Making Outstanding Sales Resumes

Mike De Luca is the President of Hearst Connecticut Media Group and the CEO of LocalEdge, a Hearst Company, in 2022. When he was SVP of Sales & Marketing at Yodle in 2010, he gave us an interview about what people get wrong about sales resumes and how they can fix it.

Looking back, his advice has withstood the test of time remarkably well, so we recommend that you pay attention to his wise words. If you work in sales and need a resume that is optimized for hiring teams (and ATS machines) in 2022, our partner Leet Resumes will do it for free (tips appreciated).

Much has changed over the years, but you’ll be surprised at how accurate Mike’s advice is still. (Only the links have been updated!)

Provide them with hard numbers in order to get employers to return your call.

The statistics speak for themselves. So sales resumes are the simplest to write, right?

Not at all. If they were, Mike DeLuca wouldn’t receive so many inflated resumes. Several examples:

• Goals were consistently surpassed.
• A sales executive who is unusually well-balanced
• I have always been an overachiever in all of my previous positions.
• Daily cold calls

DeLuca has a 30-year sales background with companies such as Yahoo, HotJobs, and EMC. He is now the senior vice president of sales at Yodle, a company that connects local businesses with consumers through online advertising.

If you’re a sales professional looking to work for a company that is rapidly expanding, you should know that Yodle “can’t hire people fast enough,” in DeLuca’s words. The issue is that the company isn’t receiving as many qualified resumes as it requires. They instead get fluff.

Salespeople need jobs, and companies like Yodle need better resumes, so here are some pointers from DeLuca and career coach William M. Gaffney on how to get started with stellar sales resumes.

Make it specific.

If you’re a salesperson who exceeds quota by 200 percent, that’s something you should be proud to highlight on your resume, according to DeLuca. In contrast, a vague phrase like “consistently exceeded goals” “doesn’t tell me specifically what you’ve done,” he said.

List the annual quotas/sizes and account types.

Titles and company names, particularly in sales, do not always tell the whole story, according to Gaffney. Employers can more easily identify a fit if they see your quotas as well as the size and types of accounts you’ve sold.

Avoid titles that are too long.

Gaffney has seen his fair share of resumes from people who claim to be “national account managers” but have sold to clients of all sizes. “While the title may be the title given to them by the company, it can appear almost arrogant on a resume,” he says. “That’s why it’s critical to explain your target market, quota, and so on.”

Display progression

DeLuca looks for progression on a resume, with professionals moving up the career ladder, taking on more responsibility, or demonstrating improved performance over time. “That’s something that a lot of people get wrong,” he said. “They… don’t look at the meat of what a sales hiring manager is looking for.”

Describe your employer.

If an employer isn’t a well-known brand, such as IBM or Coca-Cola, Gaffney recommends providing a brief description: no more than one or two lines.

Describe awards

Gaffney advises job seekers who list awards to include information about the award’s qualifications. “Simply receiving the President’s Award tells me nothing,” he explained. Gaffney explains a similar award on his own resume as follows:

Three times in five years, I was ranked in the top 10% of all sales forces in the country. One year, I was in the top 5% of the Chairman’s Inner Circle.

Get rid of “salesman of the month.

“ Gaffney advised skipping it unless you received it several months out of the year. “There are 12 months in a year, and getting it twice is nice, but it doesn’t necessarily show above-average salesmanship.”