Sell Your Abilities With These Sales Resume Examples and Tips

Whether you’re just starting out on your professional journey with an entry-level sales job or you’re a seasoned sales professional looking for a promotion, your sales resume is essential for your job search. It provides you with the perfect opportunity to leave a memorable first impression with the employer and sells your greatest strengths, skills and expertise.

To help you create a winning sales resume, our page will provide:

• Expert sales resume examples you can use as a foundation for your own resume.
• Step-by-step guidance for writing your own sales resume.
• Tips on formatting and writing a cover letter to accompany your resume.

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Sales resumes allow recruiters to evaluate a job seeker’s sales skills and qualifications, and determine if they’re a good match for the sales position and the company. So whether you’re applying to a sales associate, sales representative or even sales manager position, your goal for your resume should be to sell your sales skills and work experience in the most persuasive and simple-to-follow way.

Employers use sales resumes to get an in-depth look into each candidate’s skills, qualifications and experience, and what sets each candidate apart. For this reason, your sales resume needs to showcase the following elements:

• Your soft skills as they relate to sales and the job description.
• Your sales-industry-specific hard skills.
• Your professional achievements, and how your sales skills and competencies contributed to them.
• Any accomplishments that relate to the job description.
• Your education, years of experience in sales and any other achievements that showcase your sales career goals.

Use one of the three resume formats to write your sales resume:

• Chronological resume: The most widely used format, perfect for job seekers with more than five years of work experience. The chronological resume format focuses on your work history and career growth, so it’s excellent for senior sales associates or sales managers.
• Functional resume: On the other hand, the functional resume format is better for candidates who have less than two years of experience. This format revolves around skills as opposed to work experience, so it’s a great option if you want to assure the potential employer that you have the skills needed for sales.
• Combination resume: Also known as the hybrid resume, this format is a combination of the chronological and functional resumes. It’s best for mid-level job seekers with a few years of experience, as it puts equal focus on the work history section and skills set.

Some other resume formatting tips to keep in mind:

• Choose a professional font. The best way to maintain the hiring manager’s attention is by using a readable and professional font like Arial, Times New Roman or Helvetica.
• Stay consistent with the margins. Your sales resume should have 1-inch margins all around but you can take them down half an inch if you need more space.
• Use a readable font size. Recruiters and hiring managers should be able to read your resume. Keep the body text to 11-12 points, the subheadings between 14-15 and your name between 16 or 18.
• Keep the spacing right. Stick to a single or 1.5 spacing between lines.
• Send your resume in the correct format. Usually, saving and submitting your sales resume as a PDF or MS Word format is the best way to go, but check the job description just in case the potential employer requests a different format.

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Whether you’re looking to land your first sales job or excel at your current sales job and advance your professional sales career, your resume is essential for your job search. Therefore, your sales resume needs to include the vital elements that sell your greatest strengths and sales skills related to the job description while attracting the attention of hiring managers and impressing potential employers.

1. Header and contact information

Write your phone number and professional email address in the header. If you have a LinkedIn profile, you can add the social media handle to your header but only do it if it’s relevant to the job and will add value to your job application.

2. Resume summary/resume objective

Next, it’s time to decide whether to write a resume summary or a resume objective.

A resume summary is a two- to three-sentence paragraph that highlights your top qualifications and relevant sales skills that set you apart from other candidates. It’s ideal for job seekers who have more than two years of experience in sales. For example:

Friendly sales representative with six years of work experience in customer service. Able to build rapport with customers and effectively suggest products, work together with coworkers to achieve monthly goals and manage stock. Strong interpersonal skills, active listening skills and organization skills.

A resume objective works similarly to a resume summary but in addition to stating your relevant skills and top qualifications, you also include your career goals. It’s better for candidates with less than two years of work experience or changing careers.

Hardworking college graduate with a B.A. in biochemistry seeking entry-level sales role in health care industry. Able to prepare reports, meet sales goals and travel as required. Skilled communicator and quick learner.

3. Skills section

Use your sales resume’s skills section to describe and highlight your relevant sales skills. The following are some of the most essential and sought-after sales skills that employers seek in candidates:

• Effective and persuasive verbal, written and nonverbal communication skills
• Sales software expertise
• Product knowledge
• Active listening
• Problem-solving skills
• Time management
• Strategic and critical thinking skills
• Leadership
• Self-motivation
• Business knowledge
• Cold calling
• Customer retention
• Marketing expertise
• Project management skills
• Customer relationship management skills
• Sales pitch expertise

4. Work experience section

In your work history section, weave your sales skills into your accomplishments by showing specific examples of how you used your abilities to achieve positive outcomes and success. Use keywords and phrases from the job description when appropriate, as this will increase your chances of making it past applicant tracking systems (ATS) most employers use to filter resumes.

You can make the most out of your work history section by:

• Keeping your bullet points concise.
• Using action verbs (like organized, managed or communicated) at the beginning of your statements.
• Using numerical evidence to showcase your sales expertise and competencies.
• Tailoring your professional resume to the job description and company.

Use this example of a sales resume work history section as a base or follow the sales resume examples on this page:

Salesperson / June 2020 – July 2022
Fresh Boutique, Chicago, IL

• Exceeded quarterly sales quota by 30%, the highest in the sales team
• Regularly made suggestions to customers in a friendly and approachable manner.
• Achieved customer satisfaction ratings of 4.8/5 every trimester by effectively meeting customer needs.

5. Education

Include your highest education credentials in your education section. If you finished your college degree, you don’t need to list your high school diploma or your GPA, unless the latter is extremely relevant to the field. If you graduated from university more than 10 years ago, there’s no need to include the graduation date.

6. Additional sections

If you have any relevant sales certifications, awards or other sales achievements, then you should showcase them in a separate section of your resume.

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Below is a list of great sales resume samples by job title that you can use to perfect your own sales resume. At ResumeHelp, we have hundreds of resume examples for other jobs and industries.

• Sales Associate
• Account Sales Manager
• Sales Representative
• Retail Sales Associate
• Sales Manager

We have additional resources, articles and guides for writing a great sales resume.

• Resume Builder: Take the guesswork out of writing a sales resume with our user-friendly builder.
• How to Write a Resume: Follow our expert resume writing guide to create the best sales resume.
• Resume Design: Read our article for the best resume design tips and guidance.
• Resume References: Learn all the tips and tricks to writing professional references for your resume.
• How Long Should a Resume Be: Click to read our answer to the age-old question.

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No job application is complete without a professional cover letter. Pair your sales resume with the best cover letter using our resources.

• How to Write a Cover Letter: Present your strengths and achievements to the potential employer using our cover letter writing guide.
• Cover Letter Builder: Follow the step-by-step instructions of our cover letter builder and write a cover letter in a couple of minutes.
• Cover Letter Templates: Dozens of professional cover letter templates to pair with our resume template.
• Cover Letter Format: Learn our expert cover letter formatting tips and make sure your letter looks as great as it reads.
• Cover Letter Examples: Find hundreds of examples for different jobs and industries.

Before we wrap up, let’s quickly go over what this article covered:

1. 1. Tailor your sales resume to the job description.
2. 2. Highlight your top skills and work experience in the resume summary or resume objective.
3. 3. Include a mixture of six to eight hard skills and soft skills.
4. 4. Impress the hiring manager with work achievements and major responsibilities in your work experience section.
5. 5. Start your statements with action verbs.
6. 6. Only list your latest education credentials. No need to include the graduation date if you graduated more than 10 years ago.
7. 7. Make sure the font you’re using is professional.
8. 8. Choose the best resume format for your years of experience.
9. 9. Create additional sections for your sales resume if you have relevant certifications or trainings.
10. 10. Every sales resume needs a cover letter to solidify your sales experience.

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