important employees in a company besides the CEO. Even if you snagged the best graphic designer or accountant, your company would sink if you didn't sell your product or service. In the words of Henry Ford, "nothing happens until someone sells something."
Excellent salespeople are driven, creative thinkers who can interpret complex data and communicate ideas in plain language to any audience. They know the company inside and out and what consumers want.
The best salespeople set goals and achieve them consistently with the help of research. But great salespeople know their most important asset is their integrity; they genuinely believe in their product, their job, and will treat others honestly.
It's a scary prospect to just hope you'll get some great sales cover letters and resumes in your inbox, so that's where BeamJobs steps in. We've got writing tips for your job description, so you can hire the best salesperson possible.
Download and edit in Microsoft Word.
Edit in Google Docs (choose "File" and "Make a copy").
Download and edit in Microsoft Word.
Edit in Google Docs (choose "File" and "Make a copy").
Download and edit in Microsoft Word.
Edit in Google Docs (choose "File" and "Make a copy").
Picture this: you're on a wealthy executive team, watching a pitch for a new kitchen product. The salesperson is rambling, and all you've figured out from their lengthy speech is that they have a product. You don't know what they want from you, and the speaker is vague whenever you ask questions.
Similarly, many job descriptions are vague, confusing, and either terribly long or shockingly short. Unfortunately, this scenario plays out far too often for job description readers. BeamJobs provides this guide to help you create a better job description that resonates with your audience and moves them to apply.
Salespeople know that time is of the essence, so rambling off your company's history or benefits at the beginning is a poor choice. What should the future salesperson know right away? Lead with the basics of who you work for and who you'll be hiring.
Good salespeople care about their customers and their time, so you need to care about your applicants and tell them only what they need to know.
You also need to address why you're hiring. Yes, you need a new salesperson. But why? Is there a gap in customers' understanding of the company's products? Are you looking to increase your customer retention rate? Your new hire should know exactly their role from day one.
Writing a great job description is like making a winning sales pitch: you need to strategize. Namely, that means keeping your audience in mind. What do applicants need to apply?
You already know to include why you're hiring and who you are, but what else do you need to include? Our outline can help with general topics, but you'll have to decide the details.
Test out ideas, replace content, and start anew if you must. Look at other job descriptions and see what works and what doesn't (You've already seen three good examples in this guide). Once you're happy with your overall concept, fill in details until it's complete.
Your structure is perfect, and all your content is done. Most would say it's time to call it a day, but salespeople know nothing is perfect the first time around. Go through your job description and cut anything irrelevant, vague, or hyperbolic. Applicants can detect lies from fancy language a mile away, so make sure you're using plain and truthful language.
On that note, you should take a long look at your tone. You need to be honest, but you also need to be interesting. While your job description may be technically correct and beautifully formatted, it won't convince salespeople to join you if it's dull and dry.
One of the best ways to get a read on tone is to share your job description with others for feedback. (Bonus points if you can get some salespeople to read it). Take a break, and let your coworkers help you with constructive criticism.
Then comes the hard part—taking constructive criticism. It's hard to have others critique your work, but salespeople face rejection every day. Steel yourself to the comments and make the recommended edits for content, clarity, tone, and flow. If it starts feeling too painful, remember—this is all for the applicants, and it will be worth it.
Once you've strategized, written, revised, and perhaps revised again, all that's left to do is adjust your formatting. Take a look at each draft to make sure the formatting translates well, avoiding weird spacing, overabundance (or lack) of white space, or excessive underlining of the text. Then hit submit, and sooner than you can say "sold!" you'll be thumbing through a big stack of sales resumes.
With so much information to include, writing a job description can feel as intimidating as pitching a product on Shark Tank. Follow this outline to have everything you need and nothing you don't so you can perfectly market your job to the best applicants.
Job details: This is the pitch for the job where you give the necessary information for the applicant to decide whether or not to keep reading. If they have to read your full job description to discover you need a sales director, you need to rewrite this section. Cover the three main things: the type of job, your organization, and why you're hiring.
What you'll be doing/Roles/Responsibilities/Requirements: It's shocking how many sales job descriptions lack a requirements section since this is where you tell the applicant what their job will entail. Although sales jobs frequently share similarities, each position has unique tasks, so you need to include this section to show how this position is different from other roles.
On the note of being specific, make sure you are clear with each point. If the responsibilities are too vague, applicants may not apply out of confusion or fear of being underqualified.
Qualifications: This is the second most important section in your job description. Applicants need to know exactly what's required to do the job, so they only apply for jobs they're qualified to do. However, this doesn't mean you should list every qualification you can imagine for your position; that can scare away applicants. The best course is to balance what's essential to do the job and what can be learned through training.
Benefits: This is where you should sell why applicants should work for your company. Although this section lists company perks, you'll also want to list a salary range. This lets job seekers know more or less how they'll be compensated, which promotes transparency. However, there's a reason this section is listed so low—this is not the most important, so it should be detailed later.
About the company: Salespeople need to know about the product, but they also benefit from knowing about the company. Although It can be tempting to go on about your company and accomplishments, remember to whom you're selling; does the applicant need to know about your company's lengthy history and list of credentials? Avoid waxing poetic for paragraphs and paragraphs. Be creative, concise, and introduce some of the company's personality.
Sales blends into marketing and customer service, so salespeople must be the best in both worlds while keeping sales at the forefront of their position. Since the public tends to be wary of salespeople and sales professionals are aware of their reputation, they must prove they and their company are trustworthy. It's a big job that involves many roles, but a good salesperson is up to the task.
Here are some common functions of excellent salespeople. One salesperson may not fulfill all of these roles, but they likely will face more than one on any given day.
Communicator
Relationship Manager
Researchers
Informant
Recruiter
Problem-solver