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Build a Great Sales Resume - tips and sample

Your resume is your door opener. A well-written can get you in the door. A poorly written resume can leave you at the curb. 

To view a sample of a well-written resume, please click here. Below are some additional tips that can help you. 

Build a Great Sales Resume:

Since you are looking for a great sales role, it is critical that your resume highlight your key achievements as they pertain to your sales career. Some of the key metrics you should add (where applicable of course) for each sales role include: 

Other things to consider including in your resume:  

1. For each company that you have worked at, provide a brief description of what that company does/sells and an understanding of their size (i.e. personnel, # of offices and revenues).  Be sure to include accurate dates and ensure there are no gaps.  If you were unemployed that is okay, just fill in the blanks ie from Oct 01 to Jan 02 took Mat Leave or travelled or ... 

2. Include: Your title, who you reported to (VP, Sales) and what you sold (print & online advertising solutions) and to whom you sold it (company GM's, marketing executives). 

3. Key metrics to highlight:

4. Key Accomplishments:

5. Highlight Key Awards/Trips:

6. List any/all relevant sales training courses and/or team leadership of school projects or events, etc..  

IMPORTANT REMINDER:

Be consistent. Dot your i's and cross your t's. Ensure your punctuation is complete and your grammar is correct throughout your resume. If you are describing your responsibilities on past roles, ensure your words are past tense. Use consistency and action words ie Managed, Produced, Provided, Supported, Collaborated, etc. Be sure to spell check, not all words are spotted, ie you vs your etc. 

I hope this helps get the juices flowing to revise your resume. I guarantee you will have more interviews in the future, if you keep your resume up to date with all pertinent points as above. 

 

Jan 19, 2010 | General

Top 10 Tips for Getting Past a Gatekeeper

  1. Give the gatekeeper the benefit of the doubt. Most salespeople assume that the assistant doesn't have the time, judgment, or influence to help them, and therefore ask immediately for the decision-maker. Huge mistake! Treat every assistant with the courtesy and respect of a CEO. Doors will magically open for you.
  2. Treat the assistant like a human being.  This is obvious, but most assistants don’t aspire to be assistants forever.  Google their name.  See if they blog or tweet.  What’s their web presence?  Find something that they are genuinely interested in and run with it. 
  3. Use your arsenal.  Make a joke.  Play good cop/bad cop.  Talk about the weather.  Mention a tidbit you saw in the news.  Ask about their company’s latest release.  Ask if they’re running the company yet.  Whatever your style, get the assistant on your side.  After all, they’re controlling your access to the company.  There’s no need to make them enemy #1.
  4. Write down the assistant’s name.  Refer to them by name, every time.  Be friendly, polite, and direct.  Remember that you are not yet their highest priority, and being impatient, self-righteous, and vague is never going to get you there.
  5. Be honest and forthright about your solution.  Value the assistant’s time - it’s just as important as the decision maker’s.  Explain to them up front what you are calling about and why you think it will add value.  Don’t hang up and try again if your target is unavailable – it’s disruptive and dismissive.  Worse, you’ve wasted an opportunity.
  6. Ask for help. The more you can engage the gatekeeper in the process, the better.  Ask the assistant about the best time to call, the easiest way to get in touch, direct numbers, cell phone numbers, etc.  Ask if it’s better to leave a voicemail, leave a message, or just to call back.  But before you do that…
  7. Assume the assistant is a decision maker.  Believe it or not, the assistant’s job isn’t to keep you at bay.  Rather, their job is to discern potential value for their executive and/or their company.  By that logic, you should involve the assistant’s judgment as much as possible. Gatekeepers have an ear to the ground about every aspect of the business.  Ask them about their pain points.  Where would they see the most value added?  What’s most important this quarter?  Next quarter?  Next year?  What’s their growth strategy and what are their bottlenecks?  What’s their biggest frustration?  Assistants offer unique insights that can help you refine your pitch.
  8. Ask who else is involved.  Gatekeepers have the ear of everyone that will be involved in your sale.  They know who you should be talking to.  Ask if you are targeting the right person.  Do they know anyone that might be of assistance?  Who should you talk to first and why?  Who is the ultimate decision maker?  Let the assistant paint the relationship structure for you and guide you up the ladder.
  9. Alleviate their burden.  Assistants are responsible for sourcing and evaluating vendors.  If you’ve called them at the right time, you’ve eliminated their legwork.  Let them be responsible for walking your sale through the company.  Don’t blow it by presuming that they won’t be involved in the process.
  10. Let the gatekeeper advocate.  If you’ve effectively engaged the gatekeeper, they will be your advocate throughout the entire sales cycle.   Let them make introductions on your behalf.  Ask about the best ways to engage various decision makers.  Ask their opinion on what’s most important to each decision maker.  Use them as a strategic sounding board as your deal goes through the pipe.  The more they are engaged in the value, the more value they add to you.  

Aug 20, 2009 | General

Need key to good customer relations? Ask a hairstylist

Prior to my career in sales, I worked for over 20 years as a hairstylist. How I got from here to there is a long story. It always was pretty clear to me that years spent working with people one on one in a fairly intimate setting was good training for a sales career.

When you think about your own experiences with a trusted stylist, you realize that there are a few things that they do very, very well. As salespeople, we could learn a thing or two (actually six) from them.

You are the expert

People come to you (or allow you to come to them) because they are looking to you for help and guidance. If your hair stylist said, "I have the perfect style for you!" before asking what you wanted, it's a sure bet that you would find another stylist who was a better listener.

The best stylists (and salespeople) are great listeners. Only after letting the customer tell you about their needs should you make a recommendation.

You are in control

You walk into a salon. You lay back in the shampoo bowl. You allow somebody to stand over you (literally) and take control. And guess what, you feel very comfortable because they are in control. The stylist puts a cape around you that weighs only ounces. But as long as you are wearing that cape, you will not run out the door. As a salesperson, what is your cape? What do you present to your customer that keeps them engaged through the entire meeting?

Let them have it your way

The old saying is "Persuasion is the art of letting people have it your way." Stylists are masters at imposing their will on customers and letting the customer think it was their idea. As a salesperson, how skilled are you at asking questions that help the customer decide to do business with you?

Kids grow up

If a hairstylist is in the business for the long haul, they know that children eventually grow up to become adults. I've seen stylists treat children badly, rush through a haircut and give no thought to the idea that this little person in their chair is actually a person! They don't realize that in a lot of cases, children drive the parent's decisions. (How many parents of small kids know that in trying to drive past McDonald's?)

The same is true with salespeople. If you think of the receptionist or an assistant as the kids of the family, ask yourself how you treat them? Do you ever consider that not only do they drive the decision-making of their boss, but they may grow up some day and be a decision-maker, too?

Book the next appointment

How do you think successful stylists build their business? They always book the next appointment before the client leaves. They know that if they don't book the appointment, the customer will forget or get busy or drop in somewhere else when the mood strikes.

How often do we have a great meeting with a potential client and we walk out with the promise to call in a few weeks or touch base before the end of the month? Then life gets in the way and we lose the business to someone else. Always book the next appointment or meeting and you will be perceived as a person who wants a relationship, rather than a quick sale.

You need tools

Hairstylists have shears, combs, razors, clippers, capes, foils, color, bleach and perms. They can't do their jobs without them. They also master the tools they have so that doing their job is second nature to them.

What tools do you have that you have mastered? Questioning skills, presentation skills, demonstrations, letters of referrals are all tools that you have at your disposal. Do you use them every day? Do you practice so that they are second nature to you?

Business Courier of Cincinnati - by Andy Schaefer

Jan 18, 2009 | General

CEOs Agenda for 2008: SELLING Joins Innovation and Customer Care at the Top

Click here to read how selling tops CEO agenda for 2008!

 

Oct 24, 2008 | General

Break Open the Voicemail Clamshell

Being effective at prospecting requires that you maintain a steady pace with your sales calls. That’s how you ensure your sales funnel remains large enough so that you meet your sales targets year after year (and remember, that funnel has to be three times the value of your targets). In making those calls to new leads and prospects, sales people often complain to me that when they are intercepted by someone’s voicemail, it too often becomes a black hole. No matter what you put into it, your efforts never see the light of day ever again—prospects don’t return your calls and you spend more time than you think you can afford being on the phone leaving message after message.

It doesn't have to be that way! The key to mastering voicemail is to recognize its true character…and to use that knowledge to your advantage so you can sell more to more customers in less time.

Facing up to the facts about voicemail

Let’s face it: nobody really likes voicemail. It’s slower to use than other communications tools and yet we’ve all learned to accept it as a necessary part of our busy lives. To understand how you can leverage this imperfect technology to your advantage, exercise those empathy muscles that all successful sales professionals possess.

If you think its tough being the calling party having to deal with that robotic message taker, put yourself in the shoes of the called party for a moment. While most will admit reluctantly that voicemail can help avoid calls they didn’t really want to answer, it’s still a major nuisance that taxes their time as much as it does those who are trying to leave the messages in the first place.

Recognize that not everyone leaves short, purposeful messages. In fact, too often it’s left to the called party to trudge through each message to determine which ones require some kind action on their part. That’s why, in the end, both the caller and the called party wind up feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. It has even prompted Michael Arrington of the widely read Silicon Valley-based blog TechCrunch to plead publically “think before you voicemail.”

Here’s another important fact to bear in mind. In sales, no matter how successful you become, you will always have to deal with voicemail. Finding ways to master it so that it helps you reach the goals that matter to you—that’s what will set you apart from the other eighty percent of sales people in any organization. Treat it well and it can be a highly effective selling tool that helps you make a positive first impression on prospects. Treat it poorly and it will be a clamshell that will snap shut on you.

Three-step strategy to break open the voicemail clamshell

Over the course of more than a decade as a sales person as well as a sales trainer and coach, I’ve noticed that the most successful sales professionals out there have some common habits in how they use this particular technology to their advantage. Based on that, I’ve developed a three-step voicemail strategy that you can apply to your own business and start getting the results you’re looking for today.

Step one: leave a short, purposeful message that requires no action by the person you are calling. Here’s an example of what that message might sound like. “Hello, Janet, it’s Colleen from Engage Selling. Sorry, I missed you. I’m calling because Chris at the Gizmo Corporation asked me to speak with you about the work we are doing to improve his sales results. I promise to call you back Wednesday at 2:00PM.”

Notice that the message does not include leaving your phone number. There’s a reason for that. Your first message must not require any kind of task or action on the part of the called party. You’re the one who makes the commitment to call back at a specific date and time. Also, if the call is a referral, be sure to include that person’s name in your message. Doing so helps to establish that you’re not some stranger at the other end of the line. You’re a known quantity who has something that is useful to offer to the person you are calling. This gives the called party an added incentive to talk to you.

Step two: leave a short, purposeful follow-up that fully meets the commitment you made earlier. True to your word, when 2:00PM rolls around on Wednesday, pick up the phone and make that follow-up call. If you’re intercepted by voicemail again, leave a friendly message that sounds something like this: “Hi Janet, its Colleen at Engage Selling calling, as I promised, to try and reach you today. Sorry, I missed you. Chris at the Gizmo Corporation thought you’d be interested to learn more about how we are able to reduce your sales cycle by three months I promise to try you again Thursday at 10:00AM.”

Step three: leave one final, purposeful message that takes ownership of why that person hasn’t called back yet. Again, meeting your commitment to call, you pick up the phone on Thursday at 10:00AM. If voicemail greets you one more time, leave one final message like this: “Hi Janet. It’s Colleen at Engage Selling. I promised I would reach you today at 10:00AM. Sorry I missed you. I noticed you’ve been hard to reach this week and I’m wondering if that’s because you’re busy with your sales team talking about training,  maybe you’ve already engaged another sales trainer or I’ve simply been picking at the wrong time to find you at your desk.”  Why don’t you give me a call at 111-1111 and if I don’t hear from you, I will try again on x Date

You must take 100% ownership for why that person might not be returning your calls. Not only does this ensure you maintain a friendly, professional tone, it also says to the called party that there are no hard feelings for the lack of callbacks (and there could be plenty of good reasons for this that have no bearing on you whatsoever). Also of note in that third and final message, be sure to include your phone number so that the called party can call you back. That way, you leave the door open rather than slamming it shut. 

One more thing to keep in mind about this three-step strategy to prying open the voicemail clamshell. Its field tested—that means that when it’s implemented consistently, it yields some really impressive results. Clients who have incorporated it as part of their everyday sales calling strategy have reported back to me that their callback ratios have improved by as much as 80 percent.

So embrace voicemail. Treat it right. And be prepared for truly amazing results that influence your bottom line!

Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions (www.EngageSelling.com). Armed with skills developed from years of experience, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line.

Start improving your results today with Engage's online Newsletter Engaging Ideas and a FREE 10 day intensive sales eCourse: www.EngagingIdeasOnline.com

Sep 18, 2008 | General

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