INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Wholesale & Manufacturing Sales positions are at a 5% growth rate, which is slower than average. With that said, there are currently 1,625,700 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 77,600 to 1,703,300 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Wholesale & Manufacturing Sales jobs was $65,420 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $31,950, and the highest 10% more than $129,200.
Our conclusion? The Wholesale & Manufacturing Sales job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Sales Account Executive sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Sales Account Executive resume experience section
Sales Account Executive Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Sales Account Executive resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Responsible to define and execute the strategic engagement with 2 Global Oil & Gas Accounts WW (Total & OMV). Work on complex, multi-millions / multi-sites deals with mid to long sales cycles (6 to 24+ months).
- Manage and coach 1 Sales Account Manager based in Aberdeen
- Leverage internal resources (Services, Solution Consultants, R&D…) and external resources (Accenture, McKinsey, Wood…) to position solution based on business case and cost vs. benefits analysis.
- Collaborate with internal resources to define value proposition and go to market strategy for Industrial AI technology
- Managed ~ 15 accounts in the Chemical, Pharma and Power sector in Europe (travelling 30% of my time abroad)
- Started June 2016, focused on 4 major accounts in Europe in Oil & Gas sector with total contract value of ~26 million $
- Engaged with Department Head, VPs and EVPs, CDOs... for up-sell, cross-sell and renewal contract negotiations
- Completed the 1-year Emerging Leader Program with Cornell University
- Strategic planned Brazil B2B Retail Channel
- Implemented one global B2B2C sales program in Brazil
- Launched an MVP in Brazil of a Global Finance partnership program
- Managed reseller account
- Managing Oracle relationship with Enterprise Customers.
- Understand Customers business, their pains and their goals, and address the right solutions for their needs.
- Ensure 100% customer satisfaction and retention.
- Up-selling and leveraging business from new and established customer relationships.
- Strengthen client relationships through regular engagement and face-to-face meetings.
- Own the sales cycle - from lead generation to closure.
- Work in partnership with our team of Business Developers, Sales Engineers, Partners and marketers for all sales leads and sales opportunities.
- Prepare and demo Oracles technology with a personalised experience for each customer requirements.
- Analyse, Plan and Execute a Territory Business Plan in order to guarantee 100% coverage of my territory.
- Demonstrate the business benefits and value proposition of Oracle Technology and Cloud solutions to business customers.
- Generating and following up on business opportunities to create more demand with new and existing customers (Business Intelligence, Chatbots, Blockchain, IoT, Security, IaaS, PaaS, Database and Integration) and maintain customer relationship.
- Working with and developing relationships with Oracle Partners, Pre-Sales teams and Business Development Consultants to drive revenue and maximize customer service.
- Plan and implement demand creation activities and direct sales campaigns.
- Win sales deals in a competitive environment to achieve sales targets.Develop and execute a sales plan that provides complete territory coverage.
- Explain and demonstrate the value of Oracle technology to executive decision makers.
- Led and managed a cross functional team of inside and outside specialists through the sales cycle with customers including; value based problem solving, business discovery, technical validation, presentations, negotiations, and solution implementation
- Acted as primary point of contact for K12 and Higher Education accounts in Missouri where it was my responsibility to build and maintain relations from the influencer level (teachers, IT Technicians, students, etc) to the decision maker level (CIO, IT Director, Principle, Superintendent, Board)
- Created sales and marketing events to showcase Dell solutions to large groups of diverse customers in the region. These events typically included sales,marketing,product teams,and local VARs
- Managed and collaborated with partners by providing training, resources, guidance and sales support to VARs in my territory
- Developed over 125 new customer relationships accounting for over 1.8 million dollars in earned revenue
- Consistently exceeds quota by 120% or above for the past 18 months
- Able to demonstrate and execute solid sales initiative, contract negotiation skills, proposal preparation and presentation
- Manage and maintain business to business and business to consumer new and existing global company sales quotas of Float Pod products
- 2018 President's Club Winner - Gross New Clients
- Help manage over 500 active advertising accounts
- Sell new listings and digital marketing solutions, upgrade current packages, stay up to date with government affairs and fair housing laws
- Service current clients
- Networking at Arizona and Nevada client events and local association philanthropies
- Manage a pipeline of SDR and self-generated leads making daily contact with prospective clients to solict new business. Developed 1.5MM new opportunities in 6 months
- Conduct online demonstrations to validate platform features, quality and assess upfront business impact
- Quarterback across SE, CS, Product development and Senior leadership teams
- Educated, trained, and on-boarded enterprise accounts
- Integrated service in skilled nursing facilities, clinics, and hospitals
- Presented service and technology to healthcare executives
- Developed and authored SOPs for organization across all divisions
- Assisted in growing customer base from 11 accounts to 132 in 5 months
- Successfully on-boarded 121 new accounts over 5 months
PRO TIP
Check the Sales Account Executive job description for inspiration. Look for similarities between your employer’s values and your experience.
Action Verbs for your Sales Account Executive Resume
Recommended reads:
Sales Account Executive Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Sales Account Executive resume
- Salesforce
- MS Office
- CRM
- Forecasting
- Cold Calling
- Business Development
- Customer Service
- Project Management
- Relationship Building
- Time Management
- Storytelling
- Research / Information Gathering.
- Critical Thinking
- Problem Solving.
- Tech Savvy
- Networking
PRO TIP
Don’t feel obliged to spend a separate section for your soft skills - you can weave them throughout your job experience or career summary. But, don’t just write empty words - back them with examples.
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Sales Account Executive Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Sales Account Executive Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have non-discrimination policies about what kind of information can be included on your Sales Account Executive resume. This might include a photo (which is often included in a resume header and might be on personal web pages you link to). You can always email the company’s HR department to ask about their policies before you apply.
Sales Account Executive Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Sales Account Executive resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
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Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Sales Account Executive resume
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PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
Sales Account Executive Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Sales Account Executive Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
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PRO TIP
Sometimes you’ll want to go after a job which requires more experience than you have. Instead of using a typical Sales Account Executive resume layout, you can use a creative layout. Getting noticed is the most important challenge and a creative resume layout might help you get invited for an interview as most of other accountants have boring resume designs.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Sales Account Executive resume:
Sales Account Executive Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Sales Account Executive resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Sales Account Executive Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
