5 Inside Sales Resume Examples & Guide for 2024

You keep applying for quality jobs with your Inside Sales resume, but get no offers in return.

Eager to land a good sales position, you rinse and repeat. Just need to send out 100 resumes, and you’ll get a job. After all, sales is a game of numbers, right?

Wrong. Ok, eventually you’ll get a job.

But don’t act all surprised when you end up in a boiler room of some shady business loan company with a 1-page script on your desk that screams: “150 calls a day. Go!”

If you want to land a good job in inside sales, and not in telemarketing, your resume should sell you that way.

Well, how do you write your resume then? That’s what this guide is for.

Our inside sales resume guide will show you

• Examine 11 Inside Sales resume examples and identify their strong and weak sides
• How to write an Inside Sales resume that convinces recruiters you’re the only candidate they need
• How to make sure your Inside Sales resume presents you as an inside sales expert and not a telemarketer
• How to structure your Inside Sales resume even if you don’t have much inside sales experience
• What Inside Sales resumes grab recruiters attention and which ones are tossed out immediately

Looking for related sales resumes?

• Sales resume
• Sales Coordinator resume
• Sales Representative resume
• Sales Manager resume
• Sales Associate resume

Tips and tricks to write a job-winning Inside Sales resume

See, the thing is, there are quality inside sales jobs and then there are the rest.

With quality jobs, you generate high-grade leads, nurture and build rapport with your clients, utilize latest sales tools and CRMs, and sell good products along the way.

You also enjoy sweet sales commissions. That’s inside sales.

With other jobs, you call people on Sunday mornings, hear them shouting at you for interrupting a family dinner, and then eagerly wait for them to hang up the phone.

That’s not inside sales, that’s telemarketing.

Every section of your resume should either properly present you as an experienced inside salesperson or a high-potential candidate for this job.

It matters a lot how you write about your experience, how list your technical skills and even how you shape your resume Summary.

Let’s take a look at the crucial sections of your resume.

Recruiters scan your resume within seconds, and if they don’t find what they are looking for, they’ll toss it out and move to the next candidate.

Which inside sales resume format should I choose?

With an inside sales resume, follow a standard reverse-chronological resume layout if you have consistent sales work history.

If you’re just starting in sales or switching industries, consider a hybrid resume layout where you can combine relevant work experience and skills to make a good impression with recruiters.

Writing an Inside Sales resume header - what (not) to do

If you want to distinguish yourself from telemarketing, you obviously should not combine both Inside Sales and Telemarketer titles in your resume header.

That is, of course, if you’re not doing it intentionally.

Some job openings can be titled as “Inside Sales Representative”, but if you look closely at their descriptions, it’s just a cold-calling factory:

Merchant Cash Advance/Business Lending Company is looking to hire aggressive hungry phones sales individuals who want to go to make serious income

Of course, you can’t be 100% sure if that’s the case, but if you see a lot of overly flattering adjectives in a job description, that can be a warning sign that they need a phone killer.

It’s true that “inside sales” is quite a broad term that is referred to any sales made remotely, via phone, email, etc.

That’s why for many companies inside sales can mean different things.

For some companies, inside salespeople are telemarketers in disguise.

For others, inside salespeople are highly trained sales professionals who can support long, complex remote sales cycles and are usually oriented towards high-grade product deals.

In any case, you’re safer when you tailor your header accordingly to the position you’re applying for.

2 inside sales resume header examples

Also don’t forget to include a link to your LinkedIn profile.

Inside sales are heavily dependent on your ability to network and connect with people online, and a well-developed LinkedIn profile is a great indication of these skills.

When your header is set up, it’s time to work on your Summary section.

Making sure your inside sales resume summary gets noticed

2 Inside Sales Resume Summary Examples

Both sales recruiters and business owners like numeric results and achievements in sales resumes.

But only those results that added to the business’s bottom line.

So if you brag about being the worker of the month in your resume Summary, chances are it won’t impress that many people.

Your inside sales resume should be about business results, but there’s only so much you can talk about in your summary section.

So focus only on your biggest achievements and results. The rest you’ll feature in your experience and skill sections.

If you’re applying for a sales position in a specific market and have relevant experience, mention that too.

Just don’t forget to focus on the bigger picture objectives, like annual quotas, revenue targets, or other achievements that directly correlate with business profits.

Don't have a direct inside sales experience? No worries. Read this next section.

Entry-Level? Here are tips for your Inside Sales resume objective

If you’re applying for an entry-level inside sales position and have no inside sales experience, that’s not the end of the world.

If you have any sales experience, that’s a good start. It doesn’t matter whether you were selling remotely or in the field, just focus on your results and achievements.

If you don’t have any sales experience at all, don't give up that easily.

Find anything that is relevant to sales, even if that was just a summer gig, or a side project of yours and include that in your resume objective.

2 inside sales resume objective examples

If you have no sales-relevant experience at all, at least focus on why you’re a good fit for the particular company.

With your Summary section up and running, let’s get to the gist of your inside sales resume — its Experience section.

Inside Sales resume experience section - here’s what you should know

There are three things that differentiate a great, convincing inside sales resume form a bad one.

Sales achievements that contribute the business bottom line

• Bad example: made 50 outbound calls every day;
• Good example: made at least 50 outbound calls per day, while meeting a $1.9 million quota.

Specific inside sales workflows

Technology plays a major role in the inside sales world, and a phone is not the only tool that inside salespeople utilize.

Your abilities to generate leads and build relationships remotely using a wide range of online platforms and services is a huge advantage.

Examples: Facebook campaigns, Instagram advertising, Google Ads, LinkedIn prospecting, email funnels, content marketing, etc.

Technical expertise with inside sales processes and tools

Inside salespeople follow the whole sales cycle with their leads: generation, nurturing, product demonstration, and then following up with an offer. All while staying remote. That’s why serious companies have a very complex sales process that involves CRM systems, social intelligence software, email tracking software, etc. If the company you’re applying for requires a knowledge of some CRM in their job description, gently weave your CRM experience into your workflow as well.

Don’t forget that in order to create a perfect inside sales resume, you should strive to combine all of the three above components in your resume experience section.

Below are two examples of inside sales resumes that you can compare. Which one is more convincing?

2 Inside Sales representative resume experience samples

Now we know how to properly write about your experience if you have it.

What to do if you have no experience?

How to write your Entry-Level Inside Sales experience section

The usual advice for entry-level sales jobs applies here. Try finding at least something relevant to the sales process and format it the same way: results, workflows, technologies.

You may have never sold anything to anyone, but you probably helped your friend set up an Instagram account and engage his or her first followers.

You may have not used an advanced CRM platform, but perhaps you organized or moderated online communities within your university or sent out organizational emails.

Maybe you were selling auto parts at your uncle’s store, or promoted his services via Google Ads.

Anything that shows your sales potential might work, just make sure to feature results and workflows, not just marketing buzzwords like “lead generation” and “inbound marketing”.

Remember: never lie on your resume. It’s better to spend time acquiring at least any sort of experience, than faking it.

Now let’s talk about your Skills section.

Don’t disregard your Inside Sales resume skills section

One of the best practices for writing resumes that perform well is to match it to the description of the job you’re applying for

Here’s an example from an open inside sales position:

• Responsible for qualifying prospects, developing interest and closing sales through account follow-up, outbound cold calls and emails
• Strong phone presence capable of making dozens of calls daily
• Uses Salesforce.com (CRM system), including the development of reports, to improve the overall sales processes
• Influence and improve account profitability through various selling techniques including online presentations, floor matrix illustrations, gap indexing analysis, etc.
• Execute merchandising/advertising activities to support new product launches and re-branding efforts
• Understand customers’ needs and requirements

Now this description is a mix of soft and technical skills, with soft skills like cold calling, email prospecting, closing, and presenting.

Technical skills include proficiency with CRM systems and online advertising.

Make sure to prioritise those skills in your resume skill section.

Here’s a sample bullet point list corresponding to the job ad above:

• Gathered, managed and updated relevant client information to improve the quality of a sales process;
• Generated actionable weekly reports operating Salesforce platform;
• Created and updated a segmented KPI sales dashboard to track daily performance of sales associates.

Listing soft skills on your resume

The soft skills are far too important for any sales position to be neglected.

Don’t just list them in your Skills section though. Always strive to prove that you have those skills. To do that you need to put your soft skills in the real world context.

Below are some examples of how you might do it:

With your Skill section set up, let’s talk about your Education and Certification skills.

How to position education on your inside sales rep resume

Education requirements for different inside sales positions vary from high school diploma to a BA/BS degree in Business Administration or Finance.

Sales in general is a field that will often prefer a candidate with extensive experience over one with a bachelor degree in something.

If up to that point you haven’t convinced recruiters to call you, an education section won’t change that much.

However, candidates for entry level inside sales positions will definitely benefit from mentioning their BA or marketing degrees.

As for the certificates, while they can’t substitute actual sales experience, they may strengthen your overall profile.

You should definitely highlight certificates relevant to a specific job opening, e.g. Salesforce certification or Google Ads.

Gotchas and takeaways from writing a perfect inside sales resume

• Make sure your resume gives off the vibe of an inside sales professional and not a telemarketer
• Backup all your sales achievements with numeric results that are directly tied to the business’s bottom line
• Combine specific inside sales workflows and technical skills with general sales performance results in order to create a convincing and attractive Experience section
• Include relevant certificates to strengthen your overall inside sales profile
• Put all your sales skills into a specific context so it won’t look like you just copied and pasted them from the Internet.