As long as companies are selling products, there will be a need for skilled people who help sell them - and that means sales managers are a field that will enjoy consistent demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in fact, anticipates a steady four percent growth in sales manager positions each year through 2029.
Along with determining how best to assist companies in selling their products, sales managers are generally expected to be able to work with individual clients to gain their interest (and keep it) in high value products.
Sales managers can be employed in a wide variety of industries, and the responsibilities each position involves will be specific to the job title. With that in mind, the job listing you’re applying for will be the first major indicator as to the type of resume you should submit.
Read on as we discuss five templates for different positions within the sales manager field, highlight what they do best, and go over some best practices to keep in mind.
A sales manager is someone who oversees a business's sales process from beginning to end. Depending on the organization, there may be one sales manager for the entire department or several sales managers who each cover a different region. The sales manager is responsible for creating sales initiatives for their team, monitoring day-to-day sales activities, building targets for metrics, analyzing sales data, and managing junior-level sales staff.
To land a role as a sales manager, you’ll need a bachelor's degree. No specific coursework is required for a sales manager role, but a relevant degree in business or marketing may help. Hiring managers will look for a candidate with sales experience, such as in prior roles in mid-level sales positions, like as an account executive. Furthermore, the ideal candidate for this role will be enthusiastic with great people skills, management skills, and negotiation abilities.
A big piece of the sales manager role is to train junior sales staff on best practices and mold them into better salespeople. If you’ve had previous experience with tasks like mentoring, call shadowing, or building performance improvement plans for salespeople, it’s important to note that on your resume to land this role.
Though the sales manager is not a highly technical position, it does require certain technical skills that cannot be overlooked. Sales managers are asked to build reports about their team’s current performance, and expected performance, using software like Salesforce. As such, you should demonstrate any experience you have building reports, and on what software program, on your resume.
A general sales manager will be expected to have a basic familiarity with all of the aspects of the sales management position. To indicate this, you should focus on including action verbs and skills that are relevant to sales managers wherever possible.
This applicant utilizes strong action verbs that encapsulate the primary responsibilities of a sales manager throughout their resume. Along with including words like “training”, “supervising”, “planning”, “implementing”, “launching”, and “leading” in their opening summary, they start every single one of their bullet points with a different action verb. To similarly emphasize to the hiring manager that you have a rounded, clear perspective of what being a sales manager entails, you should opt to include a variety of action verbs in your list of accomplishments. You can get an idea of what sales manager action verbs you should be utilizing below the resume templates section of this guide.
Regional sales managers should aim to indicate their proficiency with sales management at both the lower and upper levels to show they have both the fundamental skills and greater vision needed for a sales position with more responsibility. This resume does that with its heavy use of quantifiable data points and by showing progressive growth along the sales management career path.
At the higher levels in particular, businesses are interested in knowing how particular employees within their company will affect their bottom line. When this applicant notes how they increased sales by 30 percent, helped the company go from 100 to 500 installations in a year, and managed a $20 million territory, it spells out in clear terms how much they will be able to help the business that hires them. You can accomplish this effect by including numerical data points with every bullet point on your resume.
For a sales manager to make it to the regional level, it would make sense for them to have taken steps along the sales manager ladder to get there. This resume shows that the applicant began with basic accomplishments (such as upselling products as a sales associate) and progressively grew into positions that have greater responsibilities (up to overseeing four branches at the national level) at the company. By including the promotions that you’ve had within a company, you can show to hiring managers that you have successfully demonstrated your competency to your superiors on a consistent basis. Beyond individual companies, hiring managers like to see that you’re moving upward in your career trajectory, so be sure to indicate that when you can.
The hotel sales manager is an experienced hospitality professional who oversees several aspects of a hotel’s daily business operations. Typically, the hotel manager is in charge of a large team of on-site hospitality staff. They also oversee special bookings and events, improve reservations percentages, and marketing strategies, manage budgets, resolve high-level guest complaints, and identify capital improvements for the property.
To become a hotel sales manager, you will need a degree in hospitality management, business, or another related field. Hiring managers will also look for someone with extensive experience in hospitality, such as previous roles held as a lead concierge, front desk associate, events manager, or housekeeping supervisor. The best hotel managers have superb customer service and conflict resolution skills, as well as great organization and multitasking abilities.
When it comes to hotel management, making sure your guests are satisfied is one of the most important responsibilities you’ll have. So, to be considered for this role, make sure your resume highlights the previous experience you have with customer service and conflict resolution. Even better if you can highlight how you improved another property’s guest satisfaction rating.
Although this is not a marketing-centric position, many hotel managers are responsible for marketing their property to ensure reservations keep rolling in. As a hotel manager, you may be asked to think of new marketing campaigns. To get hired for this role, it will be important to highlight any experience you have using digital marketing tools to garner more bookings.
As the name suggests, this manager is in charge of the hotel's sales department. In this position, you would be working under a general manager. You will oversee the hotel’s marketing campaigns, and customer outreach strategies, among other tasks. Your goal is to maximize sales and profits. A strong sales background as well as a wealth of knowledge in the hospitality industry will be expected. Ensure your resume highlights both. Here is a strong resume sample.
The core function of sales is to increase revenue for the hotel. Show recruiters how successful you have been at doing that by including metrics of how much you and your team were able to increase sales and thereby revenue under your leadership in previous positions.
Marketing is a huge part of how you attract customers to your hotels and thereby how you make sales. Being able to show in your resume that you are particularly skilled and experienced in marketing is a huge advantage for your application. This applicant has included their marketing coordinator position in their experience section. Include your marketing experience in your resume.
Hotel sales managers are involved in the marketing of the hotel itself, and so it helps to indicate your ability to develop and implement successful marketing strategies. In this resume, the applicant references their marketing accomplishments alongside their ability to improve staff performance (including implementing CRM tools and educating the staff accordingly), giving the impression of overall capability when it comes to hotel brand management.
Note how this applicant includes how they “implemented social media strategies that increased client interest by 20%” and attended more than 10 industry networking events with the net result of increasing sales by 20 percent. If you have similar accomplishments related to sales outreach, marketing, or developing campaigns (online and offline), you should include them to let hiring managers know that you won’t be slacking when it comes to promoting the hotel to gain business.
This hotel sales manager includes their success at working with a variety of team members to improve the overall hotel performance, showcasing their well roundedness in hotel management. Their accomplishments include educating concierges, training staff, executing sales strategies with five national level sales managers, and working with hotel sales teams. To demonstrate that you have experience working with staff, sales teams, and team members at a variety of levels, you should opt to include any accomplishments that showcase your ability to lead.
If you have a love for cars and want to share that love with others, a job as a car sales manager could be for you. Car sales managers are responsible for marketing and selling available automobiles to the public. They walk customers through the car buying process from the very first test drive, all the way to signing off on the car purchase. Car sales managers may also be involved in high-level operations such as planning when to sell newly released cars, training sales associates, or resolving high-level customer issues.
To become a car sales manager, no specific degree is necessary; however, a degree in business or communications may help you stand out. The ideal candidate for this role will have a mix of sales experience and car expertise. Previous roles as an automotive technician, retail sales associate, or technical sales representative can help you stand out for this role. Overall, it’s important that a car sales manager has strong sales foundations, great leadership skills, and impeccable interpersonal skills.
Previous job experience in the car industry is not totally necessary to land this job, but it certainly helps. Featuring any experience you have working with cars on your resume will show hiring managers you have the knowledge needed. This can be professional experience, or you can highlight an experience you might have from a hobby, like helping a family member fix up an old car.
Like many sales jobs, car sales managers must strive to meet a quota of sales. Meeting a quota is extremely important in car sales, so be sure to highlight previous jobs where you have met or exceeded your quota. It’s also wise to highlight any challenges you overcame to do so, and how you faced these challenges. This shows hiring managers you are determined and focused.
As automobiles are high ticket items, automobile sales managers should be prepared to indicate that they have familiarity with the financing process and have made measurable gains within that field. This applicant does so by including finance-relevant data points. Furthermore, by including a relevant additional information section, the impression of overall competency is boosted.
Automobile sales can be dependent on the availability of financing, and financing is the vehicle (if you’ll pardon the pun) that enables some dealerships to stay afloat. If you can similarly demonstrate that you have the capacity to improve the finance income of a car sales business (such as by developing a business plan or by improving relationships with financial institutions), you’ll show hiring managers that you take this portion of the business seriously.
Including an additional information section with relevant accomplishments, techniques, or skills for car sales management will cement the impression that you have experience in this niche. “Negotiation” and “Dealer Management” are both strong techniques that car sales managers should aim to include, while having familiarity with tools like CRM and Reynolds shows you have a solid sales background. Lastly, if you have any certifications that are relevant to the field, you can list them here.
A retail sales manager is someone who oversees the sales processes and operations for a retail store. Depending on the company, the retail sales manager may oversee just one location or several stores within a region. As a retail sales manager, you will be responsible for overseeing sales within the store, conducting loss prevention strategies, tracking key KPIs, training retail sales associates, and more.
To become a retail sales manager, you’ll need a combination of relevant experience and skills. Typically, hiring managers will look for someone with a minimum of an associate’s degree, although adequate experience may substitute for a college education in some cases. It’s extremely important that candidates for this role have considerable client-facing, customer service, and sales experience. Prior roles held as a customer care representative or inside sales representative are preferable.
To become a retail sales manager, it’s important to show hiring managers that you have leadership skills. The retail sales manager will be primarily responsible for leading employee training, development, and conflict resolution. As such, it’s important to highlight times where you have successfully managed or trained employees in the past.
Often, retail sales managers will be asked to track and interpret data about their store’s sales and customer activity. Highlight skills such as sales management, sales forecasting, and data entry on your resume will help you stand out for this role.
If you have experience in sales and customer service, and great organizational abilities, a role as a retail sales manager might be right for you. The retail sales manager oversees the daily operations of a retail store’s sales department. They typically manage the sales staff, set sales goals, monitor revenue, develop and maintain store budgets, track inventory levels, and train new sales staff.
There are many ways to become a retail sales manager. A combination of education and relevant knowledge is ideal. A bachelor's degree in business is preferable for this role, though some organizations may overlook lacking education if the candidate has significant retail sales experience. It’s important that candidates for the role have previous sales experiences, such as prior roles held as retail sales specialists or business development representative. It’s also important that candidates demonstrate the desired skills, such as sales planning, budget planning, inventory management, and people management skills.
Retail sales jobs are often transient because they are popular roles among young people. Managing young salespeople is no easy task. The retail sales manager must be knowledgeable in creative techniques to engage and retain their staff - as such, it’s important to highlight the experience you have improving staff morale on your resume.
As a retail sales manager, you will be tasked with implementing new strategies to boost sales and revenue. As such, it’s important to detail any experience you have creating and effectively executing new sales strategies or incentives on your resume.
Retail sales managers are on the front lines of sales, meaning they will be having more customer interactions than sales managers in other positions. This applicant shows that they have the ability to work with both customers and employees in a way that supports business sustainability.
Businesses that are looking for retail sales managers are primarily looking for competent, friendly faces that will be able to handle any situation that arises for customers on the sales floor (or off of it). This applicant does that by referencing their focus on fostering “a positive customer experience”, attaining over 96 percent customer satisfaction with their team, and expanding the customer account base by 35 percent, to highlight a few instances. To demonstrate that you have an affinity for building and maintaining constructive customer relationships, you should aim to emphasize customer- or client-centered accomplishments at your past positions.
While all sales managers can be expected to have a degree of interpersonal skills, retail sales managers generally need to have the ability to keep both their customers and their employees happy. In this resume, the applicant includes several accomplishments that give the impression that they have a solid ability to work with others. As examples, they list how they were among the few who received a teaching fellowship at their university, as well as their work to develop a project that led to 85 percent employee retention. If you want to show hiring managers that you care for others in a way that elevates their performance, provide data points that support it.
Retail sales managers are on the front lines of sales, meaning they will be having more customer interactions than sales managers in other positions. This applicant shows that they have the ability to work with both customers and employees in a way that supports business sustainability.
Businesses that are looking for retail sales managers are primarily looking for competent, friendly faces that will be able to handle any situation that arises for customers on the sales floor (or off of it). This applicant does that by referencing their focus on fostering “a positive customer experience”, attaining over 96 percent customer satisfaction with their team, and expanding the customer account base by 35 percent, to highlight a few instances. To demonstrate that you have an affinity for building and maintaining constructive customer relationships, you should aim to emphasize customer- or client-centered accomplishments at your past positions.
While all sales managers can be expected to have a degree of interpersonal skills, retail sales managers generally need to have the ability to keep both their customers and their employees happy. In this resume, the applicant includes several accomplishments that give the impression that they have a solid ability to work with others. As examples, they list how they were among the few who received a teaching fellowship at their university, as well as their work to develop a project that led to 85 percent employee retention. If you want to show hiring managers that you care for others in a way that elevates their performance, provide data points that support it.
A territory sales manager leads a sales team in a specific territory. As with any other sales manager, your job is to set sales targets for your team and support them in achieving those targets. Your support may extend to training your team or even taking on some of the sales responsibilities, especially when dealing with important clients. As this is a managerial position, your resume should show your ability to lead and manage a team successfully, as well as your years of sales experience. This resume shows both effectively.
This is not an entry-level position, and as such recruiters will want to see a progression in your career up to this point. Showing promotions in your career indicates to recruiters that you are an exemplary employee and have had a successful career.
As the name suggests, a catering sales manager works to bring in sales for a catering business. They will develop a sales strategy, prospect for new clients, close deals, and maintain relationships that may lead to future business. This role requires a person with excellent interpersonal skills, great negotiation and persuasion skills, and a great sales background. Being knowledgeable about food (especially your company’s food) would also be greatly beneficial. Take a look at this impressive resume sample.
If you have certifications in the food industry, events industry, or any related field, be sure to list them in your resume. These certifications show recruiters what your strong suits are and show your dedication to the field. They are bound to give you a leg up on other applicants who do not have degrees.
If you have extensive sales experience in multiple fields, concentrate on the previous positions that are in the catering industry or in closely related industries. Industries like special events would be relevant.
As the name suggests, this sales manager leads a team that sells vehicles. First and foremost you have to be very knowledgeable about the vehicles your company sells so being able to show a background in the automotive industry would be a huge benefit to your resume. You also need to be a strong salesperson with a sales background, and an experienced manager. Lastly, you need to have very strong customer service and interpersonal skills to ensure that your clients have an enjoyable experience in your showroom. Here is a successful resume sample.
Show recruiters that you are particularly skilled and knowledgeable on automotives by focusing your skills section on automotive-related skills. This applicant’s technical skills are all automotive-related.
Give recruiters a feel of your management capabilities by listing how many sales associates you have managed in the past. Include actual numbers as this applicant has done. This applicant has managed a team of 49 sales associates in their most recent position.
These professionals act as the second in command for their sales manager associates and will commonly handle some of the sales manager’s tasks as needed. These tasks may include overseeing the work of sales associates, creating strategies, and evaluating the success of the strategies. You must have great interpersonal and communication skills, as well as a strong work ethic and helpful attitude. Here is a resume sample that would impress recruiters.
Show recruiters your skill and knowledge level in sales by listing any sales-related certification you have. This applicant has 3 sales certifications which would make them very attractive to recruiters. Try and get the same.
If you don't have a strong managerial background in terms of previous positions, feel free to include projects you have done where you played a managerial role or where you have learned managerial skills.
In this position, you will be in charge of the sales effort in a particular geographical area. You will develop sales strategies and work with your team of sales representatives to reach assigned sales targets. It will also be your job to constantly analyze the sales data in your area to ensure that the strategies developed are effective.
Recruiters will be looking at your resume to see a background in sales and management so make sure your resume is crafted to let those two skills shine. Here is a great example of a strong resume.
Sales and management are the backbones of this job. Being able to show certification in both gives recruiters confidence in your skills and shows dedication to your profession.
Let recruiters know from the beginning of your resume, just how successful you are in sales by including a quantifiable key success in your introduction section. It sets an impressive tone for the rest of your resume.
As the name suggests, national sales managers lead sales teams in a large region. It is your job to develop sales goals, handle sales budgets, recruit sales staff, and track sales progress, among other tasks. This is a senior position and as such your resume needs to show years of experience in both sales and management and a strong skills section to cater to both roles. Take a look at this recruiter-approved resume sample.
Most companies will filter the resumes received through ATS filters, so it’s important to include things like a clear job title. So if you are applying for this position, ensure you clearly write ‘National Sales Manager at the top of your resume. Writing ‘Sales Manager’ might not be enough to get you by.
You need to be able to show recruiters that you are well-versed and well-experienced in all stages of the sales cycle. So show experience in sales analysis, negotiations, sales, customer retention, etc. You can show this in your experience and skills sections.
While it’s true that sales managers can work in a variety of industries, hiring managers are looking for general skills in their applicants. On the left, we’ve listed the most common skills for sales managers to include on their resumes.
You should aim to include the relevant sales managers skills that you have for each of the sales-related positions that you’ve held. If you’re applying for a position with a specific job title (such as regional sales manager or hotel sales manager), use our templates above to help you determine what skills are best to include.
Your skills can be listed in a summary at the start of your resume, in a skills bank on the side or bottom of your resume, and in your list of accomplishments at sales-related positions.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Sales Manager job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
When piecing together your sales manager resume, your first step should be reviewing the job listing to determine what kind of sales manager they’re looking for. The specific position title is the first clue, but you can also get an idea from the language used. For example, if the listing references working with clients, be sure to include any accomplishments pertaining to customer satisfaction, increasing sales, or maintaining a customer base.
To get an idea of what action verbs you should be using in general as a sales manager, you can refer to the list on the left. These action verbs have been gleaned from sales manager resumes, and will enable your resume to make an impression on hiring managers while also making it past automatic screening tools.
As noted above, you should tailor your action verbs to specific positions based on your experience.
For more related action verbs, visit Sales Action Verbs.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
If you're a senior-level employee, or you're changing careers to become a Sales Manager, it's useful to add a paragraph at the top of your resume highlighting your most impressive accomplishments. This is called a resume summary.
Here's an example of a summary that can be used on a Sales Manager resume.
A resume summary is a totally optional section, and in most cases, it's better to leave it out of your resume than include it. For example, if you're a student or mid-level hire, you should not include a summary, and instead use the space to add to your work experience.
To learn how to write an effective resume summary for your Sales Manager resume, or figure out if you need one, please read Resume Summary Examples for Job Seekers: When To Include One.
You should use bullet points to describe your achievements in your Sales Manager resume. Here are sample bullet points to help you get started:
Led the firm's sales and business operations in South Africa, responsible for $45MM annual sales and capability building of 200+ sales personnel
Scripted and tested phone sales process; increased customers by 30% in 6 months
Generated 50+ project requests through cold call sales and systematic email outreach; completed due diligence to qualify leads based on credit, industry and location
Managed a portfolio of 5 customers, generating new business revenue totaling $10M / year
Determined sales effectiveness strategy for a ERP software supplier to increase sales by $10M over three years
For more sample bullet points and details on how to write effective bullet points, see our articles on resume bullet points, how to quantify your resume and resume accomplishments.
