Sales Representative Skills for a Resume
Companies hire sales representatives who find new customers, grow existing ones and hit their number. Show your territory, quota and results, and the methods and tools behind them.
Updated
13 skills at a glance
Hard skills
What the work takes, how a hiring manager judges each skill, and a bullet point that shows it.
Prospecting and lead generation
Show the activity and the new business it produced.
Example bullet pointMade 60 calls and five visits a week to new prospects, turning 12% of them into first orders.
Territory planning
Show how you organized accounts and travel for results.
Example bullet pointGrouped visits by route and account value, freeing up an extra day of selling each week.
Product demonstrations
Show demonstrations that led to sales.
Example bullet pointRan on-site demonstrations of cleaning equipment that turned half of trial customers into orders.
Negotiation and closing
Show deals you closed and the margin or terms you protected while closing them.
Example bullet pointClosed a three-year supply agreement with a regional hospital group while keeping margin above target.
CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot)
Name the CRM and show disciplined use.
Example bullet pointLogged every call and next step in HubSpot, so my manager could forecast straight from my pipeline.
Pipeline forecasting
Show how accurate your forecasts were.
Example bullet pointForecast monthly orders within 8% across a territory of 90 accounts.
Quoting and pricing
Show fast, accurate quotes and margin control.
Example bullet pointSent quotes within 24 hours using standard pricing tiers and approved discounts.
Account management
Show growth and retention in existing accounts.
Example bullet pointKept 95% of accounts year over year through quarterly reviews with each buyer.
Soft skills
Shown through what you did, never claimed as adjectives.
Persistence
Describe an account you won after long follow-up, and what it became.
Example bullet pointWon a large account after nine months of follow-up, and it became my biggest customer.
Listening
Show how listening found the real need.
Example bullet pointHeard about a buyer's storage problem on a visit and sold a smaller pack size that solved it.
Confidence
Show selling to senior buyers or large groups.
Example bullet pointPresented to a purchasing committee of eight and won the contract against two competitors.
Self-motivation
Show results with little supervision.
Example bullet pointBuilt a new territory from nothing while working remotely, reaching quota in the second year.
Relationship building
Show long-term customer relationships.
Example bullet pointKept in touch with buyers who changed jobs, which led to four new accounts.
Keywords from sales representative job postings
Use the ones that are true for you, in your bullet points as well as your skills list.
- quota
- accounts
- Salesforce
- territory
- new accounts
- calls
- customers
- orders
- revenue
Each posting has its own words. Our guide to tailoring your resume to a job description shows how to find them and where to put them.
Where to put your skills
- In a skills section: a short list of the hard skills the posting names, in its words.
- In your bullet points: every skill that matters should show up in something you did, with a result. That is where a hiring manager believes it.
- In your summary: two or three of the skills the job asks for most.
More on choosing them in how to choose and prove the skills on your resume.
Questions
What skills should a sales representative put on a resume?
Prospecting, territory planning, demonstrations, negotiation and closing, CRM use, forecasting, quoting and account management, plus persistence, listening and relationship building.
Should I put my quota numbers on my resume?
Yes. Percent of quota, your rank on the team and revenue growth are what sales managers look for first.
How do I show sales skills without sales experience?
Use results from customer-facing work, such as upselling, keeping customers, referrals or fundraising, with numbers.
Put them to work
Start from a sales representative resume that already uses these skills, for an invented person, and make it yours in the builder.