ATS Keywords for
Sales Representatives
Sales CVs are judged on numbers, but they are filtered on vocabulary first. Requisitions specify the motion — inbound or outbound, new business or account growth, transactional or enterprise — and they name a CRM and often a methodology. A CV that says "exceeded targets consistently" without quota attainment, deal size, cycle length or a CRM name matches very little of that. The terms below are how sales postings describe the job, and what each one tells the screen about the seller you are.
14 ATS keywords for Sales Representative CVs
What each term signals to the system reading your CV.
Quota attainment
The defining sales metric, and the first thing both the filter and the hiring manager look for.
Pipeline management
Standard requisition phrasing for owning opportunities through the funnel.
Salesforce / HubSpot CRM
CRM names are matched individually and postings name the one the team runs.
Prospecting / cold outreach
Separates hunters from account managers, and outbound roles filter on it hard.
Lead qualification (BANT, MEDDIC)
Framework names are literal matches and signal trained, repeatable process.
B2B / B2C sales
Market type is a hard screen; the motions are genuinely different jobs.
Closing / negotiation
Names the end of the cycle you own rather than implying it through results.
Account management
Post-sale ownership is a distinct competency screened separately from new business.
Sales cycle
Cycle length tells the screen whether your experience matches their deal size.
Revenue growth
The commercial outcome phrasing senior sales requisitions weight most.
SaaS sales
Industry-specific experience that is often a stated requirement rather than a preference.
Upselling / cross-selling
Expansion revenue is its own named responsibility in retention-led organisations.
Territory management
Appears in field sales postings and signals autonomous patch ownership.
Discovery calls / demos
The concrete activities listed under responsibilities in most SaaS postings.
How to use this list
- Open each role with the numbers: quota, attainment percentage, average deal size, and ranking against the team.
- Name the CRM — it is a literal filter and it tells the reviewer you can be productive in week one.
- Match the motion to the posting: outbound prospecting and inbound closing are screened as different skill sets.
- Include the industry you sold into; vertical knowledge is frequently a stated requirement in enterprise sales.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know before you upload.
What if I missed quota in a bad year?
Lead with the years you hit and give the context for the rest — a territory change, a product transition, a market downturn. Multi-year attainment figures read as honest, and a CV with no numbers at all is treated far more sceptically.
Do sales methodologies like MEDDIC matter to the screen?
Where the posting names one, yes — it is a literal match and a signal of formal training. Where it does not, methodology terms are harmless but earn less than attainment numbers in the same space.
How do I move from B2C to B2B sales?
Expect a weaker keyword match and compensate with the transferable vocabulary: pipeline, cycle, negotiation, quota. Name any complex or consultative sale you handled, since that is the real distinction the requisition is filtering for.
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