Sales Director Resume Example

This article will provide actionable advice on how to create a sales director resume that showcases your career achievements, expertise and leadership skills. The article will provide actionable insights on showcasing your leadership skills, long-term vision, strategic mindset and ability to develop and maintain a healthy organizational culture. Continue reading to discover the tips Jobseeker's career experts recommend for an effective sales director resume.

What to include in a sales director resume

Although the content of a sales director resume may differ according to your experience and seniority, the main sections will remain the same.

Your resume layout and structure may differ depending on your experience levels, but make sure your resume includes the following:

Resume Header

In your sales director resume header, list your name, email address, phone number and address or location. You can also add your LinkedIn, if you have one, to help employers better understand your work history and skills. While in some countries, you might include additional personal information or a photo, these aren't necessary. Be aware of the amount of space your resume header takes up. You don't want your contact details to take space away from the main content of your resume, so keep this section as brief as possible.

Make sure your email address appears as professional as possible, and doesn't include anything like nicknames, inappropriate language or personal information. If it does, set up a new email account with an address based on your name or initials, and use that for your job applications. Always double-check your contact details are up-to-date before sending your resume.

Resume Summary

The next section is the resume summary. The section might also be called 'resume objective' or 'personal profile'. This is a brief introduction to you, your key skills and your career achievements and ambitions. While a resume summary focuses on your career achievements and experience, a resume objective typically focuses on your ambitions for the future. Always make sure your summary reflects the job description and highlights some of the key skills required for sales director roles.

Alternatively, focus on introducing your career ambitions, and why this role is a good fit, both for you and the organization.

The best resume summaries reflect the job description and focus on qualities that are relevant to working as a sales director, while highlighting elements of your personality that make you an ideal candidate. They also quantify the information provided with evidence. Take a look at some strong examples of how to approach a sales director resume summary in the graphic below.

On the other hand, an unsuccessful resume summary is one that mentions irrelevant skills, qualities and achievements and fails to differentiate you from other candidates. See above for some examples of things to avoid when writing your sales director resume summary.

Employment History

In the next section, list your employment history focusing on the most relevant previous roles and achievements that showcase your sales director skills. Include any relevant jobs you've held in reverse-chronological order. Start with your current or most recent roles and work back through previous roles. For each job, list your title, the name of the company, its location and the dates you worked there.

For each job listed in this section, add some bullet points so the employer can understand the skills you developed, and your achievements. Focus on showcasing the impact you made on the organization, and show evidence of how you made a difference.

When writing a resume for a sales director position, you may wish to add a longer work experience section to your resume. Employers will be looking for candidates with extensive experience and achievements, making the work experience section the most important part of your sales director resume. While there are no definitive rules on how far back to go with your work experience section, or how many previous roles to include in this section, the general rule of thumb is to go back 10 to 15 years. For a sales director resume you may wish to opt for a work experience section on the longer side of this range.

A good work experience section pulls the reader in with clear examples of where you've put the skills necessary for the job into good use in your career to date. This typically includes evidence of how your skills and activities contributed to positive outcomes for the organization. See the examples below for some ideas of what a great resume work experience looks like.

The example above can give you some idea of what not to include in your resume work experience section. A bad resume work experience section might fail to address skills and achievements that relate directly to the job description. Falling back on clichés, vague descriptions and basic responsibilities, rather than showing the impact you made, is likely to disengage the reader.

Education

In this section list any educational qualifications or degrees that are relevant to sales director roles.

Typically, working as a sales director requires a university or college degree, which you'll need to list on your resume. If you're working in this sector, it's usually a good idea to highlight your Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree or other relevant qualifications. Focus on qualifications that showcase your strategic sales planning or CRM software proficiency.

Include any qualifications relevant to the role. For each, add the name and level of the award, the institution name, its location and your dates of study. If you have space, include some bullet points outlining any specialist areas of study, awards or high grades, so the employer can learn more about your unique skill set and knowledge.

If you organized or participated in any clubs or societies while at university, or you took part in any voluntary work, you could also mention these here.

Hard and Soft Skills

The skills section of a sales director resume is a chance to list any skills you have that match those of the job description. You could include key account management, strategic vision or any other skills that show you're a suitable candidate. Additionally, read the job description to make sure your skills match those required for sales director positions. You could also include some unique skills that help you stand out as a candidate.

Showcasing hard skills on your sales director resume

Under hard skills, add any specialist skills you possess that are specifically required for sales director jobs. These tend to be technical skills and industry knowledge essential to the position. Furthermore, it's important to show these skills in a sales director resume as they provide a strong indication of your experience in the sector. Add up to five key hard skills that show you're an ideal candidate for the role. It can also be beneficial to add context to each skill, showing how you've used it to positive effect in your career to date.

For an effective resume hard skills section, focus on the technical skills that are most essential in the job description, and that match your specific expertise. Some examples of the best hard skills for a sales director resume are listed below.

Listing soft skills on your sales director resume

Soft skills are the personal skills and qualities that make you a good fit for the job. They include transferable skills and strengths that help you settle into the role, adapt to new challenges and build effective working relationships. Indeed, without soft skills, you may struggle to adapt to sales director roles or meet the standards expected of you. So make sure you include several key soft skills on your resume.

Aim to include approximately five soft skills that reflect the skills listed in the job description. When applying for senior positions, such as sales director roles, your soft skills section should emphasize your leadership skills.

Your soft skills section should make the most of your unique personal qualities and strengths, while also reflecting the requirements laid out in the job description. See below for some examples of useful soft skills for a sales director resume.

Certifications and Training

Your certifications section is the place to mention any relevant professional sales director certifications, licenses or qualifications. These might be licenses that show you're qualified to operate certain equipment, or certifications that give you the edge over candidates with otherwise similar career history. Therefore, include the details of any licenses and professional certifications required for sales director roles, along with completion dates so employers can see you're up-to-date.

Review the list below for some suitable certifications for a sales director resume:

Optional Sections

There are several additional sections you could add to a sales director resume, to improve your chances of success. Pick from the optional sections below to help show the employer you have the skills and experience for the job.

Personal Interests

Hobbies and interests can be a useful way of showing your skills and experience beyond your work and education. Consider listing hobbies and interests to help your resume stand out, or to provide the employer with some insight into your personality and wider interests. They're perfect for candidates who might lack genuine work experience as a sales director. Think about adding hobbies and interests to your resume if they add some insight into your personality that you can't express elsewhere in your application.

Volunteering

Voluntary work can help you develop useful skills, so it's a valuable addition to your sales director resume. List your volunteer job title, the organization you volunteered for, its location and the dates of your involvement, alongside a brief explanation of your responsibilities in the role.

References

Standard sales director resumes don't tend to include references, but you might find them requested occasionally. Check the job advert to see if you'll need to add references to your resume. Include a maximum of three professional references, being sure to check with your referees before including them in your resume.

Best action words for your sales director resume

Action words can help illustrate to the hiring manager the difference you made in each of your previous jobs. Add strong verbs from the list below to create a greater impact with your work experience section.

If you're an experienced sales director, your resume may be longer than the standard one to two pages. Resumes for such senior positions need space to showcase achievements, experience and relevant activities that indicate your senior standing, so a resume length of two pages or longer is generally more acceptable. Jobseeker's resume templates were created by careers experts to help you produce a professional resume in minutes. You can also find cover letter templates to complete an eye-catching job application that gets you noticed.

Sample sales director resume

The sales director resume example below incorporates all the information from above into a full-designed resume template, so you can see how a final resume will look:

How to make an ATS-friendly resume

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are one of the key ways recruiters and employers manage the hiring process. The systems can screen candidates by scanning and ranking resumes based on each candidate's likely suitability for the vacancy. There are several things you can do when writing your sales director resume, to give yourself the strongest chance of ranking highly in the ATS stage and progressing through the recruitment process.

Follow these simple rules when writing your resume, to make sure it's ATS compliant:

• Adopt a traditional structure for your resume, such as a reverse-chronological format or a functional format. These are likely to be the easiest layouts for ATS software to scan.
• Add keywords that match the job description throughout your resume, as ATS applications scan for these and well-placed, considered use can help your resume rank more highly.
• Use clear headings that break your resume up into readable, scannable sections that match the standard content employers expect from a resume.
• Adopt a clean, unfussy design that gives your content enough white space to breathe. Use professional, readable fonts and subtle use of color and other design elements.
• Adopt simple, professional language to keep your resume as concise as possible. This tends to make your document more readable, and easier for ATS software to scan.

Key takeaways for your sales director resume

An effective resume is a concise, professional summary of your relevant skills and career achievements, showcased through a chronology of your career history. Use a suitable resume format and tailor your resume for every application you submit.

Jobseeker has a wealth of resume tools, including resume templates and examples, to help you create a winning job application. Sign up today to get started. A stylish, professional cover letter can make all the difference to your job prospects. See Jobseeker's cover letter examples, written by careers experts, to help you craft an eye-catching application.

Sources:

(1) Overcoming the Most Common Challenges in the Executive Job Search, MIT Career Development Office: https://cdo.mit.edu/blog/2024/10/15/overcoming-the-most-common-challenges-in-the-executive-job-search/

(2) How to Impress an Executive Recruiter and Break Into the C-Suite, Harvard Division of Continuing Education: https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-impress-an-executive-recruiter-and-break-into-the-c-suite/