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You Are Not Losing Interviews: Your CV Is Losing Them for You

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Peter Hit His Sales Target for Five Years, and His CV Never Said So

Peter had beaten his sales target for twenty quarters in a row and still lost a national sales manager role to a candidate with fewer years of experience.

He worked as a regional sales manager at an FMCG distributor in Nairobi. He led 14 sales reps across Nairobi and Central Kenya and had won the company’s top regional award three times. In four months, he applied for ten national sales manager roles. Three companies interviewed him. None made an offer.

After the third interview, a panel member gave him honest feedback. His CV listed responsibilities but showed no results.

What the Panel Read

Peter’s CV said, “Responsible for achieving sales targets, managing a team of sales representatives and maintaining relationships with key accounts.” Every sales manager in Kenya has written those same words. The panel had no way to tell him apart from the other eleven candidates.

Peter had assumed the figures would speak for themselves. They sat in company reports, so he left them out.

The Numbers He Left Behind

He brought his CV to us, and our CV expert asked him what his region was worth when he took it over. Peter answered without checking a single note. It was worth KES 310 million then and KES 520 million now. Once he started, the facts kept coming. He had signed 22 new wholesalers. He had lost only one rep in five years. He had also won back a supermarket chain that had delisted the company’s products, a contract worth KES 40 million a year.

His CV now had numbers to tie everything together. “Regional sales manager who grew a territory from KES 310 million to KES 520 million in five years while leading 14 reps.” The supermarket win sat directly beneath. The line about responsibilities disappeared completely.

Bottomline

Peter sent the new CV to five national roles. Three replied within two weeks. One of our account managers also watched for openings with employers we work with and forwarded his CV when a role matched.

Five weeks later he accepted a national sales manager position at a beverage company, with a salary 30% above his old one. In the final interview, the panel spent twenty minutes asking about the supermarket.

Your best results are sitting in old reports and appraisals. Pull out the three biggest and check whether your CV mentions them. If you want a second opinion, send your CV to our team today and watch us work our magic.