Your Sales CV will be used in 4 key ways;
Understanding each of these will help you develop the CV that works for you and gets you that job interview.
The starting point for this will be the development of a job description, then a job advertisement. They both are important and are used in different ways. You will often find employers will use the job description as a very functional document, it outlines the activities, role and responsibilities for the sales job are applying for. The detail in this document will give you a real indicator of what experience and knowledge any serious candidate should have. The second bit of useful information you will have is the job advertisement. This could be the brief used by an agency or something you have seen online or advertised in the press. This will have less detail but will cover some of the areas the job description does. It is also likely to give you an indication of what kind of person the employer is looking for to fill their sales vacancy. Pay heed to this as you need to be selling your self against both the detail of the job and any personal characteristics required.
Employers and agencies will consider each application against the job description and job advertisement. They are looking for someone who matches the brief and matches their idea of the ideal sales person with great potential for the future. How do you win them over? By matching and exceeding their needs, and demonstrating the value you can add to their business. It is easy to get carried away though.
Is the recruitment consultant working for you or for the employer? Many will make you feel like they are working for you, in a way they are, but at the end of it, it is the employer who will pay the bills, you need to remember this.
Recruitment consultants and agencies work in a number of different ways two are detailed below.
Other ways of working tend to be in between retainer and payment by results. It pays to do your homework though, a good understanding of the basis of the relationship between the employer and the agent or consultant will help you know how your CV will be used. When applying to an agency on retainer, you are essentially applying directly to the employer. When you are applying through an agency on payment by results they are more likely to sell you the role, and push forward less than exact matches to the client, in the hope of meeting their needs and placing someone in he role. The agency or consultant will also try to sell you other roles they are trying to fill and could quickly fill your diary with interviews, some of which may not be exactly what you are looking for.
You may get the impression we are not fans of agencies and consultants working payment by results. This is actually incorrect, it is not perfect but many excellent candidates are placed in this way meeting and exceeding employer needs. If they see you as a strong saleable candidate they will also work hard to find you a god role. If they don’t you may well find you do not get many calls from them.
The biggest downside of working with agencies is the way they use the CV you compiled for a particular role to market you to other employers for other roles. This can be effective, but imagine how effective it could be if they agency tailored your CV for each role to ensure your best chance of success. Back to the real world, they are not likely to do this, payment by results means a fast turnover of roles and candidates is required. If your CV needs tailoring, you are the one who must do it, and you are the one who should demand the opportunity to do it if you are to be seen in the best light by each employer who comes across your CV.
Agencies and consultants can be a great help in finding your new role or career, but be aware of how they work, and try to make them work for you.
Some things that will annoy agencies and have you removed from their books.
Turning up late for interviews.
Not giving feedback after an interview
Not giving a prompt decision about a an offer
Not returning calls from the agency or their client
All of the above may seem obvious, but you will be surprised how many people lack the basic manners to avoid the above, all of which can impact on the agencies or consultants relationship with employers and potentially jeopardise future business.
Your application has been assessed and you are through to the interview. The best preparation for an interview is confidence, confidence in you, your abilities and your application for the role. This confidence will serve you will in all interview situations.
The CV is often used to help structure an interview, with the interviewer using it as a prompt to explore some of the areas on your CV in relation to the role. It is also likely they will also want to challenge some of the statements in your CV. Be prepared for this.
This is why it is important to be very careful about the language you use in your application. If it does not match the language you use in the interview it will raise suspicions in relation to the validity of some of your statements and could turn the interview into an interrogation.
Your CV is often your only opportunity to impress and should be developed with this in mind. All marketers invest time and energy in developing their brands to ensure they appeal to the right audience, it should be the same for your Sales CV. Give it a chance to succeed, put the effort in now.
We hope you now have a better understanding of how it is used and how you should prepare for this. The next section looks at the most CV Basics and the most common CV mistakes.
Other areas in this section
The I Can Sell Zones