Sales are the lifeblood of any growing company. Without sales, companies grow stagnant—or worse, fail. But with a good sales department, a company can truly thrive.
You know how to care for customers, present solutions to problems, and adapt to any situation. Unfortunately, getting a new sales job involves more than just a short resignation letter at your current job and being stellar at what you do.
You shouldn’t have to create an effective resume or write a sales cover letter alone, which is why we’ve analyzed hundreds of professional resumes and created 21 sales resume examples just for you. These examples have helped salespeople get hired by companies like Google and Facebook, and they’re here for you to achieve the next role of your dreams in 2024.
Why this resume works
- As a sales expert, numbers are king. If you can, highlight your numeric sales performance on your sales resume to make a splash.
- Whether your most significant impact was in total sales, conversion rate, retention rate, or lead generation performance, it doesn’t matter—numbers speak louder than words, so include them whenever you can!
- Space is limited on your sales resume; a cover letter generator will be your best friend, giving you plenty of opportunity to expound on those details you couldn’t fit in your resume.
Why this resume works
- Your sales assistant resume should have a list of relevant abilities in your resume’s skills section, but you should also demonstrate them in your work experience bullet points.
- Find a way to include metrics to really sell your skills!
- Don’t just say you used a certain skill; demonstrate how you used that skill. For example, did you use your organization skills to stock many items?
- Your first step in nailing down that dream sales job is selling yourself. You can show your enthusiasm for the job by opening with a powerful resume objective.
- Pack your resume objective with proactive language that shows your eagerness for growth and improvement. If you’re looking for a career-building role, then say exactly that!
Why this resume works
- To get your first role as an entry-level sales representative, you need to convince the hiring manager that you have charisma and dedication.
- Sales is a people management game. If you have charm and patience, that’s much more valuable in the eyes of the hiring manager than an impressive educational background.
- You can also include a resume objective to mention some of your accomplishments and skills right off the bat; if you choose to do so, make sure you tailor it for every job to which you apply.
- Your entry-level sales resume should play to your strengths, no matter where they lie.
- If your education is your strongest area, include your minor, GPA, and any relevant courses you’ve taken.
- If you’ve worked on several projects, make room to include them on your resume in place of work experience.
Why this resume works
- Salespeople work with customers on the daily, but sometimes, those customers are less than grateful. Your experienced sales associate resume must demonstrate that you can work with high-maintenance customers.
- Your true competence as a sales associate shines through the most when you mention how you effectively calmed angry customers and offered practical, compassionate solutions.
- The skills for your resume should be extensive but not exhaustive. That is to say, you should only include skills that you’d be comfortable citing in an interview.
- If you’re not overly familiar with a skill, leave it out—honesty is the best policy, and many skills are easy to learn on the job.
Why this resume works
- Hiring managers want to know that you have past retail experience, so when you’re writing your resume, always include your most relevant sales experience (which is likely your most recent position).
- If you don’t have past retail experience, don’t fret; use the positions you have to highlight transferable skills, like time management, customer service, and problem-solving.
- Beyond just knowing you have experience, hiring managers want to know if you were a successful retail sales associate. Look for ways to demonstrate your achievements in your experienced retail sales associate resume.
- Instead of just listing responsibilities, include any achievements, too. Were you a top salesperson in your store? Did you increase your customer review rating? Did you cross-sell effectively and increase revenue? All of these are great examples to include!
Why this resume works
- It might feel weird to write about yourself, especially when explaining why someone should hire you, but your senior sales analyst resume isn’t the place to be shy.
- Include a resume summary (also called a career summary) if you can boast 10+ years of field experience. Make it a concise, customized snapshot of yourself by including your specializations, defining expertise, and mentioning the target business by name.
- Try adding metrics to your resume to boost your impact and make your resume easier to read.
- You can include the number of employees you manage or mentor, the rate at which you’ve increased revenue, the rate at which employees have hit sales targets during your tenure, the number of departments you collaborate with, the number of monthly presentations you give, and any other metrics that showcase how you’ve improved company performance.
Why this resume works
- Your passion for streamlining processes to optimizing resources should come out strongly in your VP of sales resume. Most importantly, your ability to motivate the sales team should be highlighted if you’re looking to get hired at a dynamic company like Cree.
- A good example is the training program you initiated, which boosted team morale and overall productivity by 38 percent.
Why this resume works
- Hard figures underscoring your impact would be a powerful way to present your pharmaceutical sales resume. It’s evidence that you are equal to the task and employers would swiftly hire you.
- Did you help expand market share? Did you leverage technology to help close more sales deals? Add all that in and sit back as your past success elevates your candidacy to the top of the shortlisted applicants.
Why this resume works
- The insurance space is a fast-paced environment that thrives on cut-throat competition to win over business. Therefore, for your insurance sales resume to have a fair chance of winning the job, you must show your unmatched mastery of niche tools.
- Highlight how you’ve tapped InsurGrid, NowCerts, ClearSlide, etc. to improve customer service, and attract and retain customers. Also, back your competencies with realistic figures that underscore your impact.
Why this resume works
- Before customizing your tech sales resume, look at what the company expects from the applicants. Carefully read the job description, and tailor your previous experience and achievements (hint: increasing social and foot traffic, outreach success, qualified leads and engagements).
- Be bold, like Asher, in showing off to what extent your skills and knowledge contributed to the company’s sales department.
Why this resume works
- As a sales representative, you know that first impressions count. Your resume is your first impression to your future employer, so make sure it’s professional and tidy.
- Make sure every section of your sales representative resume is easy to read and distinguish by either capitalizing them, bolding them, or using a colored font.
- Hiring managers typically receive many applications upon submitting a sales rep job description. Unfortunately, they don’t have time to carefully read every job applicant’s documents.
- Any mistakes will be easy to see and will hurt your chances of getting an interview. So, always check your resume before you submit it!
Why this resume works
- Managers have many duties, so you must demonstrate increased responsibility throughout your career.
- Focus your work experience on your sales achievements and management expertise. Even if you have no sales management experience, you can still show off your sales skills and leadership qualities wherever it was that you worked.
- When writing your sales manager resume, you should demonstrate ownership in your actions. One great way to do that is through the use of action verbs like “built,” “developed,” and “led” in your work experience bullet points.
- When you can, include metrics that quantify your success. Saying you conducted meetings is one thing, but conducting meetings that resulted in a 14% increase in leads is another.
Why this resume works
- You can include a lot on your digital sales resume, but don’t go overboard. Hiring managers will only have time to skim one page, so make your content count.
- A good resume template will help you structure your content effectively, but be aware of spacing—even a good resume template won’t help if your text is too tiny to read or spreads into the margins.
- The nature of digital sales means you shouldn’t be short on finding quantitative metrics to demonstrate your value in your job description bullet points.
- If you’re stumped on what numbers to include, consider these options: response time, the number of active accounts, size of the average account, churn dollars, team size, ROI, social media post engagement, the number of products you know, and how many awards you’ve won.
Why this resume works
- As a sales strategist, you may wonder how to demonstrate your qualifications to snag the role. Before you get stuck on too many “what-ifs,” consider looking for inspiration.
- There are many good resume examples if you know where to look, and they can help you break out of your writer’s block funk. Take a look and get some inspiration!
- Moreover, you can ask some co-workers to help you, too! They can help you decide what metrics to include and how to sound confident but not arrogant.
- Your experience also plays a role in your sales strategist resume.
- For example, if you’re a senior-level employee, you don’t need to include much in your education section, but you should include more work experience bullet points.
- However, if you’re new to the field, you can include your GPA and educational awards while minimizing your work experience in favor of projects.
Why this resume works
- One of the most crucial resume tips we offer involves your contact header. Every profession differs in what they value, but in the case of a sales consultant, you should include a LinkedIn address to get a hiring manager’s notice.
- A strong network on LinkedIn indicates that you’re good at building professional relationships, which is an essential element of sales.
- If you haven’t updated your LinkedIn in a while, make sure you do that as soon as possible.
- Your sales consultant resume should incorporate the skills listed in the skills section throughout your work experience entries.
- For example, you can talk about unveiling events for clients, creating working relationships, and building up networks. These details demonstrate that strong customer rapport is, in fact, a skill you possess.
Why this resume works
- Every resume, no matter the profession, must be tailored to individual job descriptions, and a sales engineer is no exception.
- For example, if the job you’re applying to emphasizes the importance of using CRM software or building long-lasting relationships with customers, emphasize these skills in your skills section.
- Focus on including hard skills similar to the ones used in the sales job description.
- Not sure if you should include a resume objective on your sales engineer resume? Consider these tips to decide whether it’s worth the space (and time) to write an objective:
- If you’re just starting your career in sales engineering OR transitioning to a different type of role, include an objective.
- If none of the above applies, leave it out in favor of more work experience.
Why this resume works
- When looking for a sales executive, a company will focus on results, so your sales director resume must include hard numbers to demonstrate how you’ve made a positive impact.
- Don’t forget to list accomplishments related to leading people and building customer relationships, starting by recording how many customers you helped or how many people you led. Then look for percentages relating to KPIs from there.
- Beyond hard numbers, a director-level sales position requires certain soft skills, including leadership and people management.
- If you’re stuck on what to include in your resume skills section, go back to the sales job description and see what soft skills they require, whether explicitly stated or implied.
Why this resume works
- Sales professionals live and breathe according to numbers, but demonstrating your knowledge of what drives those numbers will place you a cut above the rest.
- Good examples include the number of new accounts you opened, conversion rate, retention rate, lead generation performance, and overall growth.
- Sales revenue is the main statistic related to every sales position, but make sure you venture outside the box to include other metrics, too.
- No matter what content you include, your outside sales resume needs to be error-free.
- You’d be amazed at what tiny typos and punctuation errors can slip through without your noticing, and employers will appreciate your attention to detail!
- Run your resume through a resume checker or spellcheck system, then proofread it again with your own eyes.
Why this resume works
- While your software sales representative resume is bound to emphasize interpersonal skills, there’s value in the numbers, too! A software-focused sales recruiter will want to see quantifiable accomplishments.
- For example, did you exceed your sales quotes, and if so, how many times? How much did you increase profits for the company?
- Provide details that prove you can boost numbers at the next company you’ll work for!
- Striking a good balance between hard and soft skills in your resume’s skills section is tricky, but it’s more doable than you might think!
- If you can, shoot for half and half between technical and soft skills, but if you’re an entry-level candidate, it’s okay to have more soft skills.
- As a software sales rep, you should include the programming languages you know, plus soft skills like “negotiation” and “interpersonal communication.”
Why this resume works
- For a successful career in sales, you’ll want your communication and persuasion skills to shine just as brightly as your technical knowledge. Be sure you include some of both in your fragrance sales associate resume.
Why this resume works
- Sales are all about the numbers. When you’ve brought about tangible positive results at your past workplaces, it speaks to how effective you are as a salesperson and should be touted in your sales development representative resume.
Related resume guides
Writing Your Sales Resume
Proper formatting ensures your resume is readable, logical, and complete. If you neglect the formatting, you risk potential employers not taking your application seriously (or not even seeing your resume). When it comes to formatting, remember the following:
- Choose one of three resume format options
- Draw attention to your resume header
- Make your sales resume accessible for the ATS and employers
Overall resume format options
Hiring managers’ preferences tend to change over time, but for 2024, it’s clear that three resume formats are the most popular:
- Reverse-chronological format: This format emphasizes your most recent experience by placing work experience toward the top of your resume. Ordering your experience this way highlights career growth and development.
- Functional format: A functional format stresses skills over work experience. This type of format may be appealing if you have little work experience or if there are gaps in your employment.
- Combination/hybrid format: This type combines reverse-chronological and functional formatting, placing equal weight on job history and skills, but it can be hard to read because of this.
Though all three types are popular, hiring managers prefer the reverse-chronological format. It’s easy to read, underscores career growth, and looks honest regarding your job experience.
Draw attention to your resume header
Presenting your contact information may seem unimportant. However, this is the most important information in your resume; without it, how can you expect hiring managers to tell you “you’re hired?” Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the importance of an accurate and beautiful resume header.
Start by aligning your header either to the left or center. Then write your name in a large font size so you can see it from far away.
Right below your name, include your job title in a slightly smaller font. Then if you like, you can tastefully add some color to show your personality. (We love cobalt blue and buttercup yellow, but we’re a bit biased.)
Underneath your name and title, list your contact information. Keep the text the same font size as the body of your resume, and consider including a border (with or without color) to make it pop. This section should include:
- Your email (make sure it’s professional and not something like “puppiesarecool@aol.com”)
- Phone number (with an area code)
- City & State (optional but recommended)
- Professional links to portfolios or sites like LinkedIn (optional but recommended)
Make your sales resume accessible to the ATS and employers
Once you upload your resume to an online job application, it won’t go straight to a hiring manager’s desk. Instead, it will go through the ATS, or Applicant Tracking System software.
This system uses keywords in your resume to determine your likelihood of being a good fit for a particular sales job. If you don’t pass the ATS scan, it’s doubtful you’ll get an interview.
To get past the software and reach human eyes, pay attention to:
- Margins: Use standard half-inch or one-inch margins all around.
- Fonts: Use professional, easy-to-read fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, or Georgia.
- Font sizes: The body of your resume should be the smallest font at around 12-point, your job title should be 20-point font, and your name should be approximately 24-point font.
- Header names: Instead of adjusting font size for section headers, try bolding them or using all caps.
- Skills: You can list them in a horizontal or vertical list; we recommend using bullet points in a vertical list unless you lack space.
- Logical order: As we suggested earlier, we recommend a reverse-chronological format since it’s easy for the ATS to scan.
- One page: You must fill one page exactly. You can slightly adjust fonts, font sizes (just a touch), vertical spacing, and margins to hit this target.
If you’re struggling to build your resume with enough content and proper formatting, remember this: the most important thing is to ensure your resume is read. If you have to cut content to keep your formatting easy to read, do it.
Do you really need an objective or summary?
Contrary to sources floating around the internet, there is a difference between a resume objective and a resume summary. Both are short paragraphs written explicitly for every application you submit, but there are a few key differences between them.
An objective identifies why you’d like to work for the company under the specific job title for which you’re applying. A summary highlights the skills you possess and what achievements you’ve earned within your past positions.
Objectives and summaries are strictly optional, but there are a few instances where adding one would help.
- Consider including an objective if you’re seeking an entry-level role or are transitioning careers.
- Consider using a summary best suited if you have 10+ years of sales experience.
Customized resume objective: Seasoned floor salesperson with 4+ years of experience hitting sales 7% above targets. Seeking a position with Neiman Marcus, where my specialization in high-end retail will continue the tradition of upholding the highest standard of luxury retail experiences for clientele.
- This objective is specific to the job and includes a customized job title, quantified metrics, specific skill sets, and the company name. It adds real value and will impress any hiring manager.
Poor summary statement: Dedicated applicant with experience in sales and marketing looking for a sales associate role to improve customer service skills.
- This statement is anything but specific, and it could be on any number of sales resumes. More than just that, it doesn’t highlight any skills or qualifications beyond dedication. Major yikes.
Customized summary statement: Results-driven sales associate with 13+ years of experience developing rapport and good customer relations. Leveraged top marketing strategies to yield results, performing in the top 5% of sales associates at all workplaces for over a decade. From informing customers about purchases to designing trending storefront decor, I am confident that my proven excellence in results-driven sales strategies would positively impact the movement of products at Decor 101.
- This summary statement is customized and unique, including specific skills and quantifiable metrics to support their claims; this candidate is a top choice for an interview.
Know what to include in your job experience section
When writing your sales resume, you may be tempted to include every job you’ve had since you were 16. Though this may be an appropriate choice if you have limited job experience, we recommend including two to four highly relevant jobs on your sales resume if you have more experience.
Write your work experience bullet points purposefully
When you write your work experience section, remember that space is crucial. To take up less room, use bullet points to break up chunks of text. Start each bullet point with an action verb, such as “oversaw” or “championed,” to drive your value (and cut filler).
Using action verbs will also lay the foundation for using active (rather than passive) voice. For example, a passive sentence like “The store was closed by the sales team” sounds weak and boring. Active voice gives agency to the subject and shortens the statement: “The sales team closed the store.”
Avoid personal pronouns when writing about your experience, such as “I” or “we.” Ending punctuation is up to you—just be consistent. (Avoid having periods at the end of all your bullet points except for one, for example).
Finally, keep your verb tense in the past, and make sure it’s consistent.
Good bullet points can look like any of these examples:
- Executed an outbound calling strategy to warm leads, leading to a close rate of 16%, which exceeded targets by 50%
- Implemented and expanded the use of Salesforce, saving over 18 hours of weekly manual reporting time by sales staff
- Led initiatives for prospective home buyers to improve brand awareness and increase inbound customer interest, resulting in a $275,000+ increase in incremental revenue
These bullet points are successful because they start with action words, maintain an active voice, avoid personal pronouns, and are consistent with punctuation and tenses.
Getting these things correct is tricky, but you can return to this guide anytime to review these tips!
Use numbers to your advantage
You may have noticed that all the bullet point examples we included contain numbers. Metrics are essential for any resume, but especially your sales resume. Words tell hiring managers you’re good at your job, but numbers show undeniable value. Include quantified metrics within at least 50 percent of your bullet points.
Here’s how:
- Performance relative to targets: Have you ever or do you consistently outperform sales targets? By what percentage do you exceed targets on average?
- Improvements per customer: Do your customers have higher purchase totals than others? Are they making more repeat purchases than customers helped by other sales associates? What’s your close rate?
- Efficiency standards: How many customers do you help on average, per hour, day, or week? How long does it typically take you to make a sale? How many seconds does it take you to greet customers?
- Customer relations: How many customers have reviewed you positively on customer surveys? Have any customers mentioned you by name in positive reviews?
It helps to see these tips in practice, so here are some examples:
- Improved the shopper-to-customer conversion rate of the store by 6% by prioritizing immediate customer service of inbound customers
- Responded to customer questions with a detailed understanding of products, resulting in a customer satisfaction rating of 96%
- Recognized as a Top 5% Salesperson in the most heavily trafficked Kay’s store in Maine
- Exceeded annual membership targets by 23% by encouraging a compassionate, customer-centered approach
Select appropriate sales skills for your resume
The skills section is one of the shortest sections on your resume and one of the most mysterious. Unfortunately, the ATS plays a big part in this section since it scans your resume for pre-selected keywords.
Not enough keywords? Not the right keywords? ATS wins, 1 to 0.
We’re here to shed light on this mystery using a simple trick. When writing your skills, choose those mentioned in the sales job description. Of course, don’t include every skill they list, but use the job description to guide your strengths.
Ideally, include a mix of both hard and soft skills for a total of six to 10 skills. Hard skills are easier to measure, so we recommend listing mostly hard skills. However, soft skills, such as “organization” and “customer service,” are critical in a sales role, so include a few that match your abilities.
Let’s put this trick into practice! Here’s an excerpt from a sales job description:
Seeking qualified sales associates! Our ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced work environment and can maintain a positive, upbeat attitude with co-workers and customers under stressful situations. Must utilize standard software to track and follow up with leads. Should be charismatic, comfortable with public speaking, and have a solid ability to memorize merchandise details and answer complex customer questions. We serve a predominantly Hispanic population, so Spanish speakers, please apply!
From this job description, we can create a list of skills that would be particularly appropriate for this job position:
- Salesforce and HubSpot CRM
- Bilingual (Native English, Fluent Spanish)
- Customer relations
- Interpersonal communication
- Product knowledge
- Sales demos and pitches
- Time management
No matter the job you’re applying for, you’re likely to see some of these skills:
- Cold-prospecting
- Negotiation
- Work stream management
- CRM
- Trend forecasting
- SQL
- Traditional lead-generation
- Tableau
- Presentations
Education, certs, interests, and hobbies
In sales, employers typically only require a high school diploma or equivalent. However, specific educational requirements will vary widely in such a large field. Some employers will seek applicants with a bachelor’s degree in business or even an MBA.
So in your sales resume, list your highest level of education. If you have a graduate degree, you can include both it and your undergrad degree.
If you have any certifications or additional training, such as software certification for a particular type of CRM, you can include that, too, although it isn’t required.
Typically, sales professionals don’t include an optional interests and hobbies section on their resumes, but there are a few circumstances where it may be appropriate:
- Consider adding hobbies if the job you’re applying to is known for valuing employee individuality.
- Hobbies can demonstrate that you’re the type of person a potential customer might enjoy chatting with, which is a bonus for employers.
- Use projects, like volunteering or academic extracurriculars, in place of work experience if you’re light on jobs.
Here’s an example of what projects could look like on your sales resume:
Tailor your sales resume to the job description
Remember to customize your resume every time you apply for a job. Tailoring your resume to the job description is the best way to land an interview quickly.
Start by reworking your resume objective or summary statement (if you have one). Then adjust your skills section to include skills relevant to the role. Finally, adjust your job description bullet points to include relevant qualifications.
For instance, if a job description mentions they’re looking for a sales representative who can begin giving presentations on day one, emphasize your comfort in public speaking roles. Highlight your previous presentation experience, and perhaps de-emphasize the data analysis skillset that is less relevant to this job.
Pro tip: You can keep a master list of bullet points for each job title in a separate document. Write down as many skills and responsibilities as you can for every job title, and organize them based on their emphasis (time management, customer relations, data analysis, etc.). Then you can pull from this document to create fully-customized resumes quickly.
Edit and polish your sales resume
When finished writing your resume, it’s tempting to submit it immediately, but it’s best to take a step away first. Give your eyes and mind a rest for a day, and send your resume to trusted family and friends for review. Then you can adjust your content and check your resume for errors before you submit; that way, you don’t miss the little details you may have inadvertently overlooked!
Ready for the Next Step?
The first step to having an interview-ready, professional sales resume is to take the time to research and prepare. Congratulations on helping out your future self by using our guide!
Our easy-to-use resume builder will allow you to build your resume from the ground up with perfect formatting, so you can save serious time and focus on your next sales job. If you’re ready to find out how your resume stacks up, use our resume checker to give you AI-powered suggestions to polish your resume to perfection.
We know that wherever you get hired, you’ll be helping customers and growing revenue in no time!
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