I have recently been reviewing résumés for positions in automotive car sales and several of them have amused and bemused me by listing ‘communication skills’ under the applicants’ strengths or profile . What has given me mirth about this is that in these instances, the applicants have a phenomenal number of spelling and/or grammar mistakes throughout their résumés. They have not read or understood or addressed the prospective employer’s written needs in their résumés. Their communication is off to a dreadful start and has significantly crippled their chances of getting an interview, let alone the role. Luckily, the chutzpah of listing ‘communication skills’ amongst their qualities will give plenty of recruiters a forgiving chuckle as they feed the shredder another unsuccessful application.
Another thing about ‘communication skills’: If you are going to put them on your résumé, be sure that you can answer questions about them. I’d naturally ask you ‘What do you mean by communication skills?’ and have seen too many applicants turn into blubbering messes at that question.
Communication skills include:
Reading: read the position advertisement or listing carefully with a highlighter in your hand. Highlight all the important qualities and/or qualifications that the prospective employer has mentioned and them make sure that you address them in your résumé.
Writing: The ability to put together a sentence is highly desirable. If you are applying for a sales trainee role, or even a salesperson’s role, the ability to ask for help or guidance from a manager when you need it is very important and if it is obvious that you can’t even ask your spell check or a literate friend to check your résumé before sending it, you have already disqualified yourself from the role. Seriously, to apply for sales role worth between $30K and up to at least $100K p.a., I’d pay a couple of hundred dollars to a professional editing service to get my résumé perfect before I sent it. Car salespeople have a lot of paperwork to complete and if your first piece of paperwork (your résumé) is shoddy, no Sales Manager worth his/her salt is going to let you near a customer’s sales contract, registration papers, stock order, or finance paperwork.
Addressing the other party’s needs: This is a fundamental of a sales role, and the first, most important opportunity that you have to show that you can do this is in your résumé. Use the employer’s language (from their job advertisement / listing and website). If they use the word ‘enthusiastic’, make sure it’s in your résumé. If they say ‘proven track record of success’ -put that phrase in your covering letter.
These are only three of at least a dozen communication skills that you should ideally have, but hopefully they give you an idea of what is required as a bare minimum. Good dealerships have good attention to detail and, to become a successful member of their team, you will have to prove that you have that attention to detail, too.
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