Sales Representative Resume

Sales Representatives are also known as manufacturers’ representatives or manufacturers’ agents. They play an important role in the success of manufacturers, wholesalers, or technical companies as they require sales representatives to sell their products. A sales representative represents the company, and showcases and sells products. His/her primary job is to make customers interested in their products and to arrange the sale of those products. He/she describes company’s products, conducts demonstrations, and explains the benefits that their products convey, and answers any questions that their customers may have.

However, he or she may also perform several other duties, including analyzing sales statistics, preparing reports, and handling administrative duties such as scheduling appointments, filing expense accounts, and making travel plans for selling products.

A sales representative needs to have enough knowledge of whatever he or she is selling, and should possess excellent verbal communication skills and various sales tactics in order to be a more successful. He/she should also have updated knowledge about new and existing products and monitor the sales, prices, and products of their competitors.

Job Description for Sales Representative:

A sales representative’s job varies a lot depending on the type of company he/she works for. However, his or her job description may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Deals with complaints from customers; Discovers and handles concerns from customers; Arranges a number of status reports, for example activities, closings, follow-up and adherence to goals; Advertises and sells products and services of the company to current and perspective customers; Makes action plans and schedules to discover certain goals and to make a list of necessary contacts; Follows up on new leads and referrals stemming from field activity; Discovers sales prospects and contact them with other accounts as assigned; Makes preparations of presentations, proposals and sales contracts; Establishes and maintains materials relating to sales and knowledge of current products; Develops and maintains the relationships with current customers and potential customers as well; Helps the company implement its marketing plans as required.

Tips for Writing Sales Representative Resume:

Some of the most important tips for writing Sales Representative resume are as follows:

• Divide the Sales Representative resume into separate sections and subsections along with short paragraphs and bulleted points so that it can be easily legible.
• Give all required details, which include full name, contact information, telephone numbers, permanent address, email address, and career objective.
• Write your major professional achievements as Sales Representative next to the objective section as this gives an idea about quantifiable results of your work.
• Since Professional Experience section is very important for the Sales Representative job, therefore, it should be above the Educational Background section.
• Preferably, write your professional experience and related basic job duties and responsibilities in bullets as this will highlight them.
• Write all your major skills that are relevant to the sales representative job in Skills section. This section will highlight your key skills.

DO’s:

There are many things that should be included in Sales Representative resume, which are as follows:

• Write a job objective in your Sales Representative resume that strikes a chord with the employer.
• Summarize your strengths and key qualifications in the top half of the first page, which can be done with the Professional Achievements section.
• When writing a Professional Experience (Employment History) section, always emphasize your major accomplishments.
• Under each employer, give a bulleted list of your major accomplishments. Always show quantifiable results of your work in this section.
• Include your major academic qualifications in your resume that are specially related to sales representative job.
• Include a list of your key sales representative job related skills in your resume that can provide benefit to the employer.
• Include the professional affiliations, and training, workshops and seminars that you have related to your profession, if any.

DON’Ts:

There are a number of things that need to be avoided in Sales Representative resume. They include:

• Don’t include a lot of responsibilities and accomplishments in your resume as they will conceal the important points.
• Don’t give a long list of skills as it will only be viewed with skepticism.
• Don’t include photos in your Sales Representative resume.
• Don’t falsify information in any case.
• Don’t include unrelated personal information, e.g. your hobbies, health, social security number, age, height, weight, religion, citizenship, race, marital status, or names of wife and children.
• Don’t include research papers, dissertations, or lists of publications.
• Don’t make your resume too lengthy, as anywhere from one to three pages is enough.

Action Words:

Action words help in writing a professional looking resume. A number of actions words can be used in the Professional Achievements and Professional Experience sections of the Sales Representative resume. Some of the most important of these action words are as follows:

Attended, Commended, Contributed, Conducted, Created, Designed, Dedicated, Developed, Educated, Established, Expanded, Experienced, Followed-up, Generated, Handled, Identified, Included, Increased, Introduced, Led, Managed, Motivated, Participated, Promoted, Proven, Recognized, Resolved, Rewarded, Sold, Took, Travelled, Worked.

Interview Tips:

Interview is the most important part of a recruitment process, which greatly affects the selection or rejection of a job candidate. Therefore, it is essential for the candidate to be well prepared for the interview.

Following are a few important interview tips that should be followed when interviewing for the Sales Representative post.

• Make a list of common interview questions related to sales representative job and answers, or you can answer them by yourself.
• Determine field trends related to sales representative job, which are currently happening in your industry and how to face or solve them.
• Identify attributes, traits or abilities required for sales representative, which are especially related to this job and how to get them.
• During the interview, maintain a professional demeanor and refrain from discussing personal issues and problems.
• Always close the interview by expressing thanks and appreciation to the interviewers for their time.

Download Sample Sales Representative Resume in MS Word Format