Sales Resume Examples - Templates, Skills + Writing Tips

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Table of contents

Popular sales resumes
How to write a sales resume
Sales resume examples by experience level
Add a cover letter
Facts about the sales industry
Key takeaways for your sales resume
Commonly asked questions about resume writing

Your sales skills are so good people say you could sell water to a fish.

But when it comes to selling yourself to potential employers, you’re less confident.

A well-written resume will give you the boost you need. Resumes are the ultimate sales pitch. You know you need a good one, and soon you’ll know how to do it.

This guide will show you:

Popular sales resume examples.
How to write a job-winning sales resume.
Sales resumes for different steps in the corporate ladder.
Why everyone in sales should be writing cover letters.
Key takeaways before you get back to your job search.

Ready to make your resume now? Get started with our AI Resume Builder. Choose a design suitable to a sales career and get section-by-section advice, including auto-generated text you can easily edit.

Popular sales resumes

You know what it takes to have a great career in sales, but do you know how to make a resume that gives you an all-star status with potential employers?

The trick is translating your skills and experiences into a detailed, easy-to-scan resume. Let’s check out a few examples to show you how it’s done. All of these have been made by our Resume Builder.

Sales resume example

Featured example resume example inside sales representative

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Are you looking for a different job title? See the rest of our sales resume examples:

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How to write a sales resume

Looking to bring your sales career to new heights? Make a perfect resume.

How do you do that? You can’t go wrong by starting with a resume outline. An outline should always include:

Contact info in the header.
A strong, keyword-rich resume profile.
One or two sections emphasizing relevant skills.
A list of work experience, beginning with the most recent job.
The highlights of your education history.
Optional sections to enhance your resume.

Let’s review each of these key points.

Step 1

Add your contact info

Your resume is your calling card. You want to make it easy for the hiring manager to reach out. That’s why you should put your contact information in the header.

Your contact info should always include your name, phone number, email address and location. Additionally, you might want to add a link to your personal website, portfolio or LinkedIn profile.

As a sales professional, your resume header should be straightforward — nothing over-the-top bold or colorful. You can give it a personal touch but don’t distract from the substance of your career.

Next, let’s get into your resume’s introduction.

Step 2

Write an excellent summary or objective

First impressions are important, and there’s no better place to make one than your resume profile.

The profile sits at the top of your resume, giving the reader an overview of your skills and experiences. It’s your chance to show them you’d be a great hire and make them want to keep reading.

There are at least two different types of profiles, and each one is a perfect fit for a different type of job seeker:

Applicants who have at least three years of relevant experience will benefit from a professional summary. Summaries are normally four or five sentences and speak to the candidate’s skills and experiences.

Applicants new to the workforce or transitioning into a new field may be better off with a resume objective. Objective statements focus on goals. Candidates clarify what they’d like to get from the job and how they will create value for the employer.

At the end of the day, your profile should have one goal: make the hiring manager believe you’d be a great fit for the position.

How do you accomplish that? Ask yourself, “What does this company care about?” Read their mission statement so you can focus your resume on the accomplishments and skills they’ll find most impressive and relevant.

Writing tip

Tailor your summary or objective for every sales position requesting a resume. No two sales roles are the same. When you customize your resume for each role, you can emphasize the skills and experiences in the job listing. This will increase your relevance and help you sail past the applicant tracking system (ATS).

Professional summary for sales resume example:

Detail-oriented and highly skilled sales professional with a proven track record of building customer satisfaction and loyalty. Capable of quickly acquiring thorough product and service knowledge to provide top-tier customer experiences. Adaptable and self-motivated to stay up to date on industry trends and product specs through regular training and vendor publications. Well-versed in maintaining stellar showroom and store cleanliness while managing inventory and logistics.

Sample objective for sales resume:

Enthusiastic and passionate recent graduate seeking an entry-level sales position at Tire Barn. Possesses in-depth knowledge of sales and customer service and an ability to learn about products, services, warranties and maintenance issues. Eager to leverage exceptional organizational skills to assist with inventory management, showroom maintenance, and adherence to company policies and procedures.

Step 3

List your most relevant skills

From tracking your leads with a customer relationship management (CRM) program to building relationships with empathy and persuasion, you use skills daily. The key is to represent these skills on your resume — and not just in your skills section.

You use hard skills when doing technical tasks, like managing a CRM database or forecasting the next quarter’s sales. You use soft skills every time you’re on the sales floor connecting with customers.

This isn’t a showdown — hard vs soft skills. It’s more like a dance, where these skill sets work hand in hand to create a great performance.

Writing tip

Sales is a people-oriented profession so you should take extra care to show off your communication abilities. Use words like “negotiate,” “listen,” “persuade,” “present” and “mediate” to help the recruiter understand your skill range.

Hard and soft skills for a sales resume

Hard Skills

Product knowledge
Digital marketing
Sales forecasting
Customer relationship management (CRM) software

Soft Skills

Communication (or something more specific, like upselling)
Negotiation
Empathy
Relationship-building

Step 4

Detail your work experience

As a sales rockstar, your work experience is packed with impressive sales figures and survey results. Whether honing your technique, cold-calling customers or adding information to your CRM, you want to believe the work speaks for itself.

But the truth is — you want your professional experience to sing, and you can only do that with a well-written resume.

Here are a few ways to make your work history more impressive:

Show impact, not job duties. Accomplishments that can be quantified make your work history more exciting. For example, focus on the number of customers you see on average each day and their satisfaction rate.
Use action words. Give your experience more oomph by choosing words like “generated,” “maximized” and “achieved.” These will give your resume a more active, action-oriented vibe.
Show your upward career trajectory. Put your previous roles in reverse-chronological order, starting with the most recent position, to clarify that you’ve risen in the ranks.

Writing tip

Don’t sleep on your technical skills. While people-oriented soft skills are critical, sales reps use their technical abilities every day, whether they’re using prospecting tools to find new leads or visualizing data in Tableau.

Sales work experience entry example:

Sales Representative, JT Pharmaceuticals
Evansville, IN
September 2020 – Present

Successfully promote the company’s products to both targeted and nontargeted health care professionals, leading to a 20% increase in prescribing rates in the nontarget group.
Effectively develop and manage an integral territory in southern Indiana, resulting in a 35% increase in overall sales volume in the region.
Establish and maintain influential relationships within the territory, increasing brand loyalty and client retention.

Step 5

Showcase your education and credentials

For a recent graduate, showcasing your education will help you break into the business.

Your education tells the employer you have strong foundational skills and a grasp of the basics. In other words, they won’t have to teach you everything from the ground up.

In general, you should list your educational achievements in the following order:

Advanced education
High school education — you can drop this if you’ve completed college
Certificates

Yes, you can put your certifications in a separate section, but if you only have one, the education section works just as well. You can also include awards and honors here if they’re related to your schooling.

Sales education entry example:

Education

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
Minor: Marketing
Idaho University, Boise, ID
Graduation Date: May 2019

Certifications

Certified Professional Sales Person (CPSP)
National Association of Sales Professionals
Certification Date: September 2020

Writing tip

Feel free to include your GPA — as long as it’s equal to or greater than 3.5.

Your experiences in the workplace have shaped you. But what if you don’t have much work history? Or you’ve done many impressive things outside of the workplace?

Your sales resume will be even better if you add a couple of sections that showcase your unique history and abilities. Let’s review a handful of optional sections that tend to appear on sales resumes:

Volunteer work: Volunteering will enhance your resume, especially if the work relates to your industry. Consider adding fundraising, event coordination, disaster relief efforts, community outreach and business mentoring to your resume.
Language proficiency: Sales is all about communication, right? In that case, simply knowing a second language opens you up to a world of opportunity — and value for your future employer.
Hobbies and interests: A sales resume will look even better with some hobbies and interests related to your career field. For example, you could mention your interests in debate club, reading sales books or running an industry blog.

Step 6

Create special sections (as needed)

Your experiences in the workplace have shaped you. But what if you don’t have much work history? Or you’ve done many impressive things outside of the workplace?

Volunteer work: Volunteering will enhance your resume, especially if the work relates to your industry. Consider adding fundraising, event coordination, disaster relief efforts, community outreach and business mentoring to your resume.
Language proficiency: Sales is all about communication, right? In that case, simply knowing a second language opens you up to a world of opportunity — and value for your future employer.
Hobbies and interests: A sales resume will look even better with some hobbies and interests related to your career field. For example, you could mention your interests in debate club, reading sales books or running an industry blog.

Writing tip

Have you ever won “Salesperson of the Month” or been publicly recognized for closing a huge deal? Consider adding a section to showcase your honors and awards.

One last thing — you’ll have to choose the ideal sales resume template. Resume templates come in many different styles, from professional templates that are neatly organized and straightforward to creative templates that show off your bolder side. Picking the right one is important.

If you don’t want to bother browsing a template library, you can always download templates for Microsoft Word or Google Docs for free.

Sales resume examples by experience level

Professional experience is a game-changer. As you get more experience, you become qualified for higher-level positions.

Ultimately, experience even alters the organization of your resume. There are three resume formats, each designed for a different career stage:

Entry-level applicants should choose a functional resume format.
Midcareer applicants should choose a combination resume format.
Senior-level applicants should choose a chronological resume format.

Next, we check out visual examples of each one.

Functional resume format: Entry-level sales resume example

Functional resume entry level example outside sales representative

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What makes this a great sales resume example

Impressive career objective
This candidate used a resume objective instead of a professional summary. Objectives are better for relatively inexperienced candidates because they focus on what you can add to the company (rather than your accomplishments).
Perfect format for an entry-level applicant
Professional experience is scant for most entry-level candidates. Instead, it’d be best to focus on the skills you’ve acquired in school, internships, part-time jobs and volunteer work. Here, the skills are featured in various distinct sections, giving them more space than the experience section.
Multiple skills sections
Studies have found recruiters spend about seven seconds glancing at a resume before they make a decision on whether to keep reading. This candidate solves that problem by including a couple of skills sections, using bullet points and other formatting tracks to make them easy to scan.

Combination resume format: Midcareer sales resume example

Combination resume mid career example retail sales associate

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What makes this a great sales resume example

A prominent skills section
When you’re in your midcareer, you may want to highlight particular skills that elevate you above similarly qualified candidates. This candidate places a skills section directly above his work history. Without taking up too much space, it sets the tone for the rest of the resume.
Work history shows a clear trajectory
When you’re in the middle of your career — after years in the workplace— you can begin building your experience section. Doing this will show the employers you rose from level to level due to your impressive performance. See how this candidate went from a retail trainee to a part-time position to a full-time retail sales associate.
The professional summary is well-written
First impressions count, and this candidate opens with a detailed, skills-focused summary that employers will love. They touch on their experience serving customers, exceeding revenue targets and providing quality product recommendations, all in a single paragraph.

Chronological resume format: Experienced sales resume example

Chronological resume experienced example assistant sales manager

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What makes this a great sales resume example

The template is ATS-friendly
Many companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to scan resumes looking for keywords. Chronological resumes are usually more compatible with an ATS because they focus on job titles and employment dates, both long-standing sections of resumes.
The spotlight is on work experience
Later in your career, work history becomes the focus of a sales resume. Here, the applicant lists their jobs in reverse-chronological order, starting with the most recent. This section also has bullet points for every role, making it easy to see accomplishments at a glance.
The format emphasizes stability
Additionally, by putting the career progression at the center, the chronological resume format shows how the candidate has maintained a stable, productive career over many years. This strategy appeals to employers who may not want to take a chance on a less experienced candidate.

Add a cover letter

Create your cover letter

One not-so-well-kept secret of the job search is that the strongest candidates always write a cover letter.

Your cover letter can be a platform to address issues you couldn’t in your resume, like a lengthy employment gap or uncommon career transition. Our guide on how to write a cover letter is a good place to start the process. When you’re ready, review cover letter examples vetted by professionals and our guide on common formatting tricks.

Or, if you need it written fast and with zero spelling or grammar mistakes, use our Cover Letter Generator. It will auto-generate sentences written specifically for sales jobs. You can customize the content to fit your writing style and personal accomplishments.

This brings us to an important question — money and job prospects. What will your career look like if you write a brilliant resume and cover letter? Keep reading to find out.

Facts about the sales industry

Even if you’re one of the best sales reps in your region, do you have a sense of what to expect down the line?

Here are a few facts that show why a good sales resume is so important:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, sales representatives in wholesale and manufacturing held about 1.3 million jobs in 2021 and 32% of them work in durable goods.
Median salaries for job titles in this field:
- Inside sales representatives earn a median salary of $69,966 per year.
- Regional sales managers earn a median salary of $144,653 per year.
- Pharmaceutical sales specialists earn a median salary of $122,327 per year.
Overall employment in the sales field is expected to show little to no change from 2021 to 2031. However, due to people leaving the field, there will be 1.9 million job openings each year.

Key takeaways for your sales resume

Emphasize your people skills
At its core, sales is about connecting with other people. Your resume should reflect that by including many “people skills.”
Customize your resume
Always study the job listing to identify the skills and abilities you need to include on each version of your resume.
List your certifications
Sales professionals are more impressive when they’ve been certified. Add what you’ve earned to your resume.
Leverage quantifiable results
Sales is a numbers game. Showcase your most impressive sales figures in your work experience and summary sections.
Highlight your technique
Are you a master at upselling? A genius at cold-calling? Make sure the hiring manager knows!
Double-check your work
Any grammatical errors could cost you the job. Be safe. Proofread the document, then ask a friend to do the same.
Don’t forget a cover letter
Putting time toward crafting a personalized cover letter will show your passion and drive for sales.

Commonly asked questions about resume writing

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Don is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) with more than 10 years’ experience creating digital content, including four years helping job seekers develop their careers. He holds an M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University.