How to Identify Sales Talent Via Their Resume

You’re looking to hire an exciting and talented individual for your sales job that you have open. Great! But how do you go about hiring such a person? It is a task much easier said than done of course. Luckily, it is very likely that your candidate will have a resume full of all the information that you need to hire them, so you can see if they are exactly the person you are looking for. And it isn’t just their qualifications that will make them suitable for the job.

Simple but important: Grammar

It may sound simple, but grammar is actually one of the key ways you can judge a candidate and if they are suitable for the job. The best candidates are those with the best grammar skills and ones that have clearly proofread their resume, to ensure no spelling errors are throughout the document. Sure, one or two here or there don’t mean they’re not suitable. We are human, we miss things. But the best will be at least spelt 99% correctly. The layout of the resume is also key, if it is laid out clearly and concisely. If a resume is put together well, you know that candidate cares about details and how they appear.

Speaking of grammar, it also pays for you yourself to have good grammar for when you evaluate the resume. Using resources such as Grammar Checker, Via Writing, Academized and State of Writing can help improve grammar and are very handy to check for any issues with the candidates resume.

Career Progression

Whilst looking through their resume, be sure to see their career progression and how they have progressed over the years. The best talent will rise through the ranks towards the top of their field, and will have had various promotions and a clear track record that shows such promotion. This you have to be wary of, because you don’t want to hire someone who is remained in one position through many years, unless they are fairly new to the game perhaps. Unless that is the case, stay away from static candidates.

Proof of achievement

Those that aren’t static though and have risen through the ranks may well have something that can show you just how good they are: awards. Maybe it is as equally obvious as grammar, but awards are solid proof that the work your candidate is doing is what you are looking for. Of course some great, hard work does occasionally go unrecognised and that’s fine, some talent does slide under the radar and can be plucked out of thin air. But an award is an award at the end of the day and cannot be taken from you, so that will prove just how good your candidate is. “Something like that will stand out on a resume and will be placed to attract your attention. It’s not bragging, it’s just they want you to be aware of their achievements as they know it will boost their chances of you employing them,” says Harry Sullivan, a resume writer from UKWritings.

Modesty is key

Speaking of bragging, it’s modesty that you must look out for as well. As you read through their resume and skill set, you want to be on the look out for any form of bragging and superlatives. Those are not the kind of people you want on your team, someone who has a big ego and likes to boast of their, what may just be, modest achievements. The best performers out there know that no one is perfect, but that there is always room for constant improvement even if they themselves are incredibly talented and already bring a huge amount of skills and experience to the table. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but you in fact can, and it is the same with humans. We can constantly learn and improve, and the best will always recognise that to be the case.

These are just some ways that you can determine the best talent to hire, just by looking at a simple resume. Resumes are of course just simple pieces of paper, but for you and your candidate they are so much more than that. They are the key to finding out their potential and who is best for your company. It is the only way in which you, as manager, can determine who is best before hiring them for your company and appointing their role. Pay attention to the resume, and you’ll hire the best of the best, and see your talent flourish as you intended. Just perfect.

How to Identify Sales Talent Via Their Resume was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.