Sales is fast-moving - your experience proves you can handle pressure, clients, and targets. 

This blog explains why sales experience matters, how to gain it, and how to showcase it in resumes and interviews. Let’s go!

What is sales experience?

It is your ability to tactfully combine both soft and hard skills to convince the customer into taking an action (buying). This is a great deal for recruiters to understand your talent and assess whether you’ll be a right fit for the organization. 

Sales experience include cold calling, retail store sales, and SaaS demos.

Why does sales experience matter?

The main reason is, it’s proof that you can navigate through complex deals, high-pressure environments and objections all while building a healthy customer relationship and driving results. It signals that you:

• Know how to identify and qualify leads.
• Understand buyer psychology.
• Can handle objections and close deals.
• Know the cycle - from prospecting to follow-up to after-sales support.
• Know when to push for a deal, when to pause, and how to identify upselling or cross-selling opportunities.

How to build relevant sales experience? (Even if you're starting from scratch)

✅ Start with an entry-level role

Banks, retail chains, insurance companies, and telecom firms are always hiring. This is great to start off, learn objection handling, sales cycles, product pitching, CRM tools, upselling and target achievement.

📃 Internships

Startups and mid-size companies offer sales internships that allow hands-on experience in cold calling, market research, and client communication. The best part about this is, they can also lead to a full-time role based on performance.

🎨 Freelancing or commission-based work

Look for freelance or commission-based sales roles in the B2B/B2C industries in lead generation, affiliate sales or whatever interests you. 

💼 Volunteer for cross-functional sales projects

Even if not involved in a pure sales role, sign up for campaigns, pitch in during product demos, or help with sponsorships and fundraising. Join student clubs or business competitions as an entry path for beginners. 

All of these will steer you to think in business terms and pick up a few sales skills like persuasion, negotiation, and closing skills along the way. 

👨‍💻 Online simulations and sales courses

Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning are platforms where you can pursue a course and achieve certification, and also offer practical simulations.

Here’s a link to the best sales courses Coursera offers: https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=sales 

🪇 Shadow senior sales professionals

You can learn from observing the way your senior deals with daily tasks, meetings, follow-ups, and negotiations. 

How to highlight sales experience on your resume?

💯 Quantify your achievements

Example: 

“Achieved 120% of monthly sales target for 6 consecutive months.”

“Closed 35 deals in Q1 2024, exceeding target by 12%”

“Upsold enterprise software modules to mid-market clients, increasing revenue per account by ₹50,000 on average.”

☝️Mention specific industries or product categories you’ve handled

Example: “Handled retail sales for premium consumer electronics.”

🔄 Highlight transferable skills

Include skills like negotiation, lead generation, customer relationship management (CRM software), and closing techniques.

✂️ Tailor to the Job

If you're applying for a SaaS sales role, focus on solution-selling experience, demos, and recurring revenue. For banking, talk about targets, cross-selling, and regulatory compliance. Tailor your sales experience on resume according to the job profile to pass the ATS. 

How to talk about sales experience in interviews?

🌟 Use the STAR method

Situation: "In my previous company, we were launching a product in a crowded market…”

Task: “I was responsible for onboarding 20 clients in 90 days”

Action: “I ran cold outreach campaigns and tailored demos for..”

Result: “We closed 23 clients in 80 days, generating a ₹15L revenue”

Pick a difficult deal you had to deal, and prepare a glimpse into how you handled objections, and cracked it to a close. 

💪 Be honest about challenges

If you missed a target, be honest about it and mention what action you took and what you learnt from it. 

“In Q2 2023, I missed my quota by 15% due to delays in the pipeline. I worked on improving my follow-ups and landed two enterprise deals the next quarter that more than made up for it.”

The key is to not just list duties, express to them your thought process, your ways of working and your achievements.

Industry Examples: Why experience looks different across sectors

Conclusion

Experience is proof of what you can bring to the table and help the business grow. Keep building skills, tracking results, and framing achievements - that’s what makes sales experience stand out.