How to Write an Account Executive Resume to Close the Deal

It's time to close the deal on your dream job.

Account executives are the driving force behind business growth. You know you can cultivate relationships, demo product lines, and ultimately sign new business for your company — but you need to convey that on paper.

Below, we show you how to draft an account executive resume as convincing as your best sales pitch. Keep reading for resume tips on how to stand out from the competition and ultimately land the interview.

What Hiring Managers Look for in an Account Executive Resume

Account executives ensure the continuous growth of a company.

Recruiters want to see proven results on how you signed new clients for past companies and how you cultivated those relationships. If you are staying within the same industry, your new boss will want to know which — and how many — clients you can bring to their firm.

As you start resume writing, keep the following objectives in mind:

1. Show the Numbers

This is the most important goal of an account executive.

The sales department has one job: Pay your colleagues’ salaries. Without you, the company cannot grow, hire new talent, or invest in new projects. Therefore, you need to prove you can forge new client relationships that convert to contracts.

Numeric results are enticing on almost any resume, but this especially holds true for account executives. Here are several ways to use data to prove your professional experience:

• Display your book of business: Sold $1.2M of new business from 2019–2020
• Show you know how to hustle: Conducted cold calls, client visits, and landed referrals for an untapped sales region in Canada, leading to $250,000 of revenue growth
• Prove you know how to hit quotas: Hit 118% of sales goals for three consecutive years, earning the number one sales spot for three straight quarters
• Show you have trusting customer relationships: Increased customer retention by 45%, earning $400,000 of recurring revenue for the company

2. Show Your Problem Solving Skills 

As any accomplished account executive knows, sales is not just blind cold calling or client schmoozing. The best account executives solve their client’s problems. They know how to introduce new product lines. They understand which segment of the product demo will benefit a business most. And most of all, they understand how to respect their clients' time and wishes. 

Prove you know how to think strategically and creatively to help the client — not just your firm. Here are several resume example bullet points to include:

• Speak to how you navigate new product lines: Collaborated between marketing, engineering, and product teams to launch two new products, leading to a 27% increase in customer retention
• Point to how you solve problems: Sold a customer rebrand campaign that led to a 125% revenue increase for the client
• Explain how you foster a new client base: Pitched a new client life-cycle process to the executive team, leading to a 30% increase in client retention from the previous year
• Show how you leverage technology: Introduced four new Salesforce apps that helped save account executives a collective 20 hours per week

3. Prove That You're a Team Player 

Sales professionals have a bad reputation for putting their interests first, and those of the company second.

While friendly competition between account managers can motivate their work, a business needs to know you're a team player. Show how you communicate across department lines, implement sales strategies that benefit the company as a whole, and display positive relationship management between clients and your teammates.

If you're a junior sales representative, show you aren't afraid to pay your dues, build databases, or spend countless hours cold-calling. If you're a senior account executive, speak to your leadership roles. For example:

• Show how your work benefited the entire sales team: Single-handedly built a 5,000-person database that eight senior account executives leveraged for prospecting 
• Discuss your leadership roles: Expanded four sales regions into eight and helped new and junior account executives navigate new business opportunities 
• Speak to your communication skills: Served as the liaison between the prospect, product, account management, and engineering teams, leading to the launch of three new product lines by year-end

Account Executive Resume Template 

With the above three resume objectives in mind, it's time to draft your resume.

Your account executive resume template will have five sections: contact information, a brief summary, work experience, relevant skills, and education. Within your work experience section, list past and present companies, roles, and respective responsibility descriptions in reverse chronological format (from most to least recent).

If you are a senior account executive, your resume can take up two pages. However, if you are a recent graduate or a junior account manager, keep your resume to one page and make every word count.

1. Contact Information

Keep your contact information brief and at the top of the page. It is very rare for an account executive to have a website, portfolio, or professional social media account, but list it these items if you have them.

• First and last name
• Most recent job title
• City and state 
• Phone number
• Email
• Portfolio or website if you have one 

For example:

Brittany Hershinger | Senior Account Executive | Oakland, California

Brittany.hersh@gmail.com | 555.555.555

2. Summary 

Your summary should consist of 2-3 sentences explaining why you — and only you — are the perfect fit for this job. Speak to the most impressive statistics from your track record and other anecdotal accomplishments, such as recognizable clients or new product lines.

For example:

Sales account executive with six years of experience in business development selling branding for Fortune 500 companies and trade associations. Sold a total of $4.3M of new business in a three-year span with over 80% of new client relationships renewing contracts the next year. 

3. Work Experience

Within your work experience, include results listed in dollars and percentages. Weave in examples of how you use your problem-solving and interpersonal skills, showing how you earned trust between your former teammates and clients.

• Proven results: Supported company expansion by exceeding sales quotas by at least 11% for six consecutive sales cycles
• Interpersonal skills: Collaborated between real estate developers, contractors, and new customers by leading the expansion of six new apartment complexes across the Bay area, all of which hit 90% capacity in 10 months
• Problem-solving skills: ​​​​Sold culture consulting packages worth $250,000 in annual revenue, helping clients cut down on employee turnover by 40%

4. Education

Keep your education section short and to the point. List the universities you attended and the degrees you received.

For example: 

Notre Dame University, Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Finance, Sept. 2010–June 2014

5. Skills

In your skills section, keep your skills relevant to the job description. This could include any sales management or demo software, second languages, or project management tools. 

For example: 

Salesforce, Pardot, Asana, Freshworks, Dynamics CRM, bilingual in English and Spanish

Write an Account Executive Resume to Close the Deal

Hiring managers need talented account executives like you to close new business deals. But first, you need to snag an account executive job.

As a seasoned account executive in a competitive market, you know you can't leave things to chance. Over 100,000 people trust the Standard Resume builder to build a polished, professional resume that stands out in a competitive job search. 

To land your dream job and stand out among other job seekers, start building your account executive resume today.