TL;DR: Don’t get creative. Download one of these templates, and keep things simple and straightforward.

Writing a resume or CV is not fun. And we hate to break it to you, but yours might be really bad. 

Too many sales resumes are cluttered with irrelevant details or hard to read. A lot of them are loaded with buzzwords but lack substance, or worse, try too hard to be creative, so the applicant tracking systems (ATS) rejects them before the hiring manager ever sees it. Some are even missing key information. 

Don’t let your resume cost you a dream sales role at a great company. The most common mistakes can be fixed. 

Microsoft may have killed Clippy years ago, but if you follow these steps, we’ll help you create a great sales resume that will highlight your skills and help you stand out in a crowded market.

Important Note: Don’t Design Your Own Resume

First and foremost, don’t waste time trying to design your own resume. 

You need to ensure that your resume looks good to both ATS and hiring managers. ATS platforms sift through hundreds (sometimes thousands) of resumes looking for defined content and keywords, and if they can’t make sense of your resume, yours will be filtered out. And hiring managers are going to quickly skim the resumes that get passed along from the ATS.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just pick one of these pre-designed templates: 

Resume Templates – Google Docs:

Basic Light Resume

Simple Resume

Resume Templates – Microsoft Word

Basic Sales Resume

Modern Bold Sales Resume

These templates improve focus by streamlining the process, allowing you to concentrate on crafting the content that presents you in the best possible light.

We Can’t Stress This Enough, Don’t Design Your Own Resume

In case you didn’t get the point above, do not design your own resume. It’s a waste of your time. 

Spend your time where it counts: the content.

Section-by-Section Guide to Crafting a Sales Resume

Once you’ve picked the template you want to use above, open it up and follow the advice below for each section.

Header & Contact Information

What to Include: Your full name, LinkedIn profile link, personal email address, and phone number. Including your city and state is optional, but can be beneficial if you’re applying for a local job.

Keep it simple and professional. Your name should be the same one you use professionally. Your LinkedIn profile should be up-to-date and reflect your resume’s content. Make sure your email address is professional, e.g., john.doe@example.com. (If your email address isn’t professional, get a new one. They’re free.)

Overview Section

What to Include: A concise, impactful summary of your sales career and skills. 

Highlight your years of experience, key sales achievements, and your primary sales focus (e.g., B2B, SaaS, etc.). Emphasize quantifiable achievements (e.g., “Closed over $25M in bookings” or “Closed 18 deals worth over $100K”

Don’t think of this as an “objective” or “purpose” statement — the recruiter knows your objective is to get the job. And don’t make it something generic, like “Sales Rockstar.” The content you have in the Headline or About sections of your LinkedIn profile should go well here.

Experience Section

What to Include: Your previous roles in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent position.

For each role, highlight key responsibilities and achievements, using specific metrics (e.g., “Exceeded quota in 8 or 10 quarters ”). Be clear and concise, focusing on your impact. Focus on results and the impact of your work. Don’t list every job task — only include what’s relevant to the role you’re applying for.

Oh, and make sure what you include matches what’s on your LinkedIn profile. Otherwise, you’ll be opening yourself up to additional questions about any discrepancies.

How Far Back Should You Go?

Unless you’re just starting out, you don’t have to include every job you’ve ever had. (And if you followed the steps, your years of experience will be in the Overview section.)

When deciding which jobs to include on your resume, a good rule is to focus on your most recent 10–15 years of experience. Positions older than that are often less relevant unless they directly relate to the job you’re applying for or highlight significant accomplishments.

Here’s how to approach it:

• For 10–15 Years of Experience: Concentrate on your most current and pertinent roles. Older jobs can usually be omitted unless they demonstrate key skills or achievements that are still relevant.

• For 15+ Years of Experience: Consider summarizing or leaving out early-career positions, especially if your more recent roles better showcase your qualifications and successes.

• For Executive or Specialized Roles: If you’re applying for senior-level or highly specialized positions, you might want to include older experience if it’s directly relevant, even if it goes beyond the 15-year window.

If you want, you can add a line at the bottom that says, “Experience Prior to [Year] Available On Request” or “See All Experience on LinkedIn.” This will help you keep your resume concise and focused, making it easier for hiring managers to quickly  see the value you bring.

Education Section

What to Include: Start with your highest degree, followed by any relevant certifications.

Include your GPA only if it’s above 3.5 or particularly relevant to the role. If you’ve been in sales for several years, you might consider omitting the GPA altogether.

It’s not required to include the dates for your degrees/education, but it can be helpful in communicating the nature of your degree.

What if you don’t have a college degree?

You don’t need a college degree to get into sales. There are many paths that can prepare someone to be successful in sales – including the military, sports, or even straight from high school.  

If you have already been successful in sales, then the lack of a college degree will be a non-factor. But if you’re looking to get your first role in sales, lacking a college degree will make it more difficult to get hired — especially in tough job markets like we’re in right now.

If this describes your situation, you’ll want to find other ways to make your resume stand out.

If you attended college for some period of time but didn’t graduate, you can cite that as long as it’s clear and not misleading. If you dropped out to care for a relative or support your family, you should mention that.

You served in the military, highlight that experience. If you’re an accomplished athlete (in high school or after), be sure that that’s clear. Mention any skills or experiences that are directly applicable to sales — such as leadership, organization, teamwork, and working hard towards a goal.

You can also highlight any professional development, such as sales training programs, certifications, or workshops you’ve completed. This shows potential employers that you’re committed to learning and growing in your field.

Skills Section

What to Include: Skills that are directly relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Tailor your skills to the job description. You should feature a mix of hard skills (e.g., CRM software proficiency, data analysis) and soft skills (e.g., negotiation, relationship building). If you’ve been trained on specific sales methodologies like MEDDIC, Challenger or SPIN Selling, list those. 

Don’t include generic skills that every candidate might list, like “Microsoft Office” or “communication skills” unless these are explicitly mentioned in the job posting. 

Final Touches and Review

If you’ve made it here, you’re done with the hard part. But before you attach your resume to the job post, there are just a couple more things we’d recommend.

Customize for the Role

You don’t need a fully customized resume for each job. The roles you’re applying to are probably very similar. But you should take the time to make your resume reflect the specific qualities that the company says it’s looking for.

If the job listing mentions “high achievement,” you’ll want to make sure that that’s reflected. If they say they’re looking for “hunters” you should be sure to call out roles in which you did your own prospecting.  Some cultures will emphasize collaboration. If that’s the case, make sure that you offer some examples of how you’ve contributed to the teams that you’ve been on.

Use AI to Your Advantage

The company you’re applying to will likely use AI to review your resume, so you should use it, too. There are plenty of AI startups out there designed to check resumes, but we’d recommend just copying the job description and your resume into something like ChatGPT with the following prompt:

Review the following job description and compare it to the attached resume. Identify how well the candidate’s experience, skills, and qualifications align with the job requirements. Highlight any gaps or areas where the resume could be improved to better match the job description.

Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

A glaring error is a quick and easy way to reject a resume. You have to proofread your resume multiple times to catch common mistakes like typos or grammar errors. Reading it backwards or aloud can help you catch mistakes. Consider asking a colleague or mentor to review it, as well.

Think of Your Resume Like a First Impression

Your resume is often your first impression on a potential employer, so it needs to be clear, organized, and memorable. It doesn’t have to catalog every nuance of your professional life — just the highlights that will make the HR team or hiring manager interested in learning more about you. 

Focus on showcasing the experiences and skills that align with the job you want, using a professional template to present them effectively. Stick to relevant content in a streamlined layout and you’ll create a resume that stands out for all the right reasons and opens the door to your next great opportunity.