Most executives know that a strong resume needs to clearly highlight results and impact. If you increased sales by 10%, you need to say so. If you saved half a million dollars, that needs to be highlighted on your resume.

But results only tell half the story. Let’s take the executive who boosted sales by 10%. Is that good? I don’t know. If the industry he’s in is growing rapidly, 10% might actually be an unimpressive number. Competitors might be growing at an average rate of 20% or more meaning our sales executive was actually falling behind.

On the other hand, what if his industry is in decline? Or his company had been experiencing a prolonged sales downturn before he joined? Now his 10% increase is much more impressive.

That’s why you must include context in your resume. Context is the key ingredient that will turn an average resume into a stellar sales document.

There are two key ways to include context in your resume. The first is to incorporate a line or two into your job descriptions to set the scene for the accomplishments to come.

Here is an example from the sales executive mentioned above:

XYZ COMPANY, 2000 - 2004
Senior Vice President, Sales

Recruited by new CEO and charged with turning around under-performing sales function. Led team of 24 across 11 territories with annual sales targets of $250 million.

Here, the first sentence sets the stage, allowing the reader to understand that this executive stepped into a challenging situation and was given a specific goal. 

Next, our sales exec can employ the second of my context-setting strategies by including context in his accomplishments bullet points.

XYZ COMPANY, 2000 - 2004
Senior Vice President, Sales

Recruited by new CEO and charged with turning around under-performing sales function. Led team of 24 across 11 territories with annual sales targets of $250 million.

• Developed sales strategy that reversed 3-year trend of dramatically declining sales and drove a 10% increase within 12 months.
• Transformed demoralized sales team into a top-notch, highly respected organization by developing and implementing stretch targets, delivering training programs and providing ongoing personal mentoring.

Now each bullet point is a story in its own right and these stories are so much more powerful than the traditional resume, in which the author would highlight the 10% sales increase and the achievement of building a great sales team, without providing any background information.

If you are currently job hunting, go back through your resume and insert context throughout the document. You will notice an improved response rate, and a dramatic improvement in the questions you are asked at interviews, since recruiters will now understand so much more of what you faced.

Louise Fletcher is the President of Blue Sky Resumes and the co-founder and managing Editor of Career Hub. You can read her blog at www.blueskyresumesblog.com.

Categories: Executive Career Management, Executive Resumes