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Sales specialist skills for your resume and career

Q: How to calculate sales increase

You calculate sales increase by subtracting your prior sales period net sales from your current net sales and dividing that number by the prior sales period net sales. You then multiply this number by 100. Use these steps to help you calculate sales growth for the company:

Q: How to get more sales on Shopify

You can get more sales on Shopify by connecting to an email platform, focusing on customer retention, and using a cross-selling strategy. Sales can also be increased by using eCommerce SEO, writing good product descriptions, and always offering an upsell.

Q: How to increase restaurant sales

You can increase restaurant sales by establishing target goals, offering delivery and curbside pickup options, and extending your operating hours. Sales can also be increased by enhancing your mobile presence, attracting new customers, and training your staff to upsell.

Q: What are outside sales?

Outside sales refer to the sales of products or services by sales personnel that physically go out into the field to meet with prospective customers. This can happen at industry events and trade shows, as well as the prospect's office, a restaurant, or simply going from door to door.

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Adry S. Clark Ph.D.,

Jim McClenahan

Some of the most important hard skills a sales specialist can possess include the skills and knowledge related to sales processes, including finding potential customers and building business relationships. It's important that sales specialists also have experience with handling customer complaints, customer relationship management (CRM), meeting sales goals, and an abundance of product knowledge regarding what they are selling.

When it comes to soft skills, sales specialists should have very strong communication skills. You will also need to demonstrate stellar customer service skills, and a focus on customer satisfaction. Sales specialists need to communicate consistently with customers and be able to resolve any issues, so communication and customer service skills are crucial.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical sales specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for sales specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 10.3% of sales specialist resumes contained building relationships as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a sales specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 sales specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Building Relationships

Here's how sales specialists use building relationships:

Maximize sales by regularly connecting with established clients and building relationships with prospective customers.
Increase overall business by building relationships, retaining clients and improving customer satisfaction.

2. Customer Complaints

Here's how sales specialists use customer complaints:

Handled customer complaints with home installations through on-site project inspections with contractors and through computer generated customer complaint systems.
Position required the provisioning of quality customer service through the promotion of wireless services and resolution of customer complaints.

3. Customer Orders

Here's how sales specialists use customer orders:

Accepted individual customer orders and special orders for delivery, completing all required paperwork accurately and completely.
Represented organization through catalog shows, managed customer orders and records, advertised specials and shared business opportunity

4. 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 sales specialists use product knowledge:

Provided exemplary consultative selling, and product detailing, using product knowledge and pharmaceutical background experience.
Provided outstanding customer service through extensive and progressive responsibilities in both product knowledge and customer support.

5. Patients

Here's how sales specialists use patients:

Acted as educator and spokesperson displaying exceptional professional ability to establish strong relationships with medical health professionals and their patients.
Mastered delivering technical product information to doctors on training and teaching proper injection technique to achieve optimal results for patients.

6. Sales Process

Here's how sales specialists use sales process:

Worked closely with manufacturer's sponsor to identify new business opportunities and routinely participated in the sales process and product services.
Helped redesign the sales process eliminating unnecessary steps & eliminating group presentations.

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7. 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 sales specialists use crm:

Performed acceptance testing of customized Microsoft Dynamics CRM application to report defects and identify enhancements before release to production.
Introduced the products from different perspectives to different customers and maintained customer relationship periodically with CRM.

8. 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 sales specialists use customer service:

Develop relationships with commercial and residential clients to provide exceptional customer service including special order, deliveries and installation services.
Provided exceptional customer service and collected required information from the customer on every call resulting in the sale of reservations.

9. Plumbing

Here's how sales specialists use plumbing:

Performed stocking, arranged product placement, provided outstanding customer service, handled other responsibilities in Plumbing Department.
Provided expertise and knowledge in the Plumbing Department which included kitchen/bathroom remodeling, installations and repairs.

10. 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 sales specialists use business development:

Analyzed account performance, identified new business development opportunities, marketed value-added sales offerings, and increased account volume and profitability.
Fast-paced sales leadership and business development position with an emphasis on new business expansion, project management and sales training/team leadership.

11. PowerPoint

Here's how sales specialists use powerpoint:

Conducted PowerPoint presentations to the sales force for increased productivity.
Prepared PowerPoint presentations for Account Executives.

12. Customer Issues

Here's how sales specialists use customer issues:

Completed transformation of under producing territory by identifying long standing customer issues, communication, problem solving and follow-through.
Assisted Account Managers and Territory Sales Representatives in resolving customer issues through product knowledge and order placement.

13. Work Ethic

Here's how sales specialists use work ethic:

Led the store in customer service and exhibited a strong work ethic, carrying out every task requested by store leadership.
Hired as seasonal associate but quickly promoted to elevated associate due to experience, skills, and work ethic.

14. Azure

Here's how sales specialists use azure:

Focus on cloud solutions, Office365 and Azure.
Subject market expert in core platform technologies: System management, SQL, Azure Cloud services, BI.

15. Client Relationships

Here's how sales specialists use client relationships:

Build client relationships and responsible for identifying customers needs, making product recommendations, advising on promotional opportunities and demonstrating products.
Managed existing and Created new client relationships-Generated on average sales for 8- 12 catering events-Managed, delegated, and coordinated contract caterers

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What skills help Sales Specialists find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on sales specialist resumes?

Adry S. Clark Ph.D.

Director, Western Oregon University

The skills that stand out on resumes fall into two categories: 1) Skills required to do the job and 2) Skills almost all employers look for. The most important aspect of resumes is to make sure it reflects exactly what the employer needs. Study the job description, identify key skills, and have them reflected on your resume. Think about transferrable skills, not the specific roles you've had.

Most employers look for skills such as communication (written/oral), flexibility, proactivity, problem-solving, project management, and technical. Make sure to cultivate those skills in whatever role you have, and have examples that demonstrate those skills.

What soft skills should all sales specialists possess?

Jim McClenahan

Director of Career and Corporate Outreach, University of Nevada, Reno

As I said, soft skills are desired more than ever. Angela Duckworth describes Grit as "Perseverance, effort, and skill." We can teach the skill; the other two have to come with the new hire. Empathy is important as someone grows in their career-you can't be an effective leader and not have empathy in your skillset.

What hard/technical skills are most important for sales specialists?

Joe Conto

Associate Professor, Paul Smith's College of Arts & Sciences

As a hiring manager in high-end hotels and country clubs, I paid little attention to most technical skills. If an applicant possesses the soft skills outlined above, I was typically certain that training could provide the necessary technical skills. Therefore, I always advise students to "work on purpose" during internships and other work experiences in order to not only learn hard skills but also develop the soft skills listed above.

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

Matthew Nagler

Professor and Chair, The City College of New York

A gap year might be the right move for some students, especially if the online environment is not for them. Fortunately, I know of students who have obtained great online internships, jobs, and other opportunities that allow them to grow their experience during the pandemic. Many companies are seeking online talent to build out products and marketing strategies.

What type of skills will young sales specialists need?

Michael Mikitka

Executive Vice President, MHI – Material Handling Industry

Courses and internships are essential. While the required depth of knowledge may vary from one position to another, employers are generally looking for candidates with strong "people-related" skills, those who are willing to continue to learn, and those with the ability to be flexible and adapt.

By "people-related" skills, I mean the abilities associated with effective communication (listen and express ideas and direction) and the skills related to working independently and a team.

As for the interest to continually learn... from a technology, data, and equipment perspective, today's supply chain looks very different than it did 10-years ago. The willingness and ability to continually learn are essential for anyone in a leadership role.

As for flexibility and adapting...supply chain/logistics is as much about responding to disruption and demand as it is planning for it. There is a predictable demand (i.e., seasonal...everyone knows when back-to-school shopping begins). Then there is the unpredictable demand (i.e., power-outages, wildfires, pandemic) that impact market and the ability to operate. Candidates that express flexibility and problem-solving skills will be much sought-after.

What technical skills for a sales specialist 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 sales specialist skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a sales specialist resume and required skills for a sales specialist to have include:

Building Relationships
Customer Complaints
Customer Orders
Product Knowledge
Patients
Sales Process
CRM
Customer Service
Plumbing
Business Development
PowerPoint
Customer Issues
Work Ethic
Azure
Client Relationships

Strong Presentation
Excellent Interpersonal
Client Facing
Sales Objectives
Sales Floor
Sales Strategies
Customer Accounts
Trade Shows
Outbound Calls
Enterprise Sales
Sales Quota
Product Line
Customer Satisfaction
Installation Services
Sales Volume

Sales Presentations
Sales Growth
Pre Sales
Virtualization
Cloud Computing
Develop Professional Relationships
Sales Associates
Lead Management
Medical Sales
POS
Opportunity Management
Sales Techniques
Strong Negotiation
Customer Relations