I keep an eye on the sales employment ads looking for trends, positions, companies and prospects.  I admit it.  One of the aspects that catches my attention is the sheer length of some of these ads.  It seems apparent that some companies simple publish their internal, HR-drive job descriptions as an employment ad.  Mistake.

Ads that incorporate this style read as an onerous task list as opposed to describing the opportunity and, more importantly, describing the ideal salesperson in his or her terms.  The salesperson should read the ad and think to themselves, “Those are my skills, those are my strengths.”

Many ads like to list the reporting requirements of the position.  This task is assumed in sales – you have to provide a forecast, you have to update the CRM package, you have to keep notes.  The specifics of these tasks are not required in the ad.  In fact, they create word bloat in the ad.  Don’t waste the space.

Here is a prime example from an ad:

6.  Engage service delivery owners within the company coordinating mutual stakeholders meetings for repetitive or client initiated strategic business issues or launching of a new/additional service.

Look up “bloviation” in the dictionary and you will find this ad.  Couldn’t the above quote simply state something like “coordinate internal, strategic customer review meetings” or something to that point?  The example is so overwritten that I am not sure of the gist of the sentence.

Concise, succinct writing is key when writing sales ads.

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