Inside Sales Representative Functional Resume Examples

by Trudy Brunot Google

Changing careers makes a job search more challenging, especially when you have skills for a position but no direct industry experience or have periods of unemployment. Using a functional resume, you can boost your candidacy and competitiveness. Functional resumes emphasize skills and qualifications gained on and off the job, not a progressive timeline of experience characteristic of chronological formats. Functional resumes for inside sales representatives need to portray an ability to recruit clients and bring in new business backed with numbers that prove performance.

Skills for the Job Wanted

The job description serves as a map to determine what attributes and skills to include on your resume. These appear in two sections on a functional resume: the summary of qualifications and a section devoted to skills or experience called "relevant skills" that relate to the specific job you seek. Don Georgevich of the website Job Interview Tools advises presenting your qualifications according to the job you want, not the job you have. For example, if the inside sales representative job description lists account development, you may want to consider customer satisfaction statistics, tracking through CRM, or customer relationship management, software and sales success rates.

Qualification Summary

Inside sales representatives have strong communication and listening skills. They're persuasive self-starters and overachievers who manage time well. These attributes and other desired characteristics belong in your summary of qualifications. You can weave them together with key responsibilities from the job description and note any quantifiable accomplishments. This example of a summary statement makes a strong case for an achiever who communicates well: "Persuasive communicator with a 10 percent conversion rate over three months achieved through consultative selling skills, identifying opportunities, building relationships and overcoming objections."

Relevant Skills Section

The relevant skills section should showcase your top two or three major skills. According to Jo bInterview Tools, each major skill needs three to four statements that show how the skill enabled you to solve a increase profits, reduce cost or increase efficiency. The skills must relate to the job description and show measurable results. Sales centers around numbers; without them, your resume lacks credibility. For example, if you initiated a new webinar series, you could mention faster turnaround time, reduced calls-per-account and percentage of sales from new market segments that resulted.

Employment and Education Sections

Your work history and education follow your skills section on a functional resume. You briefly list the years, title, company name and location for your previous positions in the employment section. Your education section need not list dates but should include the full name, not abbreviations, of any professional certifications you hold. Because these sections appear at the bottom of the page, employment breaks don't detract from your abilities.

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