I will be honest. Sometimes people apply for jobs, and as I read their resume, I shake my head wondering why they applied.? My first thought is “didn’t they read the job description?”
First, I want to break down a job description and what it’s typically made up of.? This is a job description I recruit for often:
Part One of a Job Description tells you what the job is:
Join us as an Enterprise Sales Executive, where you will have the opportunity to drive growth through new customer acquisition and account penetration in the enterprise space. As a senior-level sales professional, you will be responsible for achieving sales revenue objectives and leading sales efforts to identify, position, and sell technically advanced products and services to large enterprise customers.
Your primary responsibilities will include:
- Developing and executing the company and sales strategy daily
- Meeting all sales objectives and forecasting accurately to meet/exceed quota.
- Winning and developing new client accounts in a defined territory, expanding/growing revenue to full penetration of the client environment and Our portfolio.
- Driving pipeline to sell a defined mix of our strategic product portfolio while complying with all products, pricing, and business rules.
- Penetrating accounts at the executive level and throughout by having strategic conversations that will drive interest by focusing on their business initiatives and needs.
- Leveraging your ecosystem of contacts that ensured success in the past to create success.
- Being an expert in the marketplace, including the competitive landscape, industry trends and news, and geographical nuances
- Responsible for all aspects of the sales process utilizing the Our sales methodology, including uncovering and assessing client needs to strategically tailor custom solutions through consultative selling.
- Completing and maintaining strategic account plans on all targets and clients
- Maintaining client relationships with key corporate executives, including ongoing assessment of needs to drive additional revenue and account penetration.
- ?Responding to RFPs and making compelling business cases to ensure the best chance of success.
- Collaborating with marketing team to drive and win leads.
- Collaborating with internal and external partners from pre-sale through implementation and lifecycle of the client partnership
- Adhering to processes and effectively managing sales activities and forecasting by utilizing the tools and resources provided by Our
- Ensuring all revenue is reported accurately and responsibly as defined by Our policies and procedures.
- Attending and completing all training and meetings as required and obtaining all mandatory certifications.
- Contributing to a positive and respectful culture and conducting all sales activities with the highest regard for integrity and honest behavior
The second part of the Job Description tells you what you need to be successful:
To be successful in this role, you will possess the following:
- A high energy, dynamic personality with a sense of urgency, and a strong commitment to success who is self-motivated and has a disciplined work ethic.
- Effective communication and collaboration skills via all collaboration mediums.? Strong listening skills are a must.
- Collaborative person able to work across various business units.
- A demonstrated ability to quickly form business relationships with executive level professionals.
- A “hunter’s mentality” – a strong desire and ability to seek, generate, and acquire new sales opportunities.
- A strong ecosystem of executive and C-level buyers who have contributed to their success in the past.
- Ability to be an expert on enterprise offerings and competitive landscape.
- Experienced Salesforce user
- Proven history of meeting and exceeding sales revenue goals
Qualifications and Experience
- A bachelor’s degree is preferred.
- Five years of enterprise sales experience with a proven track record of success is required in; Technology (i.e., Microsoft, UCaaS, CCaaS, SaaS, application/software layer technology, security, IT-services, telecommunications)
- AI, IoT, CRM, POS, cloud services, networking and hardware are other areas of experience are also beneficial
- A demonstrated interest in technology and working knowledge of collaboration and networking.
- A demonstrated ability to navigate an executive environment and establish business partners in the enterprise space.
- Understanding of the enterprise space including establishing sales strategy based on needs of the client environment.
I’ve called out the important keywords that a potential candidate would be looking for if they were to apply for this job and what I, as the recruiter, would be looking for in a resume.
Based on this job description, in a resume, key words that I want to see (I can see/read – the ATS cannot)
- Hunt, New business, New Logo, New Customer, Enterprise, relationships, C-level or? C-Suite, Salesforce or CRM, exceeding goals and hopefully something like met or exceeded quota, Revenue generation, any of these words (Technology (i.e., Microsoft, UCaaS, CCaaS, SaaS, application/software layer technology, security, IT-services, telecommunications), Sales strategy/strategic sales, needs assessment, collaboration, cross-functional
Are all those words in the description? Maybe not word for word but that’s to show you that I can READ the difference between “sales strategy" and “strategic selling” or “C-Level” and “C-Suite”
Resume scanning software will not give you those variables.
Be thoughtful when you’re applying for jobs.? Don’t go by title alone.? Read the entire job description.? Have you done what it says you’ll be doing?? At least 80%?? Keep going.
Do you have the things that say required or a must?? And the things that say desired, a plus, or preferred?? At least 80 %?? Go for it!
Final step.? Make sure your resume reflects the experience.? Knowing you have the experience is not enough.? If, I, as the reader of your resume, don’t see those key words in some shape or form, I’m not going to know how awesome you are for the job.
Transitioning from a different type of job but have similar skills?? That’s a great time to work with a CareerCOACH to help you write your resume to reflect those skills.
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Want help with your job search?? Reach out to me directly.
David King I Seasoned IT Executive I Driving revenue generation & business objectives by strengthening technology & security at the intersection of Operations, Risk Management, Security, Data Management & Cloud.
1 年I really appreciate the advice and points brought out in this article. It all seems very fundamental but when you're on a job seeking mode, sorting through job adds can be exhausting and very challenging at times.