Sales executives are always looking for a new challenge. They could be looking for a more demanding role, a higher-paying position or a job that allows them a more reasonable work-life balance. Some sales executives will take a lower position with a Fortune 500 company, while others might leave a mid-management role at a large firm to take on a Sales VP position at a small startup.

Whatever the specific case, it is not uncommon for sales executives to be on a job search. For those itinerant execs, we have the perfect tool to help them with their job search:

Sales analytics.

Yes, it’s true – sales analytics is not only great for helping you run your sales team by the numbers, but it can also be a tremendous boon in helping you find your next sales management position.

The proof is in the pudding

Think about what your resume entails – it is essentially a list of your accomplishments and achievements, designed to impress the person you’re interviewing with. The purpose of a job interview is two-fold: to prove what you’ve done in the past, and to convince them of what you can do in the future.

What better way to prove what you’ve achieved…then by actually showing your interviewer the numbers? That’s where sales analytics come in.

As a sales executive, your biggest responsibility is to grow sales, and having done so, you’d like to prove it to your interviewer. Saying something like “We grew our sales significantly over my tenure as sales manager,” is a bit of an empty statement – sure, it sounds great, but who knows if you actually achieved that or not? On the other hand, what if you could pull out this report from your portfolio instead?

That’s a real sales report, with up-and-to-the-right growth and real numbers! Now, you have concrete evidence that you actually did a kick-ass job in helping your sales team improve its performance. From there, you can then delve into the various specific factors that contributed to this upward growth, further proving your bona fides.

It doesn’t stop there. There are a wealth of sales reports you can burnish your resume and interview with:

• Demonstrate your knack for finding better market fits and shortening the sales cycle

• Show your proficiency in sales coaching through improved activity efficiency ratios from your sales team

• You’re not just all about closing sales – you’re also pretty good at lead generation, as evident by your growing historical pipeline 

• A big part of sales management is maintaining sales and marketing alignment, something you did very well, according to your Lead Aging report

These reports are just scratching the surface in terms of concrete evidence and actual proof you can bring to the interview to convey your achievements. In an upcoming post, we will focus on the other side of the job search – projecting what you will bring to the table at this new position.