Automatically apply for jobs with Zippia

Upload your resume to get started.

Outside sales executive skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

6 min read

Quoted experts

Jonathan Byers,

Adegoke Oke Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical outside sales executive skills. We ranked the top skills for outside sales executives based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 16.3% of outside sales executive resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an outside sales executive needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 outside sales executive skills for your resume and career

1. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how outside sales executives use customer service:

Implemented new and more effective internal operating procedures for management of samples, progress reports and customer service operations.
Hired to increase laboratory sales within new territories and promote more improved customer service relationships.

2. CRM

CRM stands for Customer relationship management and it is a complete process through which a business or organization monitors and administers its interactions with the customers. A process in which large amounts of data are collected through marketing via a company's website, polls, surveys, and other social media applications. The basic goal of CRM is to target the right audience for their product, and then fulfill their needs, to increase the sales and revenue of the company.

Here's how outside sales executives use crm:

Maintained company proficiency in Salesforce CRM by providing training on-demand.
Utilized Salesforce CRM to help Network with Businesses

3. Account Management

The process of strengthening the relationship between a company and client is called account management. Effective account management has two key objectives, one is to retain loyal customers and the second one is to help the company grow by creating connections with new customers.

Here's how outside sales executives use account management:

Solicited and secured contracts from businesses and organizations through prospecting, account management and development.
Provided overall sales support, including account management, troubleshooting, implementation and order processing.

4. Business Sales

Here's how outside sales executives use business sales:

Coordinate new business to business sales strategy for company.
Coordinate and establish existing customers through Internet sales Wholesale business-to-business sales Corporate sales Developing and establishing business in new territories

5. Cold Calls

Cold calling is a kind of business solicitation from customers who didn't express interest in their product and services before. In this technique, a salesman conducts a call with potential customers with whom they haven't had a prior interaction. Cold calling can include phone calls or telemarketing. However, in-person visits like door-to-door marketing are also a type of cold calling

Here's how outside sales executives use cold calls:

Led all management aspects of approximately 60 accounts, Generated new business through cold calling and marketing educational seminars.
Monitored activities of four inside sales representatives, prospecting/cold calls to develop new business.

6. Business Solutions

Business solutions are potential outcomes for companies struggling with a particular objective, often surrounding a customer issue. There are five main parts to a successful business solution: (1) the target customer, (2) the activity, (3) the overall goal, (4) the hurdles or obstacles, and (5) the preferred outcome.

Here's how outside sales executives use business solutions:

Experienced meeting with C level executives and presenting CenturyLink business solutions.
Represent stand alone products of genuine interest to prospective clients and cross sell business solutions to an existing client base.

Choose from 10+ customizable outside sales executive resume templates

Build a professional outside sales executive resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your outside sales executive resume.

7. Sales Presentations

Here's how outside sales executives use sales presentations:

Captured new business by developing and delivering high impact sales presentations.
Crystallize historical and financial data into concise sales presentations for clients.

8. Sales Process

Here's how outside sales executives use sales process:

Achieved and exceeded business quota by building strong relationships and utilizing a highly consultative sales process to Fortune 500 companies.
Led all product demonstrations for inside and outside sales teams during sales process presenting product benefits to new prospects.

9. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how outside sales executives use business development:

Performed daily and weekly reporting to upper management, client based presentation/creation and execution, business development, and forecasting.
Executed profitable sales strategies and business development initiatives to generate 150% increase in territory revenue throughout tenure.

10. Telemarketing

Here's how outside sales executives use telemarketing:

Performed Business-to-Business Telemarketing and consultation to local businesses to promote Human Resource Library and website for Human Resources Professionals.
Build instant rapport and cultivate business-to-business relationships through telemarketing, targeted cold calling, discovery meetings, and presentations.

11. Business Relationships

Here's how outside sales executives use business relationships:

Network extensively with clients to build successful business-to-business relationships.
Key role in strengthening and expanding current business relationships and achieving sales growth and leadership in a national market.

12. Sales Targets

Here's how outside sales executives use sales targets:

Marketed home remodeling services and repeatedly exceeded sales targets by 50%.
Generate self leads to promote the Company and achieve sales targets.

13. Relationship Building

Relationship building is the act of building a lasting social connection with people whether online or in person. It's a soft skill required for those going into marketing, communication, and every other field that requires dealing with the public to help them connect better with people. It's also great as a personal skill for gaining meaningful relationships that can help one in the future.

Here's how outside sales executives use relationship building:

Demonstrated superior relationship building skills (oral/written).
Developed special order business through relationship building with contractors and architects.

15. Product Knowledge

Product knowledge is the skill of having better information and knowledge about the product you are selling. Product knowledge is essential for the employees of the companies so they can communicate and inform the customers about the product. Having great product knowledge is essential for a better sales pitch and to give the customer a better and complete idea of the product that will influence him to buy the product eventually.

Here's how outside sales executives use product knowledge:

Facilitated bi-monthly client forums to pioneer new business and communicate product knowledge.
Developed weekly 'lunch and learn' seminars to educate the design community on product knowledge and technical advancements in the industry.

5 Outside Sales Executive resume examples

Build a professional outside sales executive resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 5+ resume templates to create your outside sales executive resume.

Create my resume

Build a professional resume in minutes using this template.

What skills help Outside Sales Executives find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on outside sales executive resumes?

Jonathan Byers

Assistant Director, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

- Professional skills related to career development competencies such as strong oral & written communication, teamwork & collaboration, leadership, problem-solving ability & creativity, and professional integrity, but we recommend that applicants do not just list these skills. They should provide evidence of how they have used them in their work experience, volunteer experience, academic experience, etc.
-The ability to use technology effectively to solve problems or improve collaboration; this could relate to social media management, computer hardware or software skills, proficiency with general programs like Microsoft Office Suite (also being able to demonstrate the use of these skills in various experiences).
-With diversity, equity, and inclusion becoming more important in 2020, the ability to appreciate different points of view, accept and appreciate different cultural backgrounds & types of identities, and increased awareness of one's own cultural biases and assumptions can also be important to market on a resume.

What soft skills should all outside sales executives possess?

Adegoke Oke Ph.D.

Professor of Supply Chain Management, Arizona State University

In general, people skills: leadership, effective communication and negotiation skills, the ability to work effectively with people in different cultures and in a team environment.

What hard/technical skills are most important for outside sales executives?

Adegoke Oke Ph.D.

Professor of Supply Chain Management, Arizona State University

Data analytics skills are currently in high demand, so is understanding the impact of emerging technologies and digitization on business

What outside sales executive skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Kaustav Misra Ph.D.

Associate Dean, Central Connecticut State University

This pandemic taught us many things and one important thing that we have an efficiency gap.

The way of doing business will be much more technology orientated. Hence graduates should be ready to unskill and upskill their credentials. This time it is necessary to forget the old way of doing business and learn new skills to get a job or stay in a current job. Soft skills have become much more important than before, but a different soft skill set would be essential to interact with future market participants. Thus, a gap year should be utilized to unskill-upskill and enhance relevant credentials by getting into short-long term programs, training, and workshops would be highly recommended.

What type of skills will young outside sales executives need?

Dr. Vallari Chandna

Chair and Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Critically, for all graduates, expertise or interests, in sustainability will be important. The reason behind this is the shift in looking at sustainability holistically and not just as something one-person does. This would also give an edge to those with degrees, specifically in sustainability. Graduates with degrees related to sustainability will often be asked to oversee or manage these across-the-board sustainability endeavors. Also, soft skills are highly desired. The ability to be better at time management, work in teams, and have a strong work ethic, will be more desirable. These are all interconnected with remote work as well. Employees who "thrived" in the pandemic were those able to manage their work-life balance, work remotely in teams, all the while performing well. The skills are thus "transferable" to both modalities of work in this way.

What technical skills for an outside sales executive stand out to employers?

Linda Hajec

Assistant Teaching Professor of Accounting, Associate Chair, Student Recruitment, Retention and Outreach, Penn State Behrend

I think the basics are still important - the feedback from employers still says that they want to see excellent skills in Excel - but if we are talking about changes as a result of the pandemic, job candidates that can also show a comfort level with remote meeting software will feel more natural and less awkward going forward. If you are going to meet on Zoom, make sure you know where to find the features on the screen and if you need to, practice with someone who knows you are just needing to mess around with the settings.

The last thing you would want to do is accidentally exit your interview halfway through because you didn't know where the "share screen" button was. Being familiar with other online collaboration software such as Teams or GoogleDocs is important, too. Even companies that are not working 100% remote are finding great use for these kind of sites, even just to house documents such as policy manuals that they want to share with a group of employees. The fact that a group can work together an collaborate asynchronously is a reality that many companies had not faced before, so the employee needs to be prepared to remember to follow up on team projects instead of waiting for a meeting to see where everything stands.

Do you want to know more?

List of outside sales executive skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an outside sales executive resume and required skills for an outside sales executive to have include:

Customer Service
CRM
Account Management
Business Sales
Cold Calls
Business Solutions
Sales Presentations
Sales Process
Business Development
Telemarketing
Business Relationships
Sales Targets
Relationship Building
Social Media Marketing
Product Knowledge
Lead Generation

Sales Quota
Outbound Calls
Sales Strategies
Saas
Local Businesses
Sales Pipeline
Direct Sales
Excellent Time Management
Real Estate
C-Level
Sales Territory
Customer Satisfaction
SEO
Develop Leads
Customer Accounts
Sales Growth

Media Sales
Trade Shows
Product Demonstrations
Sales Proposals
Customer Retention
Client Satisfaction
ROI
Market Research
Customer Relations
Customer Support
Product Line
Sales Volume
Repeat Business
Software Solutions
SEM
MRO

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse sales jobs