Are you a Sales Executive? Here are 7 proven sales CV tips to writing a winning CV.

Even if you're not thinking of changing your sales role any time soon, it's good practice to keep your CV up to date and current, so you have it ready, should a new opportunity arise. If you've not moved sales positions for a while, chances are your CV is probably out of date. Here are 7 tips that will help you get your sales executive CV in great shape.

Tip: 1 Write more than one page

Don't worry if your CV runs over to more than one page. To give the potential employer your full profile, you need to list all your details. It is a myth that employer's prefer shorter CV's. So put everything down in a clear concise manner, even if this runs into three or even four pages.

Tip 2 Use bullet points

Bullet points are easy to read, and allows the potential employer to quickly skim through and identify keywords that they are looking for. Use bullet points to breakdown your skills and efforts in a particular project.

Tip 3 Shout about your successes!

A potential employer or recruitment consultant is not psychic and hasn't got the time to read between the lines. Experience needs to be declared rather than implied. List sales figures you smashed or projects you performed and provide details as to how you were involved and your responsibilities. If there were problems highlight these and your ability to come up with the solution.

Tip 4 List professional experiences first

This means that while having a related degree may be necessary, you should list it after your professional experience. It seems unfair but the fact of the matter is that the first few years of your career are spent learning what should have been taught at University. The smaller jobs you did early on are not going to be relevant so leave these out.

Tip 5 Use Social Media

Social media outlets such as Linkedin and Twitter, gives you the opportunity to use your profiles to enhance your CV online. Linkedin can be used as an enhanced CV by duplicating the information on your CV and then filling in the extras that Linkedin allows.
A few examples of some enhancements that can be made through social media are:
getting colleagues to verify your skills, sales teams you built or were a part of
getting recommendations from fellow colleagues and then also
cross linking colleagues on sales teams and departments
This provides employers with the ability to cross reference what they are being told and verify that the material is in fact real.

Tip 6 – Use a credible, specific and dedicated email address

Use an email address with a professional address. Recently we have had candidates supply us with hilarious email addresses from anything from 'dickymint'@ to 'littlebakedbean@! Which has given us some real chuckles in the office, however, you need to create an email address that is credible. You could use the word 'job' within the address and create a new email address to use specifically for your job hunting. Using email systems such as gmail it's easy to set up more than one email address.

Tip 7 Update your CV twice a year

The worst time to update your CV is when you're looking for a new sales role. Going for long periods of time without updates, usually results in gaps of information or misrepresentation from just forgetting what you did and when!

How to solve the problem: Diary twice in your year to spend an hour or so updating your CV with new projects, skills etc, this way your CV will be up to date and ready to send out should a new role arise.

This article was written by Natalie Chapman Senior Search Consultant, Specialising in Placing Construction Sales People for Precision Recruitment. Contact 0116 254 5411 or email natalie@precisionrecruitment.co.uk

Check out the latest sales job here.