It doesn’t matter if your job has nothing to do with sales. (But if it does, then this applies even more!) Your job search is the biggest sales process of your life. YOU are the product, and you’re trying to get someone (a potential employer) to buy you (agree to pay you for your time and talent).

Your resume is a vital step in your marketing process to convince someone to give you the job. It’s your brochure that tells about the product (you). It’s important that it’s clear, easy to understand, not too busy, and it should describe those key pieces about the product that make it interesting. Watch the video and I’ll tell you how to accomplish that, and what your resume should look like. I’ll even give you ideas to get you started.

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I’m starting a new 6-part series on how to stand out in your job search.  Our economy and job market have experienced quite a few blows and shake-ups in the last few years, and many people are in competition with you for the best jobs (and I think many more will be jumping ship for something better when the economy really starts to pick up in the recovery.)  You’ve really got to bring your game in order to be successful.

So what’s your first step?

Tip #1: Rethink Your Job Search

Most job seekers don’t understand that the job search is a sales process, even if your job has nothing to do with sales: you want an employer to hire you, which essentially means to buy your product (that would be you). So here are the questions you must ask yourself:

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As a sales recruiter, I specialize in placing sales and sales management professionals, and I’ve seen tens of thousands of resumes throughout my career. Since I often sift through them quickly, it takes a great resume to stand out from the crowd and get my attention. And job seekers in health care sales, medical device sales, laboratory sales, and pharmaceutical sales always ask “What can I do to get my resume noticed?” Beyond the basics of an easy-to-read, error-free, well-structured resume, there are qualities that catch my eye and cause me to consider candidates more closely, and I’d like to share them with you. Here are some easy changes you can make to your resume:

1. Highlight your performance. If you’re in sales, it’s vitally important that you demonstrate that you can ring the cash register. You show the hiring manager why he wants you on the team by highlighting your sales numbers, number of closes, key influencer sales, expense budgets, revenue, profit, growth, sales rankings, goal attainment, and so on. You can list that as numbers, dollar amounts, percentages, or whatever is appropriate. I have seen some eye-catching resumes that incorporate colored graphs to illustrate, but be careful not to overdo it. Use whatever style that best represents your growth.

2. Write a well-crafted objective statement. Think elevator pitch. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that a resume objective statement will limit your opportunities. It won’t. What it will do is capture the reader’s attention and lead him or her into reading the rest of your resume. (So make sure it’s compelling and not a canned filler statement.) It’s entirely appropriate to tailor your objective statement to the job opportunity so that you can highlight what you can bring to that particular organization. Once I’ve read the rest of your resume, I might see that you’d also be a great fit for another opportunity.

3. Add something special. If you’re new to the field, try a preceptorship, and put that experience on your resume (it’s a great keyword source). It shows that you’re serious, and willing to go the extra mile. And it can go a significant way to answering the “experience” question for hiring managers. Also, I have seen resumes with quotations that sum up their attitudes, drive, determination, etc. Or, I’ve seen others with a list of their recent reading material (although you must be able to talk intelligently about those books). But be careful about listing too much information. For instance, hobbies work only if they’re relevant to the job. Don’t let anything on your resume take away from your message: you have something to offer to contribute to an organization’s success.

Above all, remember that your resume is not about you; it’s about the employer. You’re using the resume as a marketing document that highlights why you’re the person to help them succeed.

If you need more help, check out this Resume Training video from Career Confidential.

Job seekers can mistakenly think that the big job title they’ve had is always impressive on a resume. Some sales reps have the title of VP, or Sales Director, even though they were actually in a one-to-one sales role. This can cause a problem for you in your job search if you’re looking for another sales role.

If you happen to be transitioning into medical sales, you’re not going to get a VP role, or a Director role, or even an Account Executive role with that title on your resume, because every recruiter and hiring manager will assume that you won’t be happy as a sales rep.

So if you’re looking for a sales rep role, especially in a new sales area for you, you need to downplay the big titles, and maybe think about a competency-based resume. Emphasize your skills, point out your technological or science background, and highlight your sales numbers to get hired.

There is one thing that hiring managers are really looking for when scanning resumes of sales reps :  revenue.  That means they want to see the numbers (or percentages) of revenue generated, revenue saved, or labor saved.

The only way to show a hiring manager what he wants in a sales rep (and why he should hire you) is to include those numbers on your resume.  You’re not going to be hired based on what you were “responsible for.”  You’re going to be hired based on what you’ve done, and what you can do for them.

What kinds of numbers should you include on your sales resume?

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Just a quick heads-up for today:

When you send your resume to a recruiter by email, don’t send a cover letter as an attachment.  For the most part, it’s a waste of time.  A busy sales recruiter doesn’t have time to open extra attachments, and expects that you’ll say what you need to say in the body of the email.  Do what you can to make life easy for the person reading your documents.

BTW:  A resume objective is a great way to get that summary of who you are and what you want, too.

A sales rep’s job is to make the sale.  So if you’re looking for a new sales job, your mission is to demonstrate that you can ring that cash register, and do it well.  (If you’d like to transition to medical sales, check out How to Get Into Medical Sales.)

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If you want your resume to actually be a marketing document for you, and get a recruiter’s or a hiring manager’s attention, you must pack that resume with the keywords that are relevant to the career area you want. Recruiters, hiring managers, and Human Resource departments use computer searches and applicant tracking systems to flag resumes worth looking at, and that means they use keywords to search for the ones they’ll be interested in looking at further.

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Let’s say you’re a recruiter, and you’ve just received a resume that includes a paragraph like this:

In my spare time, I am physically active. I run, mountain bike, play tennis, and I teach yoga on weekends. Physical activity keeps my body and mind in shape, and promotes balance and clarity in my life. I belong to a community theater and am active in productions, and I play bass in a band. I am an avid reader. I am a mother of two and gave birth to my second daughter between degrees; taking only 3 months off and continuing to work while taking classes, which shows my drive and tenacity to succeed!

What would you do?

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If you’re new to the job market, you probably have challenges that are a little different from other candidates:  you probably have a small network to access, you have only limited job experience, and you’re still learning the job-hunting ropes.  Here are a few job-hunting tips that will help you get on the right road to success:

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