Creating a Sales Résumé for the Web

Years ago what mattered most to employers about a sales résumé was detail or in other words the quality of your experience and how you expressed it in writing.

Times have changed. Companies are still looking for highly qualified and effective salespeople but the nature of the how they find these candidates has changed. These days, an ad in the local paper coupled with an Internet posting linked to half a dozen online classified advertising services may draw 500 to 1,000 responses, especially when economic conditions are less than favourable. This poses a problem for the hiring organization who cannot conceivably go through and assess the qualifications and experience for each applicant.

What does this mean to you as an experienced salesperson? It means two things: one you have to know the process behind how companies assess résumés; and two, you have to create a résumé that stands out from amongst the pile.

According to the CPSA’s Guide to Hiring Winning Salespeople, the employer’s first impressions of an applicant come from his/her résumé. Companies look at the following:

• Appearance of the résumé (neatness, clarity, consistency, errors)
• Timeliness of the response (e.g. Was the application submitted by the deadline?)
• Delivery of the application (Was it hand-delivered, mailed, faxed or emailed?)
• Meeting minimum requirements that the company has established for the position.

Your should look upon your résumé as a marketing document, carefully crafted to promote your features and benefits to potential buyers (read employers). The goal of the résumé is not to land you a new position, rather it is designed to generate interviews. It must quickly tell the interviewer that you are a "good fit" for the sales position, given your previous sales experience and your future aspirations. Your résumé must clearly point out why you are potentially better than any of the other candidates.

Getting Ready to Write
Before writing your résumé, write down these five questions and post them where they are easily seen.

1. What do you want to do in the next year? Two years? Five years?
2. What have you done in the past?
3. How and by how much have you increased sales revenues, decreased costs, saved time for your previous employers?
4. What kind of education, sales training or professional designation(s) have you pursued and/or attained?
5. How can an employer reach you?

If your résumé is laid out in such a way that the employer can get these answers in a 20 second skim, you have a better than even chance of securing an interview.

©Sales Resource Centre. Canadian Professional Sales Association, 2002.