A good sales CV

Providing an overview of yourself in just a few pages is not an easy task! As in all sectors, recruiters like to see clear, easy to read and convincing CVs. But in sales positions, more particularly, you have to be specific, providing relevant numbers and demonstrating your persuasion skills. Good salespeople are above all able to sell themselves, and this indispensable quality is studied by employers starting with the CV.

PART 1 OF THE CV: A CLEAR AND CONCISE SUMMARY

The recruiter must immediately grasp your specialty, level of experience and the position you are applying for. You should therefore have these points at the top of your CV. That way, the recruiter doesn’t need to scroll down the list of your experiences to know what you do and what you want to do. Use a title and “Objective” and “Profile” type headings.

• The title of your CV must specify your job, i.e. your level of experience.

Example of a CV title:

• The “Objective” section specifies your goals, what you want to do and the type of job you are seeking. There has to be a logical relationship between your objective and your experience.

Example of the “Objective” section:
 

• The “Profile” section summarizes your main particularities in a few points: your experience, key skills and recognized qualities.

Example of the “Profile” section:

The recruiter must quickly understand in which sector you worked, how many years of sales experience you have and which type of sales you specialized in: more business development or more account management.

• Contact information: Don’t forget to include your first name, last name, address, telephone number, e-mail, and Web site (if applicable) in the header or footer of your CV. Do not indicate your marital status, age, or include a picture of yourself.

PART 2 OF THE CV: RELEVANT, ACCURATE DETAILS

You must describe your professional experience in sufficient detail for the recruiter to understand what your various jobs were. Only provide information relevant to the job you are applying for; don’t spell out those parts of your experience that have no bearing on the position and that don’t match what the recruiter is looking for. It’s up to you to show how your experience perfectly corresponds to the employer’s criteria.

• Outline the context: for each of your experiences, specify the products, market, geographic territory, target buyers, etc.
• Quantify your results: always specify the sales, portfolio size and development, basic objectives and objectives reached, and for managers, the number of people reporting to you, etc.
• Be specific and concise in your formulation; use bullet lists instead of full sentences and avoid unnecessary length.

Example of professional experience detail:

Your education, computer and language skills should be clearly detailed, generally at the end of your CV. For technology salespeople, computer skills may appear at the beginning, under profile, for example. The same is true for language skills for salespeople in the import-export field.

In the education section, prioritize your diplomas and professional development in relation to the job.

Example for the “Education” section:

Example for the “Languages and Computer skills” section:

• A few bonuses: additional details on your extracurricular activities may be of interest to recruiters if they are related to the job in question or show your involvement, e.g. membership in professional associations, participation in conferences, business meetings, board of directors, or even lectures that have influenced your sales practices.

VIRTUAL TIP

Watch out, recruiters sometimes google candidates, i.e. type their names into a search engine to find information about them. You should therefore check that everything online plays in your favour by googling yourself, so as not to be caught off guard.

Other tools to find a position in sales

• A sales recruiter’s point of view
• A cover letter that sells you