Sales Resume Example & Writing Guide

Writing a professional sales resume is all about selling yourself, and that’s right up your alley.

However, when it comes to the specifics of writing a resume, you might be left with a question or two.

Still, you don’t need to worry—we've put together this handy guide to help you with everything from making a good first impression to closing the deal. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know how to create an attention-grabbing, high-converting sales resume, so let’s get started!

Key Takeaways

• Your sales resume should be one page long in most cases.

• A work experience section is often the most important in a sales resume, followed by skills and education.

• Writing a catchy resume objective or summary can be the deciding factor between grabbing recruiters’ attention or having your resume discarded.

• Submitting a personalized cover letter that matches your sales resume puts you ahead of the competition.

What is the Right Format to Use for a Sales Resume?

A good sales resume format will help you get your information across to recruiters in the best way possible.

There are three formats that have been proven over time and are much more commonly used than the rest:

Resume Layout

A resume layout deals with the visual aspect of your document. Its goal is to ensure that all the information you include in your sales resume is neatly presented and clearly visible. The following guidelines will help you achieve that:

By using these sales resume tips, you’ll be able to display everything you want while keeping it to one page, which is the recommended resume length for most candidates.

What Sections Should a Sales Resume Contain?

Certain parts of your sales resume are required, while others are optional but can add tremendous value to your resume when used properly.

Here are the must-have sections:

Then, there are optional sections, such as:

And if you don’t want to create a resume from scratch, we invite you to try our resume-building tool! It offers a bunch of professional presets and handy features that allow you to change everything from your resume’s font to its layout in just a few clicks.

You can also customize and adjust the document without worrying that you’ll leave out something important. Even adding your information is as easy as it gets since you simply fill in the blanks, so you get a professional, ATS-friendly resume in a matter of minutes.

Sales Resume Contact Information

Before you get to be all creative with the contents of your resume, you need to write a plain contact information section. To do that, simply include the following at the top of your sales resume:

• Your name

• Job title

• Phone number

• Email address

Optionally, you can list your location, but only if the job ad asks for it or if you’re applying for a position abroad. You could also add a link to your LinkedIn profile or a personal website, as long as it's relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Here’s what this looks like in practice:

Now, everyone has heard stories of people applying for dozens of jobs and not getting a single phone call, only to realize they misspelled their phone number. So, to ensure that doesn’t happen to you, you should thoroughly spell-check and proofread this section.

Lastly, keep every bit of information professional, which means no witty job titles or funny email addresses made in high school.

Sales Resume Objective or Summary

Some recruiters skim through resumes for just a couple of seconds before moving on to the next ones, which means you have little time to grab their attention.

That’s why you want to start a resume with a captivating paragraph that can pique recruiters’ interest right away, which is what resume objectives and summaries do.

A resume summary emphasizes your most prominent workplace achievements, and it’s best used by experienced candidates.

On the other hand, a resume objective makes up for the lack of experience by focusing on your skills and career goals.

Entry-Level Sales Resume Objective

If you’re an entry-level candidate, you likely don’t have much professional sales experience. Nevertheless, you can still make a compelling introduction to your resume with a resume objective.

You should talk about your skills and career goals to show that you have drive and potential even though you don’t have an extensive work history. Be brief and precise, and feel free to leverage any experience obtained through internships, volunteering, school projects, and similar activities.

Here’s a good example:

For comparison, let’s strip this sales resume objective of all the specific details and valuable information to see what a bad objective looks like:

Sales Resume Summary

Writing a good sales resume summary is all about condensing the highlights of your professional career into 2–4 sentences. You should add some of your most remarkable accomplishments to it to spark hiring managers’ interest and entice them to keep reading.

Let’s start with a good example:

Now check out a poorly written example that features no substantial data:

With no concrete results and achievements shown, this resume summary is pretty much on par with an entry-level candidate’s resume objective.

Sales Resume Work Experience

Nothing beats work experience when it comes to perfecting your sales prowess, which is why recruiters usually spend most of their time examining this section. That’s why you should make it the primary focus of your resume.

While adding the first three items on this list is fairly straightforward, the fourth point is the one you want to focus on to make your work experience section pop.

For starters, this part of your sales resume should have bullet points for legibility. Add 3–5 for every previous job you include. Also, while mentioning responsibilities is acceptable, you want to get the most out of the results and achievements you have obtained.

Sales is all about numbers and results. When you use exact numbers and percentages to back up what you've done, it makes your accomplishments much more solid and impressive.

Similarly, compelling action verbs and power words are some of the best things that make your sales resume stand out. They do for your resume the same thing a good copy does for a product—grab attention, positively affect the consumer (in this case, the recruiter), and boost conversion rates.

For example, instead of using terms like:

• Made

• Organized

• Led

you should try going with:

• Conceptualized

• Spearheaded

• Influenced

Sales Representative With No Experience

If you don’t have any professional history, you can always include other types of experience in your resume. Academic projects, internships, volunteer work, and freelance work relevant to the job you’re applying for are all welcome on your job application. You could even consider mentioning relevant hobbies or extracurricular activities that have something to do with the field you want to work in.

Let’s examine the work experience section of a candidate who leveraged their internship to create a professional section:

The applicant made the most of their few months of internship by using a bullet list with measurable results that were supported by numbers.

Experienced Sales Representative

Those who have a lot of work experience should highlight only the most relevant and impressive achievements.

If you decide to include more than one previous job, you should do so in reverse-chronological order. However, keep in mind that the jobs you had a long time ago probably aren’t as relevant or important anymore.

Here’s a brief but information-packed and highly impactful work experience section from a senior sales associate:

Sales Resume Education Section

Education might not be as important as professional history, but it’s great at adding credibility to your resume.

This section is especially important if you have little to no work experience.

To add the necessary education details to your resume, you should follow this format:

Here's what that looks like when put into practice:

You can also add your high school diploma, but only if it’s your highest one. Otherwise, it’s considered obsolete information.

On the same note, it's a good idea to include your degree in your sales resume even if you don't have it yet. You can either omit the graduation date and put “current” instead or write “expected” next to it if the date is set.

Sales Resume Skills

Since work experience is the bread and butter of a sales resume, many candidates think that they should simply create a list of skills to add to their sales resume. However, there’s a bit more to it.

One of the best ways to approach this part of your resume is to research the job ad. Sales is a vast field, and there are many different skills involved, which is why it’s crucial to list those relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Once you have a list of skills recruiters are looking for, you’re halfway there. All that remains is to choose the ones you believe you possess and put them in the skills section. 

Also, you should talk about some of the most important ones in other parts of your resume. You can show off a skill or two in your resume's objective or summary and in the section about your work experience. The benefits of this approach are two-fold:

1. Skills act as keywords for the ATS and help you pass the scan easier.

2. Including skills next to relevant accomplishments makes them more convincing in the eyes of recruiters.

Sales Resume Optional Sections

Optional sections help you emphasize certain skills, qualifications, and accomplishments you haven’t already mentioned in other parts of your resume. They are also perfect when you want to add a dose of personalization to your sales resume.

Certifications & Awards

What better way to show how serious you are about your work than to list relevant certifications and awards?

These two can be amazing assets to your resume, as they:

• Show that you like to exceed expectations

• Add more credibility to your skills and knowledge

• May serve as an extension of your education/work experience section. 

You should list them in order of importance, along with the date you received them and the issuing organization. Here’s an example:

Languages

Communication is key in sales. That makes knowledge of foreign languages a vital skill if you’re working with international clients and associates.

When adding this section to your resume, you should list languages based on your levels of fluency, starting with the one you’re most proficient in.

Speaking of that, here are the proficiency levels you can use to describe your language knowledge:

Should You Submit a Cover Letter With Your Sales Resume?

Unless a job ad specifically asks you not to write a cover letter, you should definitely submit it with your resume using the following format:

Closing Thoughts

Congratulations!

You’re now armed with knowledge and ready to sell yourself with an impeccable sales resume. If you follow the guide from start to finish to create a resume from scratch, you’ll have a job lined up for you in no time