5 Car Salesman Resume Examples & Guide for 2024

There are two types of car dealerships.

In type one, your manager calls you names, your colleagues lie to customers about almost anything to push one more beater, and you’re getting fined by not backing up their lies.

Most of your clients come from cheap craigslist ads or those 100 phony phone calls your management forces you to make every day. All the while you’re making close to minimum wage.

And then there is type two.

You sell really good cars, work for your clients instead of against them, and enjoy juicy dealer bonuses for meeting your quotas.

And you don’t have to inflate 150 balloons for the front yard every morning.

You know what the difference is between these two dealerships? Your Car Salesman resume.

Put simply, if it’s good, you’ll have more chances to get a job for the type two dealership.

But what are you going to write there? Definitely not something along the lines of: “I’m a nice guy, you have a nice place, that’s a match.”

No, you need a resume that sells you as a Car Salesman. Want to know how to write a resume? Tune in.

What this car salesman resume guide will teach you

• How to present your car sales experience in the most effective manner to land more interviews
• How to make sure that you list all the relevant soft and technical skills that recruiters look for in car salespeople
• What are the key responsibilities that every Car Salesman should cover when describing their previous experience in order to land an interview at a good company
• How to write a Car Salesman resume that sells itself

Looking for related resumes? Enhancv will help you out!

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How to write a car salesman resume

If you look at a typical Car Salesman job description, it doesn't say much.

Usually something along these lines: We’re ABC company. Help us sell cars.

One might even think that this is the easiest job in the world, because it can supposedly be described with so few sentences.

In reality, it’s absolutely the opposite.

Selling cars is a job in a cutthroat environment and only the most effective, creative, and driven people can make a good living out of it.

It goes without saying that if you want to land this job, your resume should project the same.

A preferable resume layout for a Car Salesperson is reverse chronological order.

It shows your working experience from the earliest to the most recent jobs you’ve had.

How to Write the Perfect Car Salesman Resume Header

It all starts with your resume header. Obviously, it should include your name and relevant contact information.

However, there are two things that can make it more appealing to a potential employer.

First, a link to your LinkedIn profile.

These days, people rarely come to car dealerships unprepared. They look for information online, and they consult with several other people before they even put their foot over your doorstep.

Networking has always been one of the key skills that can be put on a Car Salesman resume, but in our digital century, it becomes ever more important to network with people digitally.

A well-developed LinkedIn profile with many connections signals your ability to build relationships and grow a client base yourself.

There are actually cases when a Car Salesperson was able to successfully generate clients via LinkedIn.

If your profile features a few articles with car tips that prove you as a car expert, it’s even better.

Second, your photo.

It’s debatable whether you should put your photo on your resume or not. Some recruiters say it’s superficial, while others are sure it gives your resume a human touch.

However, with car dealerships, some job descriptions state “Professional, well-groomed personal appearance” or “Professional Attire”.

That’s especially true for luxury and high-end dealerships, where the first expressions of customers are often formed based on the appearance of the car salesperson.

If you have a photo that presents you in a nice, professional looking way, consider using it in your header section to increase your chances of getting a job.

2 Car Salesman Resume Header Examples

After your header is set up, proceed to keep selling yourself with a concise and attention-grabbing Summary section. Let’s talk about how you can do it.

What does the perfect Car Salesman resume summary include (+ examples)

A resume summary is a short section that briefly describes who you are and why you are good for this job.

With car selling, there are several things that can hint at your ability to sell cars, on the order of magnitude:

• Automotive sales experience
• Sales experience
• Account management, customer service
• Automotive experience (close to #3)

There’s nothing surprising about automotive sales experience being the number one advantage that should be mentioned, all the time.

With car sales experience, you know the in’s and out’s of a dealership business and how to make money for it.

However, sales experience from other industries is also a huge advantage.

Although many salespeople consider car selling as a gateway into a successful sales career, many experienced sales people come into car sales from other industries.

No wonder that Car Salesman job ads often state experience in retail, real estate, insurance, home improvement sales, and other fields as preferable.

The worst thing you can do with your summary though, is to be generic.

2 car sales resume summary examples

There are few things wrong with this summary:

• It states no experience in years
• It features no specific, number-driven results
• It’s plain boring

Here’s an attention grabbing Car Salesman resume summary example:

This summary states your experience, your results, and your aspirations, i.e. what should be expected of you in the future, while hinting at your passion for sales.

2 car sales manager resume summary examples

The same logic applies to your Car Sales Manager resume summary. It’s either generic, numberless, and unconvincing:

Or results-oriented, exciting, and actionable.

After a promising summary, your Hiring Manager will be eager to know how exactly you can help their business.

To answer this question, let’s properly frame your experience section.

How to build up your car salesman resume experience section

Recruiters from sales love numbers. But not just any numbers.

If you write in your experience section that you performed 50+ cold calls every day, that doesn't mean those calls were effective.

The same goes for working 5 extra hours every week. It doesn’t mean you were more productive during those hours.

Your numbers should come down to how good you’re selling cars, and that’s it.

A successful Car Salesman resume should demonstrate that you know how the car business makes money and that you can help it make even more money.

One of the most common metrics of success for car salespeople is how good they are at hitting their quotas.

They are especially vital in car business when dealers get bonuses for selling a certain amount of cars every month.

Quotas allow car dealership to forecast their income, to manage business objectives, to evaluate the performance of their salespeople. Put simply, quotas are vital.

But they’re not the only important thing in the car selling business.

Car selling margins can be surprisingly tight, especially on new cars, so most of the income may come from selling add-ons, financing deals, and manufacturer holdbacks.

Add-ons include rust proofing, fabric protection, service contracts, gap insurance, etc.

You may be good at signing financing and insurance deals, and if you want your resume to stand out, mention how effective you are at that.

Let’s see how a generic Car Salesman resume experience section looks:

Automotive sales resume experience examples

No quotas, no numbers, no indication of how good you are at selling.

Take a look at this Car Salesman resume example:

Not only does it feature your ability to sell cars, but it also shows your ability to generate additional income for the dealership and your flexibility in looking for new markets and opportunities.

All while demonstrating your concrete numeric results.

How to write an entry-level Car Sales resume

If you’re writing an entry-level resume with no experience and don’t know what to write there. Think about your past sales, general automotive or customer relationships experiences.

Maybe you helped your uncle manage the store, maybe you waited tables, or maybe you even fixed a friend’s car.

Apply the same logic: show results, show numbers.

This example provides both your sales acumen and your ability to work within a digital medium, which is crucial given how quickly the car selling landscape is heading towards that direction.

Let’s talk more about technical and soft skills that will make your Car Salesman resume stand out from the rest.

Emphasizing skills on car salesman resume

There are skills that are common in any sales job, and then there are those specific to car selling.

The usual sales skills include cold calling, cold emailing, networking, customer relationships, etc.

Specific car sales industry skills include general automotive knowledge, car models and difference between them and deep knowledge of specific car brands.

If you’re going to work at a car dealership of a particular brand, it goes without saying that you should demonstrate some solid product knowledge.

However, large car brands and dealerships provide that kind of training for their sales personnel.

Smaller dealerships, however, expect you to know more about cars, especially if you’re working in a used car market.

Oftentimes, you’ll have to compare models from different brands, years, and configurations, otherwise you’ll quickly lose the respect of a potential customer.

These days, huge corporate dealerships often use CRM-management systems and are heavily invested in digital marketing channels.

Thus, your proficiency in using those will be a plus.

If you’re applying to work for a dealership that sells specific brand of cars, consider mentioning your expertise with those.

How to add hard skills to your car salesman resume

Although most of the work that car salespeople do comes through exceptional soft skills, those technical skills would be a valuable addition to your Auto Salesman resume:

How to include soft skills in your car salesman resume

Try demonstrating your soft skills by putting them into a real world context.

Your soft skills section is a valuable opportunity to once again emphasize your passion for sales and number-driven success.

Below are some of the soft skills you can put on your car dealership resume

Education on your resume - yes or no?

Most car sales jobs do not require a college degree, and a high school degree should be enough for most cases.

The only exception might be for luxury brand dealerships, although if you have relevant experience with one it’d probably be an even better substitute for a college degree requirement. So an education section is not needed, unless you have a relevant degree and you don't want to miss a chance to boost your CV points.

What about certificates?

Include certifications in your car salesman resume

Although certificates cannot possibly indicate your ability to sell, they can be handy if you’re just starting out in car sales or switching from other sales niches.

In that case, a specialized auto industry certificate can be a valuable addition to your Automobile Sales Consultant resume.

Formal automotive sales training also can make you a bit more comfortable when stepping into this new direction.

Takeaways: How to write the perfect car salesman resume

• Treat your resume as a document that sells you to hiring managers
• Make sure to demonstrate your sales experience with numeric achievements
• Demonstrate that you know the in’s and out’s of the car dealership business and how you can help one make money
• Include relevant technical and soft skills, and describe how exactly you used them to drive more sales
• Write passionately about your achievements in every section of your resume so that hiring managers would like you even before they call you