This is a guest post from Sonja Hastings
When you submit your resume for a sales position, it’s actively competing against other applicants, deadlines, and distractions for attention. Ultimately, your resume needs to inspire the hiring manager to contact you. This means your resume has an enormous job to do in just a matter of seconds.
Don’t miss out on some of the best sales roles available. Make sure your sales resume is up to par by asking yourself the following questions:
- Where are the Numbers?
Putting sales stats on your resume is critical: quota, quota obtainment, and target sectors. This information is important for hiring companies. It gives them a better sense of your sales expertise. Stating the sales numbers, rather than leaving them out, will boost the one number that currently matters the most: the number of job opportunities you’re called about.
- What about color?
Use whatever font color you want on your resume. Just make sure you pick black. Resumes that stand out too much look like they don’t belong. It implies you might be trying too hard. Don’t let that be you. Wearing a suit to a baseball game certainly stands out, but not in a good way.
- Present or last day?
If you’ve left your job, don’t write, “–Present” on your resume. It’s better to state the facts so you don’t have to spend time explaining why you wrote to “-Present” when you left over two months ago. The relationship starts out on the wrong foot when you list “–Present” and you’re no longer working for your former employer.
- Are you using too many bullets, pages, or wordy sentences?
Resumes are read in seconds, not minutes. They’re competing for attention from multiple sources simultaneously. Your resume should work hard to earn attention by getting to the point and consolidating work history as much as possible. Boil it down, and edit, edit, edit!
- Is social recruiting costing you money?
The majority of employers will refer to your LinkedIn profile before contacting you. Make it easy for them to find you by including your LinkedIn URL on the top of your resume near your contact information. Complete your LinkedIn profile and be sure to include a professional headshot.
Spending time on your resume is a smart investment. Because the majority of sales roles are at the entry level, the best sales jobs are highly competitive. Your resume needs to do a lot of the initial selling for you. Your sales resume should carefully articulate your experience, showcase your achievements, and represent your top sales results.
Your resume presents a significant opportunity for you to fill the interview pipeline. Reviewing these common mistakes will help you identify areas for improvement and get the edge you need to differentiate yourself from the pack.
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Sonja Hastings is an Executive Sales Recruiter at Optimal Sales Search with more than 10 years of search and placement experience, recruiting mid to senior level sales professionals. Her functional recruiting expertise is sales professionals exclusively. In this capacity, she has worked with Chief Executive Officers and Vice Presidents of Sales to help them hire sales leaders and top sales professionals. Based in the Bay Area, Sonja conducts searches throughout the United States. Learn more about Sonja’s software sales recruitment services at www.optimalsalessearch.com .
