National Sales Controller Resume Example & Writing Guide

As a national sales controller, you have an extensive range of expertise to sell and manage sales. Creating a compelling national sales controller resume should be right in your wheelhouse; you just need to think of yourself as the latest e-commerce product. 

Why e-commerce? Because most of your initial interactions will happen online. You know how to pitch and you know how to attract the attention of customers. All you need are a few tips and hints for using those skills to attract recruiters instead.

You're in the right place for this advice. Resume.io’s job search resources include more than 300 occupation-specific writing guides with corresponding resume examples. That’s a good place to start for ideas and inspiration.

The guide you’re reading now is designed to help national sales controllers craft a resume that lines up precisely with the employer’s needs and expectations. Step by step, with a national sales controller resume example to illustrate, we’ll take you through the process of showcasing your abilities to the best advantage. Here’s what we’ll cover:

• The role and job outlook for national sales controllers
• How to write a resume that portrays your career as a series of growth experiences, applying the right structure and best format
• How to optimize the impact of each resume section: header, profile, employment history, education and skills.
• Layout and design tips for making a great visual impression

What does a national sales controller do?

National sales controllers are essentially in charge of a company’s entire sales force across the country, aiming to ensure sales goals are met in every region. Naturally, they bring to the position extensive professional sales experience, along with a willingness to work and be accessible outside of regular business hours. Businesses in virtually any sector that sell products or services may hire national sales controllers to help boost profitability. Common examples include employers in the medical, insurance, real estate, and automotive fields.

How to write a national sales controller resume

Given the diverse range of opportunities for professionals with your expertise and background, it’s imperative that your national sales controller resume be custom-tailored to fit the hiring circumstance. For every job you apply for, you need a different version that targets the specific position and employer.

At the same time, what your resume should have in common with virtually all others, regardless of occupation, is the basic framework. These are the essential components, ideally fitting on a single page:

• Header
• Summary
• Employment history
• Education
• Skills

Choosing the best resume format for a national sales controller

In all likelihood, the most commonly used chronological format will be the most suitable way to organize your resume information. Recruiters favor this resume format because the employment history highlights easy to review, listed by employer from most recent to earliest dates. 

The functional resume format, emphasizing transferable skills, sometimes lends itself to job candidates who are new to the workforce, making a career change, or have been self-employed. The hybrid (combination) resume format blends both chronological and functional elements.

Resume header

Never underestimate the importance of your resume header, which serves both an esthetic and practical purpose. An eye-pleasing header design not only distinguishes your job application visually from dozens of others, but also contributes to a reader-friendly page layout. We recommend matching your resume and cover letter headers so it looks like they belong together and were created at the same time.

First and foremost, your resume header is the place where identifying details you want hiring managers to notice first and easily retrieve when they want to get in touch. Besides your name and professional title, make sure your phone number and email appear here, and a LinkedIn profile URL if applicable.

Moving on to the key resume elements, one by one, let’s start with the section you should write last: your profile — sometimes called the summary or personal statement.

National sales controller profile example

Why write this last? 

Because it gives you a chance to frame the information contained elsewhere in your resume, and you can’t do that until you have completed it. Remember that you are relating your success track record here, by summarizing the highlights.

Your resume profile should serve as a brief, but compelling, synopsis that highlights your value. You want to convey your expertise in providing research-based insight and suggestions on how to improve company performance and overall achievements. For instance, if you managed a key account, use a sentence to explain your effective strategy.

This paragraph should be about three to five sentences (100 to 200 words, depending on your career history). It should also tell human resources why you are a great fit for the company. You can detail your business development skills and knowledge of project management later on, but here you want to pick one or two of your greatest achievements and give yourself a pat on the back for them without exaggerating. Choose strong action verbs to illustrate that you are a person of action who gets clear results. 

Below is a national sales controller resume sample profile you can adapt for your own situation

Employment history sample

Your sales manager resume should clearly show your ability to generate new sales, but you must also prove your sales management skills. Hiring managers want to see a career progression, so think of your employment history as the way to sell your potential. As advised previously, use a reverse chronological order format here to highlight your work experience, unless your career has taken a winding path.

Be proud if you started your career cold-calling potential customers! As you climbed the ladder from sales representative, to regional sales manager, to your current position, you developed new sales skills and achieved greater successes. Make sure that progression shows in your job descriptions.

Use data to back up your claims about annual sales revenue or new business development. The more details of your sales experience that you can provide, the better. 

In addition to clearly conveying your expertise as a sales professional, a winning national sales controller resume should also showcase your business administration and sales team management strengths.

A winning national sales controller resume should clearly convey your expertise as a sales professional, as well as your ability to manage and lead sales teams. Use data to back up your claims about annual sales revenue or new business development. The more details of your sales experience that you can provide, the better. Keep in mind that your job duties may include managing sales reps, maintaining the budget, developing training programs, and reporting to your company’s decision-makers.

Consider this general job description for a national sales controller as you plan your work history section. Above all, carefully scrutinize the job requirements for the position you hope to be hired in.

National Sales Controllers are responsible for leading and overseeing national sales teams to achieve sales targets. They develop and implement effective sales strategies, and work toward building new customers and business opportunities. National Sales Controllers typically establish goals, set sales quotas, and assign sales territories. They analyze performance metrics and develop business strategies based on forecasts. Sales directors are responsible for ensuring that sales team members are working to meet and exceed goals.

Below is a resume employment history sample for a national sales controller that you can modify.

National sales controller resume education example

While there are no formal education requirements to become a salesperson, many sales professionals have associate’s or bachelor’s degrees in business administration, marketing, or a related field. To reach a high management level, you may also have earned an MBA or other master’s degree.  

In any case, list all your degrees and certifications here, in reverse chronological order from highest to lowest level. If you hold a degree higher than a bachelor's degree, you may leave out your high school. 

If you have earned sales or other business awards in your career, you may list them here or create a separate section highlighting them. 

Below is the education section from our national sales controller resume example that you can modify.

CV skills example

The skills section is the backbone of your resume elevator pitch. Recruiters see hundreds of sales resumes and want to be able to quickly scan them to make sure your skills match the position. Analyze the job listing and create a skills section that highlights the same attributes your prospective employer seeks. This method will also help you pass your first test: the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). These applications use algorithms to rank resumes based on keywords, phrases, and other relevant information. Don’t “stuff” your resume with keywords, but if the job requires Microsoft Powerpoint skills, make sure your resume spells that out. That means personalizing your resume every time you apply for a job.

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Your job requires a balance of soft skills, such as communication and organization, and hard skills, such as sales strategies. Create a skills section that reflects that balance.

Check out a national sales coordinator CV sample for the skills section below.

Resume layout, design and formatting

As a salesperson, you know appearance and first impressions are important. Your resume has to look as great as it sounds!

You have probably created presentations for clients, so you understand design principles. Apply these to your resume as well.

• Leave plenty of white space
• Use color sparingly
• Make sure pertinent data (your contact information, job titles, and section headings) pops
• Avoid fancy fonts that may not be as legible.

Finally, two more pieces of advice:

1. Don’t bother trying to format your own resume. Instead, use a dedicated resume builder tool such as Resume.io’s. It comes with a bunch of handy features, including multi-format export, expertly designed visuals and a spell-checker function.
2. Enlist a friend or colleague to proofread each resume and cover letter before you send it. Mistakes may not eliminate you from consideration, but why take a chance?

Key takeaways for a national sales controller resume

1. Think of resume preparation as an opportunity to apply your strongest sales skills, with you representing the product and recruiters in the customer role.
2. Customize each new version of your resume to the specific target position and employer.
3. Mention your proudest achievements in your resume profile, with supporting details and data in the employment history section.
4. Strive for a balance of hard skills and soft skills on your resume listing, referring to the posted job ad to determine which ones should take priority.

You’ve taken the first steps. Now you're ready to close the deal on your next great job!