How to Sell Yourself on Your Sales Resume

Are you thinking about a career in sales? Looking for a change or a new sales opportunity? If so, you 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.

Selling yourself on paper is considerably more difficult than selling a product or service on the telephone or in person. The Canadian Professional Sales Association (CPSA) has put together the following tips to help you create a winning résumé:

Remember your audience. Generally, the people who screen sales resumes at medium and large companies do not work in sales. They may be recruiters, members of the HR department, personal assistants, sales co-ordinators or others. You have to sell yourself to these gatekeepers first before you reach the ultimate decision-maker. You only have one opportunity to make a first impression, so pay attention to:

• 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.

Document your record of success. Within today’s competitive marketplace, sales executives cannot afford to make a hiring mistake. They are interested in candidates with a documented record of sales achievements. For job seekers this means being able to show, not just tell, what they can do. Don’t be shy in detailing your achievements and putting them into context. To help you, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my sales performance? How much have I increased sales, over what period, and by how much?
• Have I increased my client base? If so, by how many?
• How did I go about increasing profitability amongst my clients? What value did I bring to my clients?
• Have I won any sales awards?
• Am I responsible for a sales planning? Specific month-end procedures?

Take the space you need. One page résumés for people with more than seven years of sales experience are inappropriate. As a sales professional, you need to ensure that your résumé reflects your achievements in your present and previous sales roles along with highlighting all of the skills you bring to the table. The reason? Companies are seeking to hire one individual to fill what was once several different sales roles. Think in terms of two to three pages.

Avoid using hackneyed expressions. Terms such as team-player are meaningless on a sales résumé unless you put them into a proper context. You are better off citing specific examples that demonstrate these traits.

List your work experience in reverse chronological order. By starting with your most recent experience you can highlight your advancement and added responsibilities in a more favourable light.

By following the above tips you can create a winning sales résumé that can mean the difference between winning your sales dream job or settling for a mediocre position. Good luck from CPSA!

©Sales Resource Centre. Canadian Professional Sales Association, 2004.