Head of Sales CV Examples & Guide for 2025

Crafting a CV that encapsulates your ability to drive substantial revenue growth and manage high-performing sales teams can be a daunting challenge. Our comprehensive guide offers tailored strategies to help you effectively highlight your leadership skills and sales achievements, ensuring your CV stands out to potential employers.

How to ensure your profile stands out with your head of sales CV format

It's sort of a Catch 22. You want your head of sales CV to stand out amongst a pile of candidate profiles, yet you don't want it to be too over the top that it's unreadable. Where is the perfect balance between your CV format simple, while using it to shift the focus to what matters most. That is - your expertise. When creating your head of sales CV:

• list your experience in the reverse chronological order - starting with your latest roles;
• include a header with your professional contact information and - optionally - your photograph;
• organise vital and relevant CV sections - e.g. your experience, skills, summary/ objective, education - closer to the top;
• use no more than two pages to illustrate your professional expertise;
• format your information using plenty of white space and standard (2.54 cm) margins, with colours to accent key information.

Once you've completed your information, export your head of sales CV in PDF, as this format is more likely to stay intact when read by the Applicant Tracker System or the ATS. A few words of advice about the ATS - or the software used to assess your profile:

• Generic fonts, e.g. Arial and Times New Roman, are ATS-compliant, yet many candidates stick with these safe choices. Ensure your CV stands out by using a more modern, and simple, fonts like Lato, Exo 2, Volkhov;
• All serif and sans-serif fonts are ATS-friendly. Avoid the likes of fancy decorative or script typography, as this may render your information to be illegible;
• Both single- and double-column formatted CVs could be assessed by the ATS;
• Integrating simple infographics, icons, and charts across your CV won't hurt your chances during the ATS assessment.

Tips and tricks on writing a job-winning head of sales CV header

The CV header is the space which most recruiters would be referring most often to, in the beginning and end of your application. That is as the CV header includes your contact details, but also a headline and a professional photo. When writing your CV header:

• Double-check your contact details for spelling errors or if you've missed any digits. Also, ensure you've provided your personal details, and not your current work email or telephone number;
• Include your location in the form of the city and country you live in. If you want to be more detailed, you can list your full address to show proximity to your potential work place;
• Don't include your CV photo, if you're applying for roles in the UK or US, as this may bias initial recruiters' assessments;
• Write a professional headline that either integrates the job title, some relevant industry keywords, or your most noteworthy achievement.

In the next part of our guide, we'll provide you with professional CVs that showcase some of the best practices when it comes to writing your headline.

Opting between a head of sales CV summary or objective

Within the top one third of your head of sales CV, you have the opportunity to briefly summarise your best achievements or present your professional goals and dreams. Those two functions are met by either the CV summary or the objective.

• The summary is three-to-five sentences long and should narrate your best successes, while answering key requirements for the role. Select up to three skills which you can feature in your summary. Always aim to present what the actual outcomes were of using your particular skill set. The summary is an excellent choice for more experienced professionals.
• The objective is more focused on showcasing your unique value as a candidate and defining your dreams and ambitions. Think about highlighting how this current opportunity would answer your career vision. Also, about how you could help your potential employers grow. The objective matches the needs of less experienced candidates, who need to prove their skill set and, in particular, their soft skills.

Still not sure about how to write your CV opening statement? Use some best industry examples as inspiration:

More detailed look into your work history: best advice on writing your head of sales CV experience section

The CV experience is a space not just to merely list your past roles and responsibilities. It is the CV real estate within which you could detail your greatest accomplishments and skills, while matching the job requirements. Here's what to have in your experience section:

• Prove you have what the job wants with your unique skill set and past successes;
• Start each bullet with a strong, action verb, and continue with the outcome of your responsibility;
• Use any awards, nominations, and recognitions you've received as solid proof of your skill set and expertise;
• align your experience with the role responsibilities and duties.

For more help on how to write your CV experience section, check out the next section of our guide:

Swapping your professional experience (when you have none) with skills and more

Never underestimate the importance of relevancе when it comes to your head of sales CV. Even if you don't happen to have much or any standard (full-time contract) professional experience, this doesn't mean you shouldn't apply for the role. Instead of a bespoke CV experience section:

• Showcase more prominently any internships, part-time roles, and volunteer experience that are applicable to the role and have taught you job-crucial skills;
• Feature a strengths or achievements section with your transferrable skills or talents you've obtained thanks to your work or life experience;
• Write an objective statement that clearly outlines your values as a candidate and defines your career ambitions;
• List your education or certificates that match the job profile closer to the top of your CV.

Mix and match hard and soft skills across your head of sales CV

Your skill set play an equally valid role as your experience to your application. That is because recruiters are looking for both:

• hard skills or your aptitude in applying particular technologies
• soft skills or your ability to work in a team using your personal skills, e.g. leadership, time management, etc.

Are you wondering how you should include both hard and soft skills across your head of sales CV? Use the:

• skills section to list between ten and twelve technologies that are part of the job requirement (and that you're capable to use);
• strengths and achievements section to detail how you've used particular hard and soft skills that led to great results for you at work;
• summary or objective to spotlight up to three skills that are crucial for the role and how they've helped you optimise your work processes.

One final note - when writing about the skills you have, make sure to match them exactly as they are written in the job ad. Take this precautionary measure to ensure your CV passes the Applicant Tracker System (ATS) assessment.

Further professional qualifications for your head of sales CV: education and certificates

As you're nearing the end of your head of sales CV, you may wonder what else will be relevant to the role. Recruiters are keen on understanding your academic background, as it teaches you an array of hard and soft skills. Create a dedicated education section that lists your:

• applicable higher education diplomas or ones that are at a postgraduate level;
• diploma, followed up with your higher education institution and start-graduation dates;
• extracurricular activities and honours, only if you deem that recruiters will find them impressive.

Follow a similar logic when presenting your certificates. Always select ones that will support your niche expertise and hint at what it's like to work with you. Balance both technical certification with soft skills courses to answer job requirements and company values. Wondering what the most sought out certificates are for the industry? Look no further:

Key takeaways

Here are five things you need to remember about writing your head of sales CV for success:

• Sort your experience based on the reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent career items, to showcase how you've grown your career;
• Include within your CV header your relevant contact details, a headline that could spotlight your unique value, and a photo - if you're applying for roles outside the UK or US;
• Decide to use the CV summary, if you happen to have more professional experience, and an objective, if you want to showcase your career goals;
• Within the experience section, write your bullets using action verbs, skills, and success, instead of just merely listing your on-the-job responsibilities;
• Prove your technical skills, using your education and certificates, and your soft skills, with your achievements and strengths sections.