Resumes are an inevitable part of the hiring process, whether you are a newbie looking for fresh graduate jobs or an executive-level candidate with years of experience. A hiring manager is going to know your worth through a single piece of paper – A resume. Here, let’s know about the Sales Support Associate Resume.
Resumes being such an important part of the hiring system, a candidate needs to make sure that they format the resume in such a manner that it allows them to stand out from the crowd. A resume needs to be short, precise, and contain only relevant information. The candidate also needs to make sure that they do not clutter the space with irrelevant information.
If you are planning on writing a resume for a Sales Support Associate, then the precisions criteria become two times difficult.
So, How does one make sure that they have the perfect resume, or where they should start from?
We are here with a writing guide that will maneuver you through all the obstacles of writing a perfect resume for your upcoming Sales Support Associate job.
Understanding the position.
Before you begin anywhere, it is necessary to understand the position for which you will be applying. A Sales Support Associate can also be described as a Sales Administrator and Sales coordinator.
A Sales Support Associate is responsible to work with the sales team and support other representatives with the defined sales quotas. They work upon all the administrative and data entry tasks, respond to emails, phone calls, customer queries, manage and process orders, customer accounts, and generate reports to notify the team.
All the above-mentioned work is carried out by a Sales Support Associate. As a candidate applying for a similar job profile, one must understand the skills required for each job, the qualifications, and experience. Understanding all the details will ensure that the sections of the resume are perfectly aligned according to the requirement of the position.
Now, let us get started with the things you will need to include in the resume.
What to include in the resume?
Resumes follow a particular format for almost all job profiles. Whether you are applying for an executive position or junior level position the information in the resume remains more or less the same.
Note:
To effectively highlight the right sections of the resume make sure you use the correct formats of the resume. For executive-level, follow a hybrid of chronology and skill-based format, while for junior levels, use reverse chronology or skill format.
The things you need to implement in a resume are:
- Contact Information
Contact information always stands at the top of the resume. A candidate needs to make sure that he or she provides correct information. The section needs to include the following details,
- Name
- Address
- Phone
- LinkedIn URL
Ensure to recheck the section multiple times. Also, give the latest details and provide alternate contact information in case any discrepancies arise.
- Objective
The objective or also known as profile summary is the pick-up point of the resume. It will help to hook the reader and summarize all the points of the resume in a maximum of three lines. The section must include details about your experience, expertise, job position, and relevant skills and achievements.
The details might seem too large to fit in three lines, but make sure to have a summary that is compact and generalizes the point of the resume.
- Education and Qualification summary
Education and Qualification summary can start with a basic introduction about formal degrees, diplomas, and other relevant certifications and courses that are taken by the candidate. Ensure to include qualifications you are currently completing if any.
For Sales Support Associate you would be required to have a minimum bachelor’s degree in Financial Services or Advertising and Marketing, or a related field. Other sales positions only ask for diplomas or training and courses in dedicated fields.
- Experience
The section can be the key to highlighting a lot of achievements that you have achieved in your professional life. Add relevancy and a maximum of three to four experiences you have in the position. In the case of graduates, internships can be mentioned.
Once you mention a certain job profile, ensure to add bullet points to explain what work you carried out in the position and what outputs or value did you bring in a certain project. Use constructive numbers to discuss the points.
- Skills
Skills are keywords that will help you crack the automatic tracking system in the screening process. Ensure to add relevant keywords that resonate with the job profile. Also, add additional skills that you possess in this section to improve the credibility of your resume.
- Certifications and License
Certifications and licenses can also be included in dedicated sections in a resume. The sections help candidates to back their experience and educational qualifications. Ensure to add only relevant certification and license.
- Interests and Awards
Though the section is optional, add it to improve your chances of hiring and standing out from the crowd. It will help you to compete against a candidate that has a similar profile to yours. Mention your major achievements.
Key highlights of the resume.
Sales Support Associate is a very competitive field, and one must ensure that they highlight the key prospects of their work. Highlighting the key prospects will help you compensate for the work experience you have and will also allow the readers to understand how well you know about a certain position and why you are a perfect fit for the team.
So, what should you highlight in your resume? Go for the following things.
- Start with administration duties, team size, and the support system that you would like to offer if you are a part of the team.
- Use different highlights for different industries and ensure that you mention how you will handle department deals.
- Explain your communication and management style. It will highlight your professional aspect. Also, mention platforms wherein you have exercised the role to its full potential.
- Include basic duties that are required like logistics, purchasing, ordering cycles, and extensive liaison with vendors and suppliers.
- Include all the technical aspects that you can use for the job. It can include management tools and software that are fit for the position.
You can ensure that all the points mentioned are covered in a precisely sectored manner in the resume. It will allow for easy access and reading for the reader, this saves additional time for the manager and adds a plus point to your resume.
The must-haves of a resume.
Even though everything matters on your resume there are certain points that any hiring manager will try to filter out at the first glance. It thus becomes necessary to include the same in your resume and make the work of the hiring manager easier.
Things that you must have on the resume are:
- Scores of Bachelors, Diploma, or any other degree that you will mention in the education section.
- Technical aspects and technology that you are comfortable with using. For instance, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms you are familiar with like Sage, Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, and Vanguard.
- Languages that you are proficient in like Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, and any others. It could serve as a plus point if the company you are applying to deals with international sales.
- Include products and services that you have previously worked with. It also allows them to understand if you would be the right fit for the position they are looking for.
Sales Support Associate Objective
Career objectives mark the start of your resume. Any hiring manager will not have more than a minute to skim through your resume amongst the pile in front of them. So ensure to make the work of the hiring managers as easy as possible.
Your objective needs to be precise and include key highlights of the resume. Try to add keywords that are mentioned in the job description, this will allow you to effectively catch the attention of the reader and tell them why you correctly fit the position of the team. Start with including your position followed by the work experience. In the second line try to highlight a skill that you possess that will help you stand out and add value to the position. It can include anything from “ attention to detail”, or “keen eye for”.
Let us get a hold of the objective with examples.
For freshers
If you are a fresher with less or no work experience, follow the below example.
“Aspiring Sales Support Associate with strong administrative skills, and a keen eye for details. Passionate team player, quick learner, and proficient in handling a team for large-scale projects. Efficient in communication skills, CRM, AWS, MS Project, and many other software and technologies related to the field”.
For experienced candidates
“ Senior Sales Support Associate with 6 years of experience in XYZ company. Efficient is multitasking and supporting a huge team with multiple projects. A keen understanding of how to prioritize work and effectively manage the success of the team while meeting deadlines. Also brought value to inf=dividual projects by adding 65% customer satisfaction in 3 months”.
Ensure that you elaborate on the points mentioned in the objective in further sections of the resume.
Sales Support Associate Experience
Experience forms an important section to highlight your accomplishments in the professional path. So ensure that you add relevant information in this section. For instance, if you are applying for a sales associate you should avoid adding your experience as a tutor, or delivery person. So ensure you add relevant positions.
If you are an experienced candidate make sure to add experience that you have achieved in the past 5 years. It will allow you to keep the section precise and ensure that all your skills are appropriately mentioned. Do not forget to add bullet points. Let us see an example.
Experience
Junior Sales Support Associate
XYZ company
2014-2018
- Worked to add new clients to the existing system and draft fruitful updates for existing clients.
- Handling a team of more than 10 employees and looking after inter-department communication.
- Generating more than 15 lead customers on CRM.
- Improved customer retention rate by 15% and customer satisfaction by 65% for amp generation project.
Observe the above example, apart from simple sentences you will see a lot of numbers in the bullet points, this is called quantifying. Constructive numbers help to hire managers to make quick decisions about the success of the project and understand what values you added to the same.
If you are a freshman the section can have little to no information. In such a situation try to add projects and other related information in this section. It will help compensate for less experience.
Sales Support Associate Skills
Sales support associate requires a lot of skills be it technical or soft skills, both are important for a person to work efficiently. The list of skills on the resume will convey to the hiring manager how you are the right fit for the job. It also helps in adding value to your resume and passing the initial Automated screenings conducted by the company.
When mentioning a particular skill in any section make sure to add a sentence that shows how you have incorporated the skill. Do not just jot down points and expect the hiring manager to believe that you have the skills. Every skill on your list will need to be proved through a credible source. The most credible source you could provide is your previous experience or data about where you have used the skill.
Let us take a look at an example that will help you ace the skills section in the resume.
Skills
- Strong technical aptitude that helped me to be detail-oriented and look for any discrepancies within the workspace efficiently.
- A grasp of communication and technology tools helped me to generate strong leads for the company.
- A keen eye for CRM systems, leading to top customer satisfaction results.
- Ability to complete a task within the deadline and allow time and space for further improvement in the project.
Here, you can see that all the skills are mentioned within sentences along with how you used the skill for adding value to your work. Adding sentences or supporting statements to your skills will allow you to add credibility to your skills and prove that all the skills you mentioned are used.
Apart from the above-mentioned skills, you can also add soft skills that will be useful to your position. You can include the following details.
- Integrity
- Initiative
- Empathy
- Self-control
- Problem-solving
- Meticulous
- Process-driven
- Realistic
- Conscientious
- Time management
- And so on.
Keep in mind here that look for keywords in the job description. Looking for keywords in job descriptions will help you add skills that are relevant to the position. It will also help you easily crack the automated system of screening. Also, do not forget to add supporting lines to support your skills.
Sales Support Associate Education
Sales Support Associate jobs do not require compulsory educational qualifications. Adding relevant educational qualifications to your resume will help uplift your resume. In this section, you can also add courses, training, workshop, and other relevant information.
Make sure to include relevant GPAs and majors and minors that you have scored in the degree. In this section keep in mind, if you have recently graduated from college or diploma make sure to add educational qualifications. It will help you to compensate for the lack of work experience. If you are an experienced candidate you can add a short description of your educational qualification, and even skip the section if you want.
Let us see an example of how you could add education to your resume.
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Advertising, sales, and Marketing.
State University of Alabama
2014-2018
GPA: 3.69
- Major in Advertising and Sales.
- Minor in business management
- Project-based on lead generation.
High school diploma
Westsideide school Alabama
2012-2014
- Sales administration courses.
- Dean’s honors list.
When writing this section in your resume, ensure that you add the date of commencement of the course and the end dates. Also, add majors and minors in your details, this will help to hire managers to understand what courses you are certified in and how you can effectively carry out the work.
Qualifications and certifications
Once you have mentioned all your educational qualifications insert a section in which you can mention all your certifications and license. You can make a tabular format in which you can include all the details of certifications.
Follow the following format for the same.
Certifications
Certificate: International Accredited Business Accountant (IABA)
Organization: NHA
Certification: Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
Organization: IMA
Certification: Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT)
Organization: PTCB
Certification: Certified Sales Professional (CSP)
Organization: MRERF
Interests and hobbies
Many people skip this section on the resume. Wise advice from several experts is to not underestimate the section in the resume. The interest and hobbies section on the resume will help you add skills that help you develop your personality. The section does not have to include any high-end skills like horse riding or surfboarding, this could be as simple as reading, dancing, or even public speaking.
Each of your highlighted interests will help the hiring manager understand what you do in your free time and what kind of a person you are outside the workplace. Keep the section short, yet do not skip it completely. The section can prove a tie-breaker among two very similar candidates.
Interest and hobbies.
- Blogging about marketing and management.
- Reading motivational books.
- Volunteering at a local NGO.
Quantify your resume
Up until now, you would have aced all your sections of the resume. Now is the time you go through each section once again and try to quantify the resume as much as possible.
An obvious question here would be, what is quantifying your resume?
In simple words add numbers to your resume. Try to answer two questions when quantifying your resume, ” How often”, and “How many”. The questions will allow you to add specific numbers to your resume, this indirectly helps in relating your work to percentages and adding a higher value than a normal sentence to your work.
Look at the following example for more details.
” Lead customer service, and customer calls. Generated industry information about industry products and research about the cooperative market”
” Lead customer service and calls, and managed to improve the satisfaction and retention rate by 35%, research about top 30% industry products and also studied the cooperative market for the last 5 years”.
The two examples indicate how adding numbers to your sentences helps you to bring out value to the work. The work is related to numbers and managers can directly look for proportionality.
Roles and responsibilities
Great, you have a great resume in hand. Now, what if you want to apply for specific positions. A general resume formatting might not be as fruitful as you think. Try adding specific details according to the position and its related responsibilities. To make your work a little easier we have curated responsibilities of various sales associate roles.
- Sales Support Associate in Financial Services.
- Solving customer queries regarding financial problems.
- Generating plans for retirement and insurance according to the needs of the customer.
- Respond to digital inquiries of the customers and work upon generating leads.
- Schedule appointments, meetings, generate reports.
- Work with a CRM system to log communication and also work on email responses.
- Sales Support Associate in Engineering and Manufacturing.
- To process orders and explain to clients about the designated products.
- Add relevant information to customer accounts and handle all the transactions.
- Look out for any discrepancies in the product at the final shipping stage and contact relevant departments for the same.
- Handle all customer query work.
- Sales Support Associate in Marketing and Advertising.
- Prepare drafts, reports, presentations, and other details to explain several departments of the work carried out by the sales team.
- Make promotional designs and finalize printed documents.
- Arrange for marketing events, gifts, inventory, and other related products.
Conclusion
Resumes are all about making your impression on the hiring manager and getting the interview. A single paper is worth your future so ensure that you add all the sections in such a manner that it keeps the readers hooked and tells them about your value to the company.
Define a perfect objective, support your objective with work experience, and educational qualifications. Add skills to add credibility and tell them about how efficient you are. Get that certification and license right, add interests to set you apart, and ace the entire resume with grace.
Now, that you have followed all the details mentioned, you can relax and wait for job interviews to pour in.
