How to Write a Sales Resume: Avoiding Top Mistakes

According to CareerPlug, the average job opening in 2024 generated 180 applicants. Our team of recruiters have collectively reviewed hundreds of thousands of sales resumes. To help our readers, we’ve turned this experience into our list of Top Sales Resume Mistakes. Your resume needs to include more than relevant qualifications. So what needs to be included on your resume and what should you avoid? Read on to find out.

Introduction to Sales Resumes

A well-crafted sales resume is essential for any sales professional looking to advance their career. It serves as a crucial tool in showcasing one’s sales qualifications, experience, and achievements to potential employers. A great sales resume should highlight the candidate’s ability to drive sales growth, exceed sales quotas, and build strong customer relationships. In this blog, we will explore the key elements of a compelling sales resume and provide tips on how to create a sales resume that grabs the attention of hiring managers. So let’s get to our top mistakes and focus on crafting a resume that generates interviews.

Sales Resume Structure

Before we get to our top 10 mistakes, we want to start with the structure of a sales resume. It is critical in making it easy to read and understand. A typical sales resume should include a professional summary, work experience, skills, education, and certifications. The work experience section should be reverse-chronological, with the most recent experience first. Each work experience entry should include a brief description of job responsibilities, sales achievements, and relevant skills used. For example, a sales representative resume should highlight lead generation, customer satisfaction, and sales revenue growth. A sales manager resume, on the other hand, should emphasize sales management experience, sales strategies, and team leadership.

Let’s get on to our Top 10 Sales Resume Mistakes.

1. Failure to include annual sales accomplishments: % to quota, rankings and/or awards.

It’s critical to quantify and highlight your sales successes with sales metrics. Otherwise you’re just another sales professional that worked at xyz, inc. Employers want to see numbers on your resume, not just words. For example,

• “Grew business from $507k in 2010 to $1,053,000 in 2011”.
• “Achieved 111% to quota, 2014.”
• “President’s Club 2013”

Without question, this is the worst of the sales resume mistakes you could make.

2. Rounded numbers and generalities.

When it comes to important accomplishments, being specific is imperative. “133% of quota in 2024” is much more believable than “above quota during entire tenure”.

Being a results-driven sales associate means providing specific, quantifiable achievements that demonstrate your effectiveness in meeting and exceeding sales goals.

3. Accomplishments listed at the end of the resume.

We’re not sure how this got popular, but it’s common to see a resume with a summary of a sales professional’s accomplishments from their career listed at the bottom of their resume. There’s two problems with this. 1. If the reader loses interest part-way through your resume, they’ll never see your accomplishments. 2. It can be difficult to figure out where each accomplishment occurred (which position). Make it easy on the recruiter or hiring manager and list your accomplishments with the position where they were earned. You can see a great example of this here – Free Sample Resume Resume Template. This grabs the hiring manager’s attention and ensures your achievements are noticed.

4. Use of personal pronouns within resume.

Example of what NOT to do:

“I work for a Fortune 500 company and my company is a leader in their field. I’ve achieved great success here in my current position and believe I can contribute greatly to an organization.”

Effective resume writing avoids personal pronouns and focuses on clear, concise language that highlights achievements and skills.

5. Use of paragraph format vs. bullet point format.

For hiring managers and recruiters alike, resumes that are written in a paragraph format are extremely difficult to read. Resumes that list specific accomplishments and other relevant information via bullet points are infinitely easier to digest and understand. Using the best sales resume template can help ensure your resume is well-organized and easy to read.

Example:

• 127% of 2024 quota.
• President’s Club Winner, 2024.

6. Making the resume too long.

Again, the average job receives 180 applicants. With recruiters juggling multiple searches it creates an environment where they are looking for reasons to opt out quickly and move onto the next resume. Keep your resume to one page tops.

7. Not including all relevant contact information.

Make sure to include all relevant contact information (including email) for job seekers. This is one of the simpler sales resume mistakes that we’ve seen cost a sales professional a shot at a job. And do include a link to your Linkedin Profile. Bonus points for optimizing your Linkedin Profile. Read how at our blog 3 Linkedin Profile Tips.

8. Failure to differentiate professional work experience from college experience.

No one wants to hire a job hopper. There are cases when a sales professional’s work history and employment history appear to be unstable due to positions held during college. If you are more than 5 years removed from graduation, these positions should be removed. If you aren’t, list your graduation date or clearly show that those positions were held during college.

9. Failure to show promotions.

It’s common practice to list the highest position held with an employer, including the job title. If you were promoted into that role be sure to show your career progress by breaking out the previous roles held or by outlining the accomplishment(s) in a specific bullet point. For example:

• Promoted 3x from Account Executive to Major Account Executive to National Account Executive.

10. Employment status not current.

If you aren’t currently employed with the last position listed on your resume, make sure your resume does not say “xxxx to Present.” Managers or recruiters, or prospective employers, may feel that you are misleading them if this information is not up-to-date. Once they start questioning a specific point, they might start questioning all of your points.

You can find more tips on crafting a sales resume that sells at our Top Ten Sales Resume Tips. Also check out our list of sales interview questions to prepare before your interview.

Professional Summary and Objective

The professional summary, also known as the objective, is a brief overview of the candidate’s sales experience, skills, and achievements. It should be tailored to the specific job description and highlight the candidate’s unique value proposition. A great sales resume summary should include relevant keywords from the job description, such as sales industry, sales skills, and customer service skills. For instance, a sales executive resume summary might read: “Results-driven sales executive with 5+ years of experience in driving sales growth, exceeding sales targets, and building strong customer relationships in the pharmaceutical sales industry.”

Skills and Keywords

The skills section of a sales resume should include a mix of hard and soft skills relevant to the sales industry. Hard skills might include sales software proficiency, data analysis, and sales strategies, while soft skills might include communication, negotiation, and customer service skills. It’s essential to use keywords from the job description to help the resume pass through applicant tracking systems (ATS) and catch the eye of hiring managers. For example, a sales associate resume might include skills such as lead generation, sales reports, and customer acquisition.

We have a blog on How to Use Sales Keywords. We also offer a DIY Sales Resume Optimization course that will help your resume get past ATS systems and land you more interviews.

Conclusion and Final Tips

In conclusion, a great sales resume is one that effectively showcases the candidate’s sales qualifications, experience, and achievements. To create a compelling sales resume, remember to tailor it to the specific job description, use relevant keywords, and highlight your unique value proposition. Use action verbs, numbers, and bullet points to make your resume easy to read and understand. Finally, proofread your resume carefully to ensure error-free formatting and content. By following these tips and using the right sales resume template, you’ll be well on your way to creating a sales resume that grabs the attention of hiring managers and helps you land your dream sales job. Remember to keep your sales resume concise, clear, and focused on your sales achievements, and don’t hesitate to use online resources, such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, to help you craft a winning sales resume.