Sales CV: example and tips for B2B, field and phone sales

Keywords that come up in sales job ads

Sales jobs roughly fall into three groups. B2B sales means selling to businesses, often with titles such as sales consultant, account manager or key account manager. Field sales means you have your own territory and visit customers where they are. Telephone sales, also called inside sales, can be anything from calling businesses to book meetings to selling subscriptions to private customers. The ads use different words for each of these, and your CV should use the same words where they match what you have done.

Many employers sort applications in an applicant tracking system that looks for the words in the ad. If the ad says “new business” and “customer portfolio”, those words should appear in your CV, not just “sales”. Selja does this for you: paste in the ad, and the words end up where they match your experience. Our guide to an ATS-friendly CV explains how these systems read your CV. Most ads in Norway are in Norwegian, so it helps to know terms such as nysalg (new business) and salgsbudsjett (sales budget). These words come up often:

• New business, prospecting and outbound sales, often called “hunter” in the ads.
• Account management, upselling and cross selling to existing customers, often called key account or “farmer”.
• Sales budget, sales targets, target achievement and commission.
• The sales process: needs analysis, presentation, quotes, negotiation and closing.
• CRM, pipeline and sales reporting, for example in Salesforce, HubSpot, SuperOffice or Microsoft Dynamics.
• Telephone sales: outbound and inbound calls, booking meetings and qualifying leads.
• Field sales: your own territory, customer visits, overnight travel and a category B driving licence.
• Results driven, self motivated, good at building relationships and competitive.

Formal requirements: no licence, but rules for phone sales

There is no licence required to work in sales. According to utdanning.no, there is no specific education required to become an account manager in sales either. Many have a trade certificate in sales (salgsfaget), which takes two years at school and two years in a company, or a degree in business, marketing or sales from a vocational college or university. If you have sold for many years without a trade certificate, you can take it as an experienced worker through the praksiskandidat scheme. According to the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir), your experience must then be at least 25 percent longer than the normal training period, which for sales means at least five years.

In field sales, a category B driving licence is often a requirement in the ad, because you drive to customers yourself. State it clearly in your CV, ideally together with how much you have travelled in the job.

If you sell to private customers by phone, special rules apply. Under section 12 of the Norwegian Marketing Control Act, it is forbidden to call consumers who have opted out through the national reservation register (Reservasjonsregisteret), with exceptions including existing customer relationships. Section 14 bans telemarketing to consumers on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, on weekdays before 9 am and after 9 pm, and from hidden numbers. Section 10 of the Cancellation Act (angrerettloven) says the seller must confirm the offer in writing after the call, and that the consumer is not bound until they have accepted the offer in writing. If you have worked in telephone sales, a line such as “followed the rules for telephone sales and the reservation register” shows you can work safely.

Example of a summary for a sales CV

The summary is the three to five sentences at the top of your CV. For a salesperson it should say what you have sold, to whom, one result with a number and what you are looking for. Here are two made up examples you can use as a pattern:

Example (B2B and field sales): “Results driven B2B salesperson with six years of experience selling office equipment and IT services to small and medium sized businesses. Has hit the sales budget five years out of six and built a portfolio of 120 business customers in my own territory. Enjoys outbound sales, long customer relationships and responsibility for my own numbers. Looking for a key account manager role with larger customers.”

Example (telephone sales): “Salesperson with two years of experience in outbound telephone sales of mobile subscriptions and insurance. Averaged 60 calls a day and ranked among the top three of 25 salespeople on closing rate in 2025. Knows the rules for telephone sales and the reservation register, and wants to move into B2B sales with meeting booking and follow up.”

Replace the numbers with your own, and only write what you can explain in an interview. You will find more examples in our guide to writing a CV summary.

Bullet points with results: weak versus strong

Sales is one of the easiest jobs to find numbers for: budget, target achievement in percent, new customers, average order value, number of meetings and the share of quotes that became deals. If you do not have revenue figures, show activity and your ranking in the team. Start each bullet with a strong verb in the past tense and finish with the result.

• Weak: “Responsible for sales in Western Norway.” Strong: “Grew revenue in my territory from 8 to 11 million kroner in two years, hitting budget both years.”
• Weak: “Sold by phone.” Strong: “Called 50 to 70 businesses a day and booked an average of eight qualified meetings a week for the field sales team.”
• Weak: “Won new customers.” Strong: “Won 34 new business customers in 2025, including two chains with 40 branches between them.”
• Weak: “Followed up customers.” Strong: “Cut customer churn in my portfolio from 15 to 7 percent with quarterly meetings and a plan for each of the 20 largest accounts.”
• Weak: “Used CRM.” Strong: “Kept the Salesforce pipeline up to date every week, giving the sales manager forecasts within 5 percent three quarters in a row.”
• Weak: “Attended trade fairs.” Strong: “Staffed the stand at four trade fairs and followed up 150 leads, resulting in 22 quotes and 9 deals.”

Skills, systems and courses worth including

Skills become stronger when they are specific. “Good sales skills” says little, while the name of the CRM system, the method you have learnt and the industry you know give the sales manager something to go on. Include what you can actually do:

• CRM systems by name, for example Salesforce, HubSpot, SuperOffice, Microsoft Dynamics or Pipedrive.
• Sales courses and methods with name and year, for example internal sales programmes or negotiation courses.
• Industry and product knowledge, for example IT, construction, food and drink, medical equipment, energy or finance.
• Quotes and tenders, including public tenders, and experience with framework agreements.
• Tools for prospecting and booking meetings, LinkedIn, and Excel or Power BI for tracking your own numbers.
• A category B driving licence, and the languages you sell in.

No sales experience, or many years behind you

Many people start in sales without experience, often in telephone sales, a contact centre or a shop. Highlight what shows you can handle a no, enjoy approaching people and work towards targets: a shop job with upselling, fundraising sales, a role in a club or competitive sport. Add numbers where you can, for example “sold 25,000 kroner worth of goods in a fundraiser for the team”. If you come from retail or customer service, our guides to a shop assistant CV and a customer service CV have more examples, and our guide to a CV for recent graduates helps with a CV with little experience.

If you have sold for many years, the challenge is choosing what to include. Cut older roles to one line, and use the space for the last five to ten years and your biggest deals. If you have trained new salespeople, managed key accounts or led a team, put it near the top. That opens doors to roles such as key account manager, sales manager or store manager. If you have changed industry, briefly explain what the sales work had in common. Keep the CV to one or two pages.

Common mistakes in a sales CV

Most mistakes in a sales CV come down to results that are missing or do not add up. Check for these before you send it:

• Only duties and no numbers, even in a job that is measured on numbers every month.
• Numbers without context. “Sold 4 million” says little without a budget, a period and what you sold.
• Words like “results driven” and “ambitious” with no example to back them up.
• The same CV for telephone sales and key account roles, even though they look for different things.
• Customer names and internal figures that are confidential. Use industry, size and percentages instead.
• No driving licence mentioned when the job is in field sales.

Create your sales CV in under a minute with Selja

An ad for a key account manager asks for different things than an ad for telephone sales. With Selja you paste in the job ad and upload the CV you already have. In under a minute you get a professional, ATS-friendly CV and cover letter tailored to the job, with the words from the ad, such as new business, CRM or budget responsibility, where they match what you have done. As a salesperson you know that more good attempts lead to more deals. The same goes for applications: more good applications lead to more interviews.

Selja never adds experience, numbers or skills you do not have. If the ad asks for something your CV does not show, for example Salesforce experience, Selja asks you first and only uses what you confirm. It is free to start: check your CV for free, or take a free ATS check against the ad. With Pro you also get Job match, which gives a score from 0 to 100 for how well you fit the job. Get started when you want to create your first application.

The application and the interview

Your application is your first sales pitch. Keep it to one page: what you have sold, the result you achieved, and why you want to sell this product for this company. Finish with a clear next step, just as you would in a sales meeting. See our example of a job application for a template you can build on.

Many employers use a sales case or a role play in the interview. Practise asking about the customer's needs before you present, and have your numbers ready. See the interview questions for the role and our guide on how to prepare for a job interview. Pay in sales is often a fixed salary plus commission. The free pay check shows figures from Statistics Norway (SSB), and our guide to negotiating your salary helps you in the conversation.