A Sales CV To Win More Interviews: the basics

Are you a Sales or Business Development professional in IT, MSP, SaaS, Software or Technology?

It is around this time of year I have horizon-scanning conversations with Founders & Owners, Sales leaders and senior managers who have ownership and responsibility for sales results. Whatever the date of a company's own financial year, the nation’s financial year, starting around Q1 is a good review point.

Overall performance of the sales force against target is assessed. High achievers identified. Decisions about underachievers are made. New goals and quotas are planned and assigned, along with the headcount needed to deliver the plan.

Are additional Salespeople needed to deliver the plan? Will some or all of the underachievers be moved on? If so, when and how? How to retain the high achievers? Often there are seats to fill.

If you’re a Sales or Business Development professional considering a move, now is a good time to consider how you present yourself, your achievements, wins, and value to a prospective employer. Most often, this starts with your CV and your social media footprint; LinkedIn being the obvious platform.

[Every recruiter who hires Sales and Business Development people will have their own point of view, based on their experience and what their own clients look for. This is my view.]

North Star Consulting (UK) would like to offer some common-sense ideas on the kind of CV content and style that works.

The goal is to secure interviews with quality employers who sell quality services and products in your area of expertise.

• In this digital age, we’re bombarded with information. Attention spans are short. A CV you send to someone will be one of many that will be reviewed. Keep it on point.
• Make every sentence count. If a sentence doesn’t show or explain something of value, or highlight an achievement or outcome, should it be there?
• Choose a professional font that is easy to read. I like Calibri.
• Choose a clean and simple layout. Don’t use a personal photograph. Avoid boxes, tables and side columns. Don't include logo jpegs or pictures.
• If you struggle with Word and getting stuff to line up, there are simple CV templates in 微软 Word. A few minutes with 谷歌 will show more.

I’ve mocked up a very basic example below. It is only an example. Something to get your creative juices bubbling.

Sharon has left the door open to speak about how she achieves her numbers; Solution Selling, Challenger, Sandler, MEDDIC, SNAP, SPIN, client journeys, pre-sales work, prospecting and tools, and so on. There is enough in her CV to arouse interest and desire for someone to want to find out more.

Does your LinkedIn profile and digital footprint accurately reflect your CV and vice versa? It absolutely should.

A good book for building a LinkedIn profile for sales is Linked Inbound, by Sam Rathling. Other books and resources are available.

Like most recruiters, if I receive a Sales or Business Development CV for a specific role, or on spec, and it has hard data on it e.g.

Quotas and targets

Sales achievements against quota over time

Notable or keystone logo and client wins

Gross and net profit

Account growth stats and up-selling / cross-selling

Client retention and churn

inbound lead conversion rate

Insight into how you prospect

and so on.

that candidate far more likely to get a phone call from me.

[As a footnote – I’m afraid I'm not a CV writer, not even for a fee. There are lots of free resources out there if you spend 10 minutes with 谷歌 ]

Good luck!

Kenny McAllister