Dealing with Problem Areas on the Résumé

Not every salesperson has a smooth career track and perfect credentials. When creating your résumé, there may be issues within your work history that you do not wish to focus on, much less have a prospective employer scrutinize. Perhaps you took a lateral move within your company or transferred to another territory. Did you take time off for maternity/parental leave? How do you account for less than sterling sales performance or what if you were terminated from your last sales position?

Although these issues many loom large on your horizon, it’s important to be realistic. Whatever has happened in the past is in the past and you cannot change history. Your best course of action is to downplay any areas of perceived weakness without being untruthful. Remember facts can be checked. If you lie and the prospective employer finds out you will be eliminated during the selection process or if you are hired, your actions may result in termination.

Listed below are a few suggestions on how to deal with specific problems:

Age
Discrimination on the basis of age is illegal under all federal and provincial human rights legislation, yet it remains a valid concern amongst job seekers. Salespeople who possess a great deal of sales experience may be concerned that their maturity and experience may not be valued and may count against them, especially if the sales manager or Sales VP is younger than themselves.

If you are concerned about an employer’s perception that you are too “old,” you can avoid making your age obvious by:

• Omitting dates of college/university graduation
• Only listing dates from the 1970’s onward
• Bracketing your experience over a 10-20 year span and leaving off earlier experiences
• Summarizing your early job experiences under the heading “Prior Experience”
• Incomplete or lack of post-secondary education

One of the criteria frequently listed under the heading of “Desired Qualifications” in many employment ads is “A college or university degree is preferred.” If for whatever circumstances you do not possess a diploma or degree, don’t panic or assume you are automatically out of the running for the sales position. Your lack of post-secondary achievement is usually only an issue with recruiters who have to match candidates against a “shopping list” of necessary criteria demanded by their client.

If you are self-conscious about your lack of post-secondary education, substitute the heading “Continuing Education” on your resume.

If you have attended college or university, but never graduated or if you are currently enrolled, you can adapt the following examples and put them on your résumé:

--UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Enrolled in general business studies.

--SENECA COLLEGE
Completed 50% of requirements towards a Diploma in Marketing Studies. Graduation date 2003.

--RYERSON POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, University of Toronto, Humber College.
Course work in Marketing, Sales and Economics, 1990-1997

Lack of work experience in the industry or service sector
If you have a lot of sales experience and documented accomplishments in one specific industry or sector but you have little direct experience in the industry you are targeting, emphasize the non-paid experience or knowledge you do possess. Mention the courses you have taken, special projects, association activities or other ways you can think of to demonstrate your understanding of the industry.

Sales experience lasting less than one year
Every company needs salespeople. Unfortunately many dot.com and high tech start-ups hired salespeople at a furious pace and when the market meltdown occurred, many salespeople found themselves unemployed for the first time in their careers.

This area is of concern as hiring managers discard résumés if they detect a lack of loyalty to an employer. To put a more positive spin on things, consider:

• Eliminating one or more of your sales jobs, only if such an omission does not leave too large a gap that may be questioned by a sales manager. A good rule of thumb is to list all the years you’ve worked in descending chronological order but not the months. Resumes of IT professionals tend to list months for specific positions because they accept many short-term and contract opportunities.
• Adding an explanation on your résumé (e.g. “Acquisition by Maple Leaf Foods eliminated all regional salespeople in the fall of 2001” or “Downsized when product failed to meet parent company’s expectations.”)

Downsizing is the norm these days and a perfectly valid reason why many sales managers are engaged in an active job search. Chances are the person you are sending your resume to has also been downsized or knows of someone who has been.

Lack of sales success in previous sales position
One of the key characteristics of successful salespeople is their sense of responsibility and their unwillingness to be a victim and blame circumstances or other people for their failures. If you were not successful in your previous sales role, don’t offer excuses on your résumé. It looks lame. Instead try the following:

• Highlight your successes but don’t go overboard. For example: “Increased revenues by 5% over a one year period.” “Retained all 130 existing accounts in a depressed market.”
• Termination due to lay-off or poor performance

If you were fired for poor sale performance or were the only salesperson laid-off from amongst your colleagues, highlight what you were able to achieve or learn in your tenure on the job. For example:

• “Independently developed key account strategy to pursue Bombardier business despite corporate reluctance to pursue this account.”
• “Developed and pursued leads through research, direct main, cold calling, and networking and began the relationship building process that is the first step in this industry’s lengthy sales cycle.”
• Lateral transfers or reassignment to a less prestigious division or department.

Whenever you open up the business pages of your newspaper hardly a week goes by with rumours or announcements of mergers and acquisitions. Within some industries (e.g. high-tech, telecommunications, banking, commercial food) this has been a sign of the times. How do you put a positive spin on the situation if you have been transferred or demoted?

• Transfer from outside sales to inside sales
  “Selected to lead Magna’s reorganization of its internal sales operations.”
• Reassignment to a lesser territory
  “Retained by Kraft foods following acquisition of Nabisco and challenged to increase sales of a minor brand in the Atlantic region.”
• Transitioning from being a sales agent to becoming an employed sales professional or executive.

An independent sales agent is an individual who represents one or several lines of products from various companies in a specific geographic territory or market segment. Sometimes agents decide to make a career change from small business owner to full-time sales or management.

If you are transitioning from an entrepreneurial venture or if you have had a sole proprietorship, you may want to avoid using “Owner” for a job title and use job titles that reflect primary areas of responsibility. For instance use job titles such as “President” or “Chief Consultant.”

Under the job title “President” you may indicate by writing:

“Founded organization specializing in the distribution of specialty wood-turning products. Shepherded business through start-up phase to current level of success: an established operation employing a staff of 2 with a developed customer list of over 350 accounts in Southwestern Ontario.”

If you want to distinguish between specific areas of activity, use job titles like “Sales Manager” or “Business Development Manager” to match those titles featured in the job ad for full-time sales employment. For example:

Sales Manager
“Managed all business activities and sales functions for a manufacturer’s representative firm marketing industrial equipment in 4 western provinces.”

Sales Representative
“Solicited 3 new and complimentary product lines and added them to existing lines, increasing business by 37%.”

New Business Development
“Developed business growth strategies and marketing plans that increased product demand by 85% without incremental investment.”

“Expanded territory from original 2 provinces after 22 months.”

The purpose of the above suggestions is not to mislead interviewers but to minimize weak areas and give you the opportunity to impress interviewers in a face-to-face interview. These topics may come up in the actual interview but if you prepare answers in advance you have a better than even chance of reinforcing your confidence.

©Sales Resource Centre, Canadian Professional Sales Association, 2001.