Sales executives can work in two fields: B2B or B2C. The sales manager usually assigns them a sales quota which they must meet to help the company achieve its milestones. Consequently, the sales executive must perform certain tasks such as cold emailing or calling, meeting with clients, representing the company at external events, etc.
In order to close deals, the sales executive must conduct market research to identify their customers’ needs. They must also create presentations and reports for meetings with clients or stakeholders. That’s why your resume should demonstrate your capacity to work with tools like Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook for cold emailing.
When meeting with clients, sales executives must check the stock availability for demonstrating the product’s functionality and benefits to the customers.
Additionally, sales executives must stay active on social media, which is a great place for prospect generation. You can also include social media skills on your resume. If you are interested in learning more tips for optimizing your resume for a sales executive role, take a look below. In this guide, we’ll cover other interesting tips that might help you.
Jump to a resource:
Get advice on each section of your resume:
To become a sales executive, you don’t need a bachelor’s degree. Most employers will hire you even if you only have a high school diploma. However, they might require you to have relevant experience in sales. That’s why you should emphasize your background in the field. If you don’t have experience as a sales executive, you can also include previous jobs in which you use your sales skills regardless of the position.
Most sales executives are required to use CRM tools to communicate with customers, especially if they work in the B2C area. CRM tools are also excellent sources for getting customer data, which could help you make better and more informed prospecting decisions. Highlighting this skill in your resume is going to put you a step further in the recruitment process.
Most people think the only way to identify high-performing sales executives is through their quotas. It is true that meeting or exceeding your milestones is important, but there are other achievements that you can consider including on your resume. Here are some good examples of accomplishments you can include: Improving the customer retention rate, creating a digital presence, or helping in the implementation process of new sales software
Experienced sales executives play a huge role in an organization’s sales team. They monitor, guide, and motivate lower-level sales executives to ensure that overall sales quotas are met. That’s why you can include your leadership skills on your resume. Additionally, experienced sales executives are responsible for closing major deals and monitoring competitors.
Certifications such as the Certified Sales Leadership Professional (CSLP) and the Certified Professional Sales Person (CPSP) are highly relevant for this position. Adding them to your resume is a great way to demonstrate your skills and expertise. These certifications are validated by industry-leading institutions, so they provide reliability and trustworthiness.
Your potential employer wants to see you have the experience required for the position. That’s why it is important to highlight your professional background. Remember that you should focus on relevant experience in sales.
As a Senior Sales Executive, you’ve likely navigated a dynamic and ever-changing sales landscape, and your resume should reflect this journey. It's essential to understand that hiring managers are keen on industry experience, proven sales track record, and excellent leadership skills. In the recent trend, companies are looking for sales executives who are data-driven and can harness technology to boost sales, so be sure to incorporate this into your resume. Remember, your resume is a snapshot of your career story: it should focus on the results you've delivered, your ability to lead and inspire teams, and your understanding of the market and clients.
Numbers speak louder than words, especially in sales. Instead of vaguely mentioning that you increased sales, specify by how much. For instance, you could say, "Increased annual sales by 30%," or "Exceeded quarterly targets by 15% consistently for two years."
As a senior executive, you're expected to lead teams and devise strategic plans. Give examples of the strategies you've employed to meet or exceed sales targets, or how you've coached team members to improve their performance.
We spoke with hiring managers from top companies like Oracle, Salesforce, and HubSpot to get their best tips for Sales Executive resumes. Here's what they recommend to help your resume stand out and land more interviews in the sales industry.
Hiring managers want to see proof of your ability to drive sales growth. Use specific numbers and percentages to show the impact you made in past roles, like this:
Compare that to vague statements that lack hard numbers:
The specific metrics make your achievements more tangible and impressive to hiring managers.
A resume summary for a Sales Executive role is optional, but it can be a valuable addition if you have extensive experience or are making a career change. It allows you to provide context and highlight your most relevant qualifications that may not be immediately apparent from the rest of your resume. However, avoid using an objective statement, as it is outdated and focuses on what you want rather than what you can offer the employer.
When crafting your summary, tailor it to the specific Sales Executive position you are targeting. Emphasize your key skills, achievements, and experiences that align with the job requirements. Keep it concise, ideally no more than a few sentences or a short paragraph.
The work experience section is the most crucial part of a sales executive resume. It's where you demonstrate your ability to drive revenue, build relationships, and exceed quotas. Here are some key tips to make your work experience section stand out:
When crafting your sales executive resume, the education section is a key area to showcase your qualifications and training. While it may not be as extensive as your work experience section, it's still important to highlight your relevant educational background and any certifications or coursework that may set you apart from other candidates.
High-performing sales executives are persuasive while still being direct and concise. You should treat your resume the same way. Maintain an accurate and straightforward vocabulary by using strong action verbs that describe your experience in previous jobs.
You can use bullet points to list the most relevant factors of each job experience and start each sentence with an action verb. However, you should know that it’s important to use multiple action verbs and not repeat them. If you need some help with that, take a look at our selection of action verbs for a sales executive resume.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
Your sales executive resume should demonstrate your persuasion skills and techniques for generating leads. You can include competencies such as cold calling, marketing, prospecting, negotiation, cold emailing, and computer literacy. This last one is important because sales executives are often required to make presentations, use CRM tools, perform email management, and generate reports.
Remember to check job posts on different employment boards to identify key skills that you can include on your resume. If you need more ideas for competencies to include in your sales executive resume, you can check our selection of aptitudes based on our research.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Sales Executive job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
