The Most Valuable Real Estate on Any Sales Professional’s Resume

If you’re in any type of revenue generating role – sales, account management or business development – you need to constantly be gathering and collecting your success stories. It should be a daily habit – like brushing your teeth.

So you might ask, “Why? Well, for one, you might want to come to the boss some day and make the case for a promotion and/or raise – and having your brag sheet ready will serve as a reminder of how you’ve contributed to the company’s success. Additionally, once you determine that it’s time to move on and seek a new position with another company, your detailed and substantiated list of accomplishments will serve as the feature attraction on your resume.?

Some companies are good at recognizing sales people for success. Many publish rankings, create umpteen awards and carefully measure all sorts of performance-related stats on a district, regional and national basis. However, if you’re in sales and work for a company that doesn’t do a very good job of keeping score (and that would probably represent the majority of companies), then you need to step in and start measuring and documenting your own successes.?

Most importantly, always try to make your sales achievements quantifiable and meaningful to a hiring manager outside your company and/or industry. And remember, adjectives are a poor substitute for numbers.

When it comes time to sharing your success on your resume, remember to be selective in what you list. It’s not “the more the better” – but rather “quality over quantity”.?I see some pharmaceutical reps who publish every metric known to mankind – often listing dozens of achievements for a litany of various drug names. The problem is that the story gets lost in this blizzard of “good stuff”.

If your objective is to find another sales-related position within the same industry you’ve been in for quite some time – I personally favor parking your achievements under each respective position – within the chronology of your professional experience.

However, if you’re changing industries, I strongly suggest that you aggregate your very best sales achievements – no more than a dozen, or so – and place them under the heading “Selected Sales Achievements”- right in the center of the first page. This way, your very best content is front and center, and it places the focus of your resume on your track record, rather than the industry you last served.

When recording your achievements, always try to describe HOW you achieved such impressive results. This makes an achievement more impactful – though be careful not to go into too much detail. Ideally, bullet-pointed accomplishments are no more than one to two lines in length – with three lines being the exception and not the norm.

As you’re documenting your past accomplishments, ask yourself these questions:

???Have you won any sales awards?

???Have you met or exceeded your annual quotas or other sales performance metrics?

???What were your specific sales results? When possible, provide a dollar amount if the information isn’t confidential. If it is confidential, a percentage improvement year-over-year will often suffice.

???How did you perform in comparison to others?

???Did you land any well-known accounts that you can tout?

???Did you overcome obstacles, such as increasing sales during a recession or entering into a new geographic market or vertical?

???What are your success stories and how did your negotiation skills result in a big success?

???Have you been a thought-leader in your industry? For instance, have you written articles or spoken at events?

???Have you helped to develop or launch new products?

???Did you train existing sales people??Did you train news hires??

???Did you save any clients that were about to go to a competitor? How did you pull it off??

???Did your success and hard work in other areas – like account management, client education and support lead to increased sales, client loyalty or referrals??

When working with a Professional Resume Writer, don’t feel the need to create a well-crafted, impactful sentence – leave that to them. The one thing they can’t do, though, is produce the essence of your achievement. You, alone, are privy to that information.

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NEED CAREER ASSISTANCE??- As recruiters, we at FiveChairs place a large number of B2B sales professionals in the Greater Nashville Area. If you are a Sales, Account Management, Business Development or Sales Leadership professional and can use some free??Sales-specific Personal Branding and Resume Advice, simply send your resume (even if it is dated) to?[email protected]?,?along with your availability this week for a 20-minute phone conversation. Place “Sales Career Feedback” in the subject line and provide a brief synopsis of your current situation and career objective. NOTE: If you don’t have a resume – just send a link to your Linkedin profile.

NEED GREAT NEW SALES TALENT IN THE GREATER NASHVILLE AREA??- Through our intimate knowledge of the Nashville market, innovative search tools and extensive networks, we have a reputation for finding perfect candidates - for 50% of the typical cost - and in a fraction of the time of others. You may view and select your own candidates from our online TalentPool - or provide us with your requirements and we'll assist you with your search. Just drop FiveChairs a line and we’ll get started today.?[email protected]