Creating a great Sales CV

As you can imagine, in our line of work as specialists in IT Sales Recruitment, we see a lot of CVs! While a piece of paper is never going to fully represent you and what you can do for a business, the importance of ensuring your CV is as informative and engaging as possible should not be underestimated.

We meet amazing IT Sales Professionals who blow us away with their skill set and achievements on a daily basis, however it is surprising how rarely this translates onto a CV.

Your CV is a sales document that you will be judged on and will be retained by the company after you leave your interview – therefore, it needs to be perfect. Here are a few tips on how you can use your CV to effectively sell yourself and start the process to secure that new role:

• Explain; explain the technology, which verticals and market you were selling into, the geographical location you were covering, the clients you have worked with – and at what level – the size of deals you worked on and any other impressive achievements you may have had.  Bullet point format is best; it is easy to read quickly.

• Include figures; documenting your accomplishments in figure from is one of the most important things you can do on an IT Sales CV. Tell us what percentage was New Business VS Account Management and what your targets were VS what you achieved. Our Clients ask us for this information anyway, so showcasing it early on proves what a strong candidate you are from the outset and will speed up the recruitment process.

• Dates; include the dates (including months) of each of the positions you have had. IT Sales CVs without this information can look suspicious. If you have had a number of positions in a short time, or a long gap in employment, we recommend describing briefly the reasons for this; answer the questions in your own words before the employer has chance to ask them.

• Proof-reading; ensure that you have checked your CV thoroughly for spelling and grammatical errors – it sounds obvious, however this is one of the most common things we see. This document represents you and your suitability for employment and showing a lack of attention on such an important document will not fill potential employers with much hope.

• Keep it concise; there is nothing worse than a rambling CV! The general consensus is that anything longer that 3 pages is too long; we would have to agree. Whilst detail is important, really think about the information on your CV and how much value it is actually adding.

Howard Jackson are specialists in IT Sales Recruitment; we have recruited professional salespeople specifically for IT, Telecommunications, Cloud, Software, Services, Networking, Hardware, Telecoms, E-Commerce and other Technology companies for decades. If you are currently seeking a new position and would like some advice on your CV then get in touch! Howard Jackson have offices across the UK and we would love to meet you.

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