Sales Associate Resume Examples and Templates for 2024

Sales Associate Resume Examples and Templates (Downloadable)

• Entry level
• Midlevel
• Senior level

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To land an interview for a sales job, you first need to sell yourself and your qualifications in a well-written resume. Employers are looking for candidates with strong communication skills and a track record of success in working with customers and bringing results and value to their organizations.

Whether you’re a seasoned sales associate aiming for a fast track to managerial positions or just starting out, follow this resume writing guide to help close the job deal.

Key takeaways

• Emphasize specializations: Sales associate is a broad title since there are so many types of sales – retail, business-to-business, corporate, and more. Focus on your specialized skills and experiences, such as if you sell technology products or jewelry or if you excel at upselling or cold-calling.
• Detail quantifiable achievements: Sales are all about numbers and reaching targets and goals, so your resume should showcase – with data – the results of your past work. Illustrate sales growth, customer satisfaction, and any other relevant metrics.
• Use keywords for ATS: Many employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes, so incorporating keywords and phrases from the job posting can help you get through to the next round.

How To Write a Sales Associate Resume Example

A compelling sales associate resume should share a narrative about your job history and qualifications that grabs the attention of recruiters. What attributes make you an excellent candidate? Do you have quantifiable achievements that you can share? And how do your skills and experiences make you a strong fit for the open role?

To keep your sales associate resume clear and concise, break it up into the following sections:

• Contact information
• Profile
• Key skills
• Professional experience
• Education and certifications

Read below for a step-by-step guide to each resume section, along with sales associate resume examples.

1. Share your contact information

Up top, include your current contact information, including your full name, phone number, email address, location, and a link to your online professional profile.

2. Create a profile by summarizing your sales associate qualifications

Think of the resume profile for a sales associate job as your personal sales pitch. It should summarize in two to three sentences your key sales skills and accomplishments. You can tweak your profile with different keywords and examples depending on the employer and role you are applying for.

3. Create a powerful list of your sales associate experience

The professional experience section is the bulk of your resume. It shares your most recent job highlights and works backward so that hiring managers can get a clear picture of your career progression. Share your previous sales associate and other related jobs, complete with employer names and dates of employment. For each one, focus on your key accomplishments, adding numerical examples when possible to provide evidence of your sales competencies.

Resume writer’s tip: Quantify your experience

By weaving data into your resume, you can provide prospective employers with evidence of the value you can bring to their organizations. Measurable metrics can be more effective than just a list of job duties.

Resume writer’s tip: Tailor your resume for each application

Crafting your sales associate resume to align with a specific job listing can help you stand out as a strong candidate match. Look carefully at the job posting to see the specific attributes the employer is asking for and note the keywords and phrases used. Then, see which of those qualifications you meet and make those the focus of your resume’s profile and professional experience sections.

For example, if the job requires industry-specific knowledge, such as selling software or insurance products, and you happen to have related experience, highlight that. For sales, you can also look into any technology platforms that the employer uses and mention if you’ve worked with them before. You can also see if anything from your educational background can help you stand out, such as a particular certification.

What if you don’t have experience?

Everyone starts somewhere, so if you lack sales experience, that’s OK – but you’ll need to be strategic when creating your resume. Think about any relevant experiences you’ve had in which you learned transferable skills, such as volunteer work, internships, or part-time jobs. Demonstrate you are a strong communicator and have a willingness to learn as these are skills that all sales associates need.

4. List any education and certifications relevant to sales associates

Education and certifications tend to be a bigger deal for higher-level sales associate jobs, but it’s still a good idea to include them on your resume even if you’re targeting more of an entry- or mid-level role. If you have attained a degree, even if it is in another discipline, it shows that you have developed communication and critical thinking skills. Should your degree be in a field related to products or services you want to sell, that can be a big help as well.

5. List key skills and proficiencies for sales associates

Your sales associate resume must make the business case for hiring you. Just as you’d share a product’s specs with a customer, your resume should clearly state the key skills you offer an employer. Use specific words and phrases from sales associate job postings so your resume passes through ATS programmed to look for specific keywords.

Some examples of sales associate keywords include:

Resume writer’s tip: Use descriptive action verbs

Be selective about the action verbs you choose since strong ones can help engage recruiters and tell a compelling career story. Think over past achievements and responsibilities in previous sales roles and choose impactful verbs to describe those activities. Consider these common action verbs for sales associates:

How To Pick the Best Sales Associate Resume Template

When choosing your sales associate resume template, your achievements and qualifications should speak for themselves. In other words, go for a clean, professional template that is free of distracting fonts, colors, or imagery. Keep it simple, ATS-friendly, and easy to read.

Sales Associate Text-Only Resume Examples and Templates

Frequently Asked Questions: Sales Associate Resume Examples and Advice

How do you align your resume with a sales associate job description?

The job outlook for sales occupations overall is expected to decline as compared to the average occupation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but that can vary widely depending on the industry. It’s important to tailor your resume for each job. Most companies rely on sales associates to introduce their products and services to new customers and keep existing customers coming back for more.

So how does your specific skill set make you the best fit for a role? Your resume should slightly change each time you send it out so that it mirrors what each recruiter is looking for.

What is the best sales associate resume format?

With most business-focused roles, including sales associates, a reverse chronological resume is the gold standard. Recruiters are familiar with the format, and can easily scan your resume to see how you’ve grown and increased your skills, along with bullets that present your accomplishments.

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Andrew Stoner

Executive Resume Writer and Career Coach

Andrew Stoner is an executive career coach and resume writer with 17 years of experience as a hiring manager and operations leader at two Fortune 500 Financial Services companies, and as the career services director at two major university business schools.