Sales Manager Resume Example

Referencing this sales management resume sample can help you write your own highly effective resume. This sample and guide use the chronological resume style.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that in 2012, there were 358,300 US sales manager positions. The number is expected to grow by 8% in 10 years.

Most sales associates with a bachelor’s degree are able to move up to a managerial position in less than five years. As a director of sales teams, ideal candidates have outstanding analytical, communication, and leadership skills in addition to successful sales experience.

Our sample resume is an excellent example of how you can package your years of sales experience for that managerial role. Below we’ve listed some guidelines and major considerations to help you craft that winning sales director resume.

1. Writing Out a Career Objective

A strong career objective should achieve one thing: communicate how you are a good fit for the position recruiters are seeking to fill. In the sample resume, the applicant has written a strong career objective, listing some key points that speak of expertise, qualifications, and intent. Let’s break it down:

Sales Management with over 10 years of experience training and supervising sales staff while planning and implementing sales strategies over a multi-state territory.

Here, in the first line, the applicant provides a summary of his main job capabilities, including the number of years spent in a given industry and highlighting major achievements.

In the second line, the applicant lists qualifications that are directly applicable to the position she is applying for:

Seeking to bring my proven record in launching successful marketing campaigns and team leading in a senior management position.

Last, the candidate wraps up the career objective with relevant and up-to-date degrees, licenses, certificates, or coursework that may be of interest to hiring managers.

Obtained a Masters in Business Administration in June 2008.

The career objective functions as a preview and a summary of the body of the resume. Read more about writing a strong career objective here.

2. Writing Out Your Professional Experience

Be strategic about what you put on the body of your resume. When you write out your past work experiences, a tight description is much better than a long, exhaustive list. For one, a thoughtful list reflects thought and mastery over your job. It also lets you highlight to the reader your most impressive skill sets and capabilities.

With that in mind, here are a few tips to help strengthen your work experience section:

A. Use targeted language in your professional experience section

Our applicant used very descriptive language to detail his job experiences, using industry-specific buzzwords such as “sales operations,” “marketing campaigns,” and “retail channels.” But more importantly, the applicant placed great emphasis on words such as “strategize,” “implement,” and “supervise”  that denote action and execution. These action verbs vividly communicate job capabilities, like leadership and initiative, that recruiters would look for in a candidate for a managerial role. Writing in achievement-oriented language makes the accomplishments for your resume much stronger.

B. Quantify your experiences

Why is it important to quantify your experiences? In short, presenting hard numbers give hiring managers a real reference point for your achievements and also demonstrate that you have been able to achieve concrete results.

Our applicant has done a good job quantifying his experiences. Here’s an example:

• Implement strategic goals for marketing campaigns with billings in the range of $1M to $3M; serve as project manager, leading a team of 20 creative and technical staff.

These numbers provide a reference for the scope of the candidate’s scope past marketing campaigns (“billings in the range of $1M to $3M”), with the added context of the applicant’s leadership reach (“20 creative and technical staff”). If you don’t have much work experience, don’t worry — you can also quantify parts of your educational history section to stand out from other entry-level applicants.

3. Writing Out Your Transferable Skills

Consider this a space for you to list out other soft or technical skills that you haven’t stressed elsewhere on your resume. Consider what sales skills, assets, and personal traits would make you a better candidate for the position. In this case, our candidate emphasizes that he has “established networks and contacts in mass market distribution channels” that can serve as an advantage for launching major marketing campaigns. Graduate coursework in technical topics also supports our candidate’s demonstrated qualifications in market analysis and strategy.

By following the tips above, you’ll surely avoid having your resume thrown in the trash like many other applicants. If you have more questions about how to write a sales resume, leave a comment below.