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Example Salesman Resume - Browse more resume templates and build a stand-out resume
Meet Sam.
He’s the Director of the dealership in your city that sells the most amazing luxury cars.
You always drive by and see the shiny new convertibles, lined up and calling your name.
You’re envious of the salesmen working inside who get to sell the dream of these cars to the customers buying.
Not to mention the huge commissions they must get after closing a sale.
You have a natural talent for closing sales too. You would love to be a salesman for this luxury dealership.
But how do you land the job?
With a stand-out resume.
Whether you want to sell cars, or any other product or service, this guide will help you write a job-winning resume.
Let’s get started.
This Salesman Resume Guide Will Teach You:
- 6+ samples of outstanding salesman resumes
- Questions to consider when choosing which achievements to highlight
- How to craft your personal sales pitch in your resume summary
- 28 technical and soft skills that will impress the hiring manager
Salesman Resume Samples
Looking for related resumes?
- Sales Coordinator Resume
- Sales Manager Resume
- Entry Level Sales Resume
- Sales Resume
- Sales Director Resume
How to Sell Yourself With Your Salesman Resume
First impressions are important.
When you first reach out to a prospective customer, you know the impression you make in those first few seconds will set the tone for the rest of your conversation with them.
Resumes work the exact same way.
Hiring managers spend an average of 6 seconds scanning your resume before deciding if you’re an ideal candidate.
It’s essential that you prove you’re the right salesperson for the job with your resume.
A successful salesman will have strong communication skills and a proven track record for closing sales.
Highlight your communication skills in your work experience section.
Use quantitative data to support your claims.
They will be the driving force for getting you hired for your dream sales job.
The Most Important Sections of a Salesman Resume:
- Clear, easy to read format
- Resume summary that sells who you are
- Resume experience that proves your successful sales track record
- Relevant skill-set for the role
How to Write a Job-Winning Salesman Resume Header
Now that you know how important first impressions are with your resume, let’s begin with the section hiring managers look at first.
Your resume header.
Let’s say you’re applying for a salesman position at a premium musical instrument store.
Your header originally looks like this:
At first glance, this resume seems perfectly fine.
But it doesn’t reach its full potential.
It includes only the basics and it doesn’t give the hiring manager a chance to discover more about you.
Let’s improve this one.
This salesman resume header hits the mark. It has three key upgrades:
- Identifies your speciality in musical instruments (tailor this to your specific industry)
- Links to your LinkedIn profile to give the hiring manager more context
- Has two methods to contact you - email and phone
How to Choose the Right Format for Your Salesman Resume
If a hiring manager only spends an average of 6 seconds scanning your resume, how can you ensure they cover the most important parts?
By formatting your resume so it’s easy to understand.
Choosing the right layout for your salesman resume can be the difference between landing an interview or not.
Areverse chronological resume layout is perfect for salesman resumes. They prioritize your previous experience, which is the most important factor hiring managers will consider.
Your resume should be three things:
- Organized
- Have clear subheadings
- Saved as the right file type
No one wants to read a wall of text.
Bullet points and short paragraphs are the standard.
Use an easy-to-read font, like Arial, and make the text large enough to be mobile-friendly (11pt or higher).
Finish off by saving your resume as a PDF. This format is safe because it will look the same on any computer, and it will bypassapplicant tracking systems.
How to Write a Stand Out Salesman Resume Summary
Your resume summary is your sales pitch.
We know you’re already familiar with selling the vision of a product or service in a short speech.
You can transfer those skills to writing a stand out professional summary for your salesman resume.
Crafting a strong sales pitch about yourself in your summary will set you apart from other applicants.
Write a summary that tells your story, highlights your biggest achievements, and expresses your interest in the role you’re applying for.
Here are two resume summary upgrades that will impress the hiring manager:
- Add quantitative data proving your results in past sales roles
- Personalize your summary by using the same keywords as in the job posting
2 Salesman Resume Examples - Summary
Here’s a sample of the average salesman resume summary:
There’s a few things lacking with this summary. Can you spot them?
- It’s generic and vague. Phrases like “seeking a full-time job” and “looking for a fast-paced role with a successful company” make it obvious that you’re sending the same resume to every open job role.
- There’s no proof that you’ve been successful in your past roles. Without real data, there’s no trust in your claims.
This summary will more likely land you an interview:
Now this is the perfect sales pitch in summary form. You covered it all:
- Number of years of experience
- Industry speciality
- Quantitative data supporting past success
- Personalized for the role you want
What Quantitative Data Should You Include on a Salesman Resume?
You know by now that the key to writing a job-winning resume is by supporting your claims with real figures.
It’s the best way to build trust with the hiring manager.
Stuck for ideas on what quantitative data to include?
Start by asking yourself these questions:
- How many items did you sell? (cars, insurance policies, etc.)
- How many accounts did you manage?
- What was your conversion rate between leads and closed sales?
- Did you increase the average contract value? By how much?
- What was your client satisfaction rating percentage?
- How much revenue did you generate?
- What was your client renewal rate?
- Did you decrease the sales cycle? By how much?
Quantitative data is best suited for your summary and work experience section.
Let’s walk through how to write an effective work experience section now.
How Should You Describe Your Salesman Resume Experience?
This is really time for you to shine.
The work experience section of your salesman resume is the most important to hiring managers.
Sales is a job that can be easily measured. Your past experience and the impact you made in those roles will be the ultimate deciding factor for the hiring manager.
They want to make sure that by hiring you they will make a positive return on their investment.
They want to ensure that you will make them more money than you’re costing them.
The only way to give them this confidence is by highlighting your former achievements.
Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering your meaningful achievements:
- Have you won sales awards?
- Were you a top performer on your sales team?
- What were your sales figures?
- Did you land a lot of repeat business?
- Did you win any huge contracts?
Let’s take a look at two experience samples from salesman resumes.
2 Salesman Resume Experience Samples
This experience section doesn’t inspire any confidence to whoever is reading. It’s basic, only lists their tasks for the project, and it doesn’t mention what positive impact was made.
When writing your experience descriptions, ask yourself, how did you help your past clients achieve their goals with your work?
After reading this experience blurb, the hiring manager will trust that you’re the right salesman for the job.
It covers everything they need to know:
- Your real-life sales metrics, including the revenue you generated and the positive impact you made to the sales processes
- Demonstrates your soft skills through your successful managerial experience
Does Your Salesman Resume Need an Education Section?
Education is not essential with most salesman jobs.
That being said, you should still have an education section on your resume. Just don’t fret if it isn’t lengthy.
List the basics including where you attended school, what degree or diploma you received (if any), and what years you attended.
28 Skills to Include in Your Salesman Resume
Your skill-set will make or break your success as a salesman.
Soft skills will be the star of the show in this section. You need to be a natural leader, with strong communication abilities and a natural talent for persuasion.
That doesn’t mean you should skip over your technical skills. You need them to stay organized and streamlined in your sales processes - whether it’s using programs like Excel to manage your client list, or collaborating with your team using CRMs, like Hubspot or Salesforce.
Highlighting both your soft skills and technical skills will show the hiring manager that you’re a well-rounded salesman.
28 Skills to Include on a Salesman Resume
- CRMs (Hubspot, Salesforce, Copper)
- Contract negotiation
- Prospecting
- Forecasting
- Budget management
- Presentation skills
- Collaboration
- Communication (written and verbal)
- Decision making
- Organization
- Attention to detail
- Relationship management
- Client acquisition
- Quality control
- Upselling
- Cold calling
- Managing teams
- Closing sales
- Referral marketing
- Solution selling
- Lead generation
- Negotiation
- Territory expansion
- Customer service
- Outside sales
- Inside sales
- Product marketing
- Microsoft Office (Powerpoint, Word, Excel)
What Are the Key Points for Writing a Salesman Resume?
- Use quantitative data and sales figures to highlight your past achievements
- Be cautious about not breaking any confidentiality agreements when revealing revenue figures
- Personalize your salesman resume for the job you’re applying to by using the same keywords as they did
- Include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your header to give the hiring manager more context to check out
