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Sales vice president skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Adry S. Clark Ph.D.,

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical sales vice president skills. We ranked the top skills for sales vice presidents based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 6.0% of sales vice president resumes contained sales process as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a sales vice president needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 sales vice president skills for your resume and career

1. Sales Process

Here's how sales vice presidents use sales process:

Contributed to development of corporate processes and infrastructure including CRM, Miller-Heiman Sales Process, forecast/commit, pipeline management.
Introduced sales process modification, with creative presentations directed to wholesale buyers, prompted introductions to target Distributors.

2. Healthcare

Healthcare is the maintenance or improvement of a person's health by the diagnosis and treatment of a person's injury, illness, or any other disease. Healthcare is a basic necessity of human life and is the responsibility of the country's government to ensure that each person gets healthcare. Providing healthcare is the job of certified health professionals that includes doctors, surgeons, nurses, and other physicians. Pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, dentistry, therapy, and health training all come under healthcare. Healthcare plays a vital role in the country's economy and its development.

Here's how sales vice presidents use healthcare:

Created strong market awareness of CIGNA HealthCare and its capabilities.
Launched sales initiative for start-up company with unique delivery method for continuing medical education programs targeting physicians and other healthcare professionals.

3. 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 vice presidents use customer service:

Implemented internal process improvements by adjusting job responsibilities and hiring key managers to focus on improving customer service and customer retention.
Formulated, implemented, and administered tailored sales performance plans, incorporating multiple quantitative dimensions of customer service and sales metrics.

4. Sales Management

Here's how sales vice presidents use sales management:

Direct reports include 15 sales management personnel and 90+ Territory Managers/Account Executives in addition to several specialists and sales coordinators.
Developed and implemented an enhanced compensation program for sales management, providing regional ownership, rewarding performance and demanding accountability.

5. 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 vice presidents use crm:

Collaborated on social media and operations project to expand CRM platform for demand awareness, lead scoring automation and forecast accuracy.
Developed a new sales forecasting tool that utilized weighted CRM opportunities in developing future forecasts and expectations for each region.

6. Sales Strategy

Here's how sales vice presidents use sales strategy:

Developed channel sales strategy and expanded into new verticals and technology offerings for leading $4M virtual continuing education provider.
Created sales strategy at the leading regional independent sustainability certified green energy company offering renewable wind electricity and solar options.

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7. 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 vice presidents use business development:

Delivered executive-level presentations to support business development.
Implemented additional professional training for Business Development Team, resulting in productivity gains measured against 15% increase in proposal activity.

8. Revenue Growth

Here's how sales vice presidents use revenue growth:

Planned, organized and conducted strategic on-site sales-appointments throughout US and Canada that generated profitable revenue growth with long-term partner alliances.
Innovated and implemented revenue growth programs, specifically identifying new customer markets and alternative sales channel strategies.

9. 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 sales vice presidents use account management:

Managed sales and account management efforts into institutional sales channels including K-12, higher education, career education and international markets.
Interfaced extensively with international regions to establish a common strategic account coverage plan and develop the concept of global account management.

10. Customer Satisfaction

Here's how sales vice presidents use customer satisfaction:

Established multiple procedural disciplines and methodologies; including forecasting, scheduling, tracking sales pipeline, and capturing customer satisfaction data.
Restructured and transformed sales force from geographically defined to a customer-driven market sales organization, resulting in significantly improving customer satisfaction.

11. Product Development

Product development is the complete procedure of creating a product from concept until release of the final product. Product development has many stages after which a product is released into the market. Identifying the need, creating the opportunity, conceptualizing a product, and providing a solution, all are different stages of product development.

Here's how sales vice presidents use product development:

Contributed to continuous improvements by providing leadership and establishing product development procedures with internal product development personnel and client development teams.
Established excellent internal working relations with product development and engineering to design and develop new and unique services and complimentary offerings.

12. Business Plan

Here's how sales vice presidents use business plan:

Designed and implemented a strategic business plan to launch remodeling and construction services to residential and commercial aging in place customers.
Collaborated with customers to develop holistic business plans to align with internal volume/profit goals and competitive stance within the market.

13. Sales Organization

Sales organization is part of a firm or company's entire business organization, which is focused on the distribution of goods. The sales organization is responsible for the efficient allocation of goods and services to the client. This is also defined as the group of individuals working together to market a product and sell to consumers or clients. And the sales organization is tasked with planning and controlling activities to include recruitment, orientation, and training of employees and the assigning to their tasks, supervision, and motivation to perform well.

Here's how sales vice presidents use sales organization:

Recruited to build and manage sales organization for this peer-to-peer clustering technology based development stage Internet infrastructure company.
Oversee the entire sales organization of an upstart Chemical company producing a technological advance cleaner called metabolic chemicals.

14. Sales Targets

Here's how sales vice presidents use sales targets:

Created a high-performance, high-reward culture by setting challenging individual sales targets, monitoring performance and rewarding top-producers.
Define and direct implementation of strategic marketing initiatives to achieve sales targets and business unit operating profit objectives.

15. Customer Relationships

Customer relationships are the interactions and efforts made by a company to improve its customer service. Customer relationships cover not just all of the essential roles performed by customer support, but also the initiatives made before and after the interaction with a customer.

Here's how sales vice presidents use customer relationships:

Established educational consulting and professional development programs to augment a differentiated product line as well as to improve customer relationships.
Established long-term customer relationships, assessed customer needs and provided solutions grounded in solid product and price value propositions.

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What skills help Sales Vice Presidents find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on sales vice president 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 vice presidents possess?

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021, Baylor University

Since sales professionals have a lot of information available to them today via customer relationship management (CRM) systems, the sales manager's "supervisory" role is less important (especially for experienced sellers). Consequently, the sales manager needs to be more of a coach and enabler of high performance. Having confidence balanced with humility allows the sales manager to engage more effectively with their salespeople.
One of the critical soft skills for sales managers going forward will be the ability to connect members of the sales team to others in the organization - in other words, the sales manager of the future needs to have strong skills in network building for others. Sellers have access to data which helps them build success.
They also need access to the right people to turn to when they need specific expertise or assistance.

What hard/technical skills are most important for sales vice presidents?

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021, Baylor University

One of the growing technical skill requirements for sales managers is in the area of data analytics. Our performance and customer systems provide a myriad of data, and the role of the sales manager is to be a sense-maker of that mound of data. What are the implications for changes in strategy or behavior evident in last quarter's activity? How can the sales manager help a specific seller "see" where the data suggest new approaches?

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

Kerri Orders

Assistant Professor of Business, Aquinas College

In terms of a gap year, I recommend that international business students acquire tangible skills, relevant experience and/or certifications which will enhance their success in their desired area of interest. For example, a gap year could consist of gaining technical or digital training overseas, which would also further the students' cultural intelligence and language proficiency. These types of enriching gap year experiences will assist students to distinguish themselves in a highly competitive market. Furthermore, students should focus on broadening and maintaining their global network during a gap year in order to be ready for the job market once the gap year is concluded.

What type of skills will young sales vice presidents 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.

Do you want to know more?

List of sales vice president skills to add to your resume

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

Sales Process
Healthcare
Customer Service
Sales Management
CRM
Sales Strategy
Business Development
Revenue Growth
Account Management
Customer Satisfaction
Product Development
Business Plan
Sales Organization
Sales Targets
Customer Relationships
Enterprise Sales
Strategic Partnerships

Direct Reports
Direct Sales
Sales Growth
Sales Training
Client Relationships
Sales Plan
HR
Saas
Sales Operations
Real Estate
Sales Professionals
Sales Efforts
Trade Shows
Product Line
Strategic Direction
Sales Presentations
Sales Revenue

Sales Reps
C-Level
Sales Volume
ROI
Americas
Sales People
Media Sales
OEM
Market Penetration
RFP
Company Sales
Force Management
Funnel Management
Gross Profit
Strong Negotiation

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

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