Sales Manager Resume Example

Sales manager resume template

5 tips for writing an excellent sales manager resume

As a sales manager, you’ll be leading many talented and educated professionals with outstanding analytical, communication, and leadership skills, in addition to putting your sales experience to the test.

But to find a good job as a sales manager, you need a resume that advertises your sales skills and convinces employers that you’re the right person for the job.

To help you get started, we’ve included five writing tips, along with a sales manager resume template.

1. Write a strong resume summary

As an experienced salesperson, you know that first impressions are essential to keeping people interested and eventually closing a sale. Your resume is no different.

Your resume introduction is the first section hiring managers will see on your resume, so it’s important to hook them right from the start.

To do this, we recommend using a strong resume summary that communicates to the hiring manager how you’re a good fit for the position by listing your relevant experience, skills, qualifications, and career highlights.

Here’s an example of a well-crafted sales manager resume summary:

Resume objective examples for a sales manager

Alternatively, you could write a resume objective. A resume objective is preferable if you don’t have a lot of work experience or you want to emphasize your career goals. Here are some examples of compelling resume objectives for sales manager roles:

2. Quantify your sales experience

From making sales to balancing budgets, sales managers deal with hard numbers every day. Your resume should reflect that by including examples of your accomplishments backed up with hard numbers.

Including hard numbers gives hiring managers a real-life reference point for your achievements, and also demonstrates that you’ve been able to achieve concrete results.

Here’s an example of quantified work experience on a sales manager resume:

Sales manager for 5 marketing campaigns worth $1M to $3M; implementing strategic marketing and sales goals, and leading a team of 20 creative and technical sales staff

The above sales manager’s hard numbers provide a reference of the overall monetary worth of their past marketing campaigns (range of $1M to $3M) and the number of employees they managed (20 creative and technical sales staff).

3. Include action verbs in your work experience section

In addition to including hard numbers, you should start each bullet point in your resume off with a strong action verb.

Action verbs help employers understand your role in a project or achievement. Often, these terms highlight your ability to take initiative and make decisions.

For example, the candidate in the sample resume starts their bullet points with the terms as “strategize,” “implement,” and “supervise”. These words emphasize their leadership experience and decision making skills.

Using action verbs makes your previous accomplishments look much stronger to a hiring manager, compared to using phrases such as “duties include” and “responsible for.”

Here’s an example of 30 excellent actions verbs for your sales manager resume:

4. Scan the sales manager job description for skills and other keywords

When employers post job descriptions online, they normally include industry-specific keywords in the posting that they’ll want to see on applicants’ resumes.

Industry-specific keywords are especially important for larger employers, who use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to automatically scan your resume for these keywords before forwarding it to the hiring manager.

If you want to ensure that your resume is actually read by the hiring manager, you’ll need to write an ATS-friendly resume by including those industry-specific keywords (also referred to as ATS keywords) when detailing your experience, skills, and qualifications.

Here are the most in-demand keywords that we grabbed from real sales manager job descriptions:

5. Include your sales skills

Sales managers need to manage campaigns, help promote products, all while managing personnel daily. To be a successful sales manager, you’ll need a wide range of sales skills to be successful at the job.

Listing skills on your resume is a great way to quickly showcase to the hiring manager which sales expertise and skills you possess that’ll help you get the job done.

You should make sure to include both hard and soft skills on your resume to show that you’re a balanced candidate. When considering what hard skills to include, you should list the technical skills required for your job, such as the specific software tools that aid in data analysis needed to develop new sales strategies.

Sales managers will also need various soft skills, such as strong people skills and having the ability to negotiate while actively listening to clients and customer needs.

Instead of listing soft skills in your skills section, explain how you applied them in your work experience bullet points, like this:

• Communicated weekly performance insights and strategic goals across departments, using excellent communication skills to boost cross-functional collaboration

Here’s an example of 20 great hard and soft skills for your sales manager resume:

Average sales manager salaries in the US

After you’ve written your resume, make sure you use it to apply for jobs within a fair salary range.

The following table includes information from the most recent US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report (May 2024). Here are the ten states with the highest salaries for sales managers, as well as the national average for your reference when applying for work.