Sales CV Example, Template, & Writing Guide for 2024

Ensure your CV format is structured to best highlight your unique experience and life situation.

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How to write a sales CV

Before you begin writing, make sure you know how to write a CV in a way that best emphasises your strengths.

You’re confident, persuasive, and goal-oriented — a natural at turning opportunities into transactions. But whether you’re a recent graduate, a rising sales associate, or a seasoned sales executive, you need a professional sales CV to showcase your revenue-generating abilities to employers.

To help you create a winning sales CV that gets you the job you want, we’ve outlined three essential tips to emphasise your expertise, showcase your skills, and fine-tune your application for specific employers.

1. Tailor your sales CV to the job post

When hiring for a sales position, employers don’t just want anyone with data-entry skills and a good telephone manner.

Employers want sales representatives with the product knowledge and industry expertise to draw in potential customers and drive revenue growth.

So if your sales CV shows that you understand the employer’s specific industry, needs, and products or services, they will want to hire you.

Begin by reviewing each job ad carefully to see what skills and experience the employer is looking for.

Maybe they’re looking for a certain number of years of experience, customer service skills, or a specific set of personal traits.

Regardless, tailoring your CV to the employer’s needs is the quickest way to grab their attention.

Once you understand what the employer is looking for in an ideal hire, use descriptive examples in your CV’s personal statement and work experience section to catch their attention.

Also, mention any responsibilities you held in your former workplace or university that are relevant to the advertised sales job.

For instance, listing your position as the chairperson of your school’s business club demonstrates your management and teamwork skills.

Or maybe you built the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for your former employer or improved the operational systems.

Explain how you achieved your goals while keeping the job description in mind.

2. Highlight your sales skills

No two sales agents go about closing a deal in exactly the same way — and the best agents don’t close a deal the same way twice.

Your skills in this industry set you apart from the competition, and the recruiter will be looking for the right combination of skills for your CV that set you apart as a great sales candidate.

Whether related to your marketing knowledge or specific understanding of the employer’s niche, the hard skills you present on your sales CV will make you look like a promising salesperson — the kind of candidate the employer is eager to add to their team.

Increase your chances of getting to the interview stage by highlighting some of these technical skills on your sales CV:

Soft skills are personal attributes that help you relate to others and put your technical skills into practice. You shouldn’t list soft skills in your skills section. Instead, mention soft skills in your descriptions of your past job responsibilities, like this:

• Conducted persuasive sales pitches, adapting communication style to diverse audiences, and successfully closing high-value contracts with major clients in various industries

Here are more soft skills to emphasise in your work experience section:

3. Include sales-related keywords in your CV

Employers often don’t have time to go through each applicant’s CV by hand, so many use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter out applicants that don’t fit their needs. Even if your sales CV is beautifully put together, it won’t get read by your future employer if it doesn’t pass the ATS.

ATSs look for specific keywords related to the role you’re applying for. Keywords are CV words and phrases that relate to your experience, skills, and education.

But in the same way that you don’t gain customers by overwhelming them with selling point after selling point, thoughtlessly stuffing keywords into your CV can be off-putting to employers.

So for a CV that’s both professional and ATS-friendly, ensure the keywords you use feel natural and flow well throughout your sales CV.

Here are the best keywords to include in your sales agent CV:

As well as including sales-related keywords in your CV, ensure you mention specific keywords related to the company you want to work with.

For instance, if the job post seeks a communicator and results-oriented person, place these keywords in your CV. If the job is specifically related to cold calls or referrals, include those terms in your CV.

And if you need help organising your job-specific keywords into professional CV content that flows naturally and persuasively, consider using a CV maker that generates pre-written bullet points that you can adapt to target the specific job you want.

How to follow through on your sales CV

A great CV will help you get your foot in the door, but to land top sales jobs you’ll also need to make a stellar impression in the job interview.

Sales jobs rely heavily on communication skills, such as rapport building and storytelling. To convince the employer that you have those traits, you’ll need to know how to use common interview questions, like ‘Tell me about yourself‘, to your advantage.

In this video, sales coach Patrick Dang, breaks down a few questions employers love to ask when hiring for a sales position — and explains how you can stand out from other applicants when answering them.

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More CV & Cover Letter Examples:

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Cover Letters:

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