If you are a good salesperson, your sales resume and cover letter should reflect that by helping you sell yourself to your (prospective) new employer. More so than in any other business area, marketing professionals expect a perfectly-written, superb cover letter and resume because they figure if you can’t sell yourself and your own qualifications, you won’t be able to market their products and services, either.

That being said, it can be difficult for even top-notch marketing or sales managers to effectively sell themselves. After all, you don’t want to sound like a braggart; nobody likes an arrogant fool, right? But, at the same time, you don’t want to come across as ineffective, either. Nobody wants to hire an ineffective sales team or sales manager, right? So, how do you strike that perfect balance when writing your cover letter and resume?

The best thing you can do for yourself is to consider yourself a product – a valuable product – for a few minutes. Think about yourself as someone who is on a shelf waiting to be purchased, just like those five hundred computer systems you sold to your local school board last week. What was so special about those computers? Did you tell the customer about those features, or did you just let him wonder? Of course, the answer is, yes, you explained what was so great about those particular computers.

Now, think about this: what is so special about you? Are you going to tell your prospective employer all the best features of yourself or just let them wonder? If you want to get the position, you will showcase your best features on your sales resume, just like you highlighted all those superior features on the computers.

You have several choices for your sales resume format. You can choose to use one of the chronological resume formats, you can choose one of the functional resume designs, or you can choose a customized resume that contains features of both. Whatever resume styles you prefer, it pays to create a resume outline first and think logically about your experience and education so that you can determine the best place to put pertinent information. For example, does landing a big account belong under the accomplishments section or the skills section?

One of the easiest ways to create a sales resume is to use one of the fine resume software programs available in your local store or as a download from the Internet. That way, you can see exactly what the different resume styles look like and decide the best way to market your own special sales talents.