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How to Highlight Your Sales Strengths on a Resume

Emphasizing strengths for your resume

There are a number of schools of thought on how to format your resume in a way that improves your chance of landing an interview. Each industry, and even each employer, have their formatting preferences.

As a job seeker, the best course of action is to do your research on what your industry prefers. If you’re looking for a position in a creative field, as a web developer or creative director, your resume should reflect your creativity. For the sales industry, your resume should highlight your successes and strengths in sales terminology. Here are some tips on how to format your resume:

Highlight relevant jobs, positions and experience only

If you’re applying for a position as CEO of a company, you wouldn’t highlight your summer jobs during college because it likely doesn’t showcase the skills needed for the job. The same is true as you apply for a sales position. Make sure to highlight prior positions that showcase the abilities and skills you would apply on the job.

For entry-level sales applicants just entering the workforce, highlight your attributes using specific examples that translate to a sales role, such as competitiveness, athleticism, creativity or an entrepreneurial mindset.

Demonstrate your successes in measurable ways

In sales, successes can occur on any given day. Include these on your resume to improve your chances of standing out from the crowd. These successes can include:

  • Meeting or exceeding monthly, quarterly and yearly sales quotas
  • Examples of where you dealt with a difficult customer
  • Proficiencies with a CRM
  • Your sales philosophy and strategy
  • Recognition received, such as a President’s Award

Don’t use vague terminology such as “results driven” or “team oriented.” Instead, describe in measurable terms how you achieved results and what were those results or how you collaborated with your team to improve specific initiatives.

Keep your resume design clean, organized and concise

When it comes to your resume design, nothing will deter a recruiter more than a poorly formatted, structured or overly long summary of your skills. Keep your resume design clean, organized and concise. Specifically recruiters look at education, past employers, years at former employers and key responsibilities. Highlight your strengths in these areas as close to the top of the resume as possible. If a recruiter needs to scroll through paragraphs to find why you stand out, chances are they won’t contact you.

Remember recruiters spend seconds scanning an individual resume to find the keywords they’re looking for. If these don’t match with the position, chances are you won’t get a call. Also, an organization’s applicant tracking system (ATS) is designed to pull certain keywords to determine the percentage match of each particular job available. Make sure to tailor your resume to include keywords you find in the job description.

Overall, no matter your format choice, keep it professional. Keep it concise. Highlight your strengths.

Happy Job Hunting!