What are some of the most common mistakes that employers find in a CV for a sales representative candidate? What can be done to avoid making these mistakes?

Be honest and don't exaggerate for what you are doing. 

Avoid the roles that doesn't  make sense 

Chances are good that you’re making a few of these common mistakes on your cv for a salesposition. How many are you guilty of?

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 1: Relying on outdated sources of advice. Resume conventions have changed dramatically in the last 20 years. If you’re reading a book that insists you use anobjective on your resume or that you can’t exceed one page, chances are good that you’re reading something outdated (or listening to someone who hasn’t hired recently).

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 2: Including every job you’ve ever had, no matter how irrelevant or long ago. A resume isn’t meant to be an exhaustive accounting of every job you’ve ever held. It’s a marketing document designed to present you in the strongest, most compelling light. That means you don’t need to include every job you’ve ever had, or the part-time work you did on top of your regular job last year, or even your degree in an irrelevant field if you don’t want to. You get to decide what you do and don’t include. The only rule is that you can’t make things up.

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 3: Listing only job duties, rather than accomplishments. Resumes that really stand out go beyond what your job description was and instead answer this question: What did you accomplish in this job that someone else might not have?

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 4: Including subjective descriptions. Your resume is for experience and accomplishments only. It’s not the place for subjective traits, like “great leadership skills” or “creative innovator.” Hiring managers generally ignore anything subjective that an applicant writes about herself, because so many people’s self-assessments are wildly inaccurate; they’re looking for facts.

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 5: Leaving out volunteer work. Sometimes during the course of an interview, I discover someone has highly relevant experience they didn’t include on their resume because it was volunteer work and they thought it “didn’t count.” It counts! Your accomplishments are your accomplishments, even if you did the work “pro bono” rather than for pay.

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 6: Including inappropriate information. Information about your spouse or children, your height or weight, or your salary history doesn’t belong on your resume. (And yes, people really do include these things.)

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 7: Getting creative at the expense of clarity. If you’re thinking of trying something “creative” with your resume, like unusual colors or a non-traditional design, make sure your desire to stand out isn’t getting in the way of the whole point of resume design. Here’s what most hiring managers want from a resume: a concise, easy-to-scan list of what you’ve accomplished, organized chronologically by position, plus any particularly notable skills, all presented in a format that they can quickly scan and get the highlights. That’s it. Creativity, while a nice trait, doesn’t trump those requirements, so make sure whatever format you use works in those ways.

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 8: Having tiny inconsistencies. If you want to come across as someone who takes care in your work and is attentive to detail, pay attention to the small things: Do you have periods after some bullet points but not after others? Do you use consistent verb tenses throughout? Do you randomly start using a different font or type size? These things seem nitpicky, but even small inconsistencies can jump out to an attentive reader.

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 9: Sending your resume without a cover letter. If you’re applying for jobs without including a compelling cover letter—customized to the specific opportunity—you’re missing out on one of the most effective ways to grab an employer’s attention. A cover letter is your opportunity to make a compelling case for yourself as a candidate, totally aside from what’s in your resume.

Common mistakes of cv for a salesposition 10: Believing every piece of resume advice anyone gives you. Yes, it may sound funny coming from me, but the reality is that you can give your resume to 10 different people who are all qualified to give resume advice, and you’ll get 10 different sets of recommendations: Use this font, use that font, don’t go over one page, two pages are fine, objectives are required, objectives are silly—it can be enough to drive you crazy.

The reality is, there are few hard and fast universal rules aside from the obvious (no typos, no illegible fonts, no 10-page rambles, no inappropriate sharing of your personal life). But there are trends—conventions that are gaining majority support. For instance, most hiring managers agree that functional resumes are frustrating and possibly hiding something. And two-page 

The smart Junior Salesman who wants to promote himself correctly through his CV is to:

"Connect the CV stratigically to the vacancy you are applying for as if you were made for the Job"

"Add to it of your personal selling skills that will be an added value to the vacancy in hand"

"Selective information so they have to come for more and always focus on interesting sales keywords that will keep them coming back"

No harm in having several CV's for several Vacancies...crowded skills in one CV will render you "overqualified"...

The most common mistake an employer look at the person's work experience on the same field. Information and skills can be learnt but not a person's attitude. A positive attitude of a person towards work can make them successful on whatever field they choose. 

My view about the question and answer may be some people agree and some disagree on my view.

Many people are mentioned Irrelevant, Incorrect Information, Spelling mistake, grammatical error, Communication skill and blah blah blah.

1.    Irrelevant: How you judge that someone’s CV/Resume is irrelevant before you know or interact with him/her?

2.    Incorrect Information: Yes I sometime agree on this point but if employer/hr short listed someone’s CV/Resume then they must told them bring the entire relevant document which he/she mentioned over their CV/Resume.

3.    Spelling mistake: I don’t think people will do spelling mistake now a day’s because there is option to make correction of spelling when someone writing their CV/Resume.

4.    Grammatical error: Yes it happened near about every CV/Resume but employer/hr not recruiting/hiring the people for classes of English or Grammar.

5.    Communication skill: It is important but no need to mentioned on CV/Resume because while interacting with employee over the phone by employer/hr they must know that which level of communication they require for the relevant post

As we know creator has given some different talent to everyone and no one judge their talent within 2-4 minutes. Which usually an Employer/HR did at the time of reviewing someone’s CV. If your CV is not same as Employer/HR expected then they never be short listed your CV for Review/interview. Whatever you have talent it’s all vain.

My suggestion: An employer/hr/job portal site you people must have some type of job application form which is full of question relevant to job including his/her mobile no. and e-mail id. If employee filled all the details as per your company requirement and he/she selected for interview then you asked his/her CV/Resume on your e-mail id including job experience certificate if they mentioned experience at the time of filling form.

In my idea the employers most commonly see to the experience of the applicant and some other grounds such as personalty , Education, and administrative skills. Although i agree with these grounds but i am adding one thing which can be error of the employers. The applicant experience should be verified . The applicant can write much more experience or their educational document should be verified . This can also be risk for the companies . For example if the Government announce that the person working in Saudi arab should provide educational and attested certificates for the concerned job. It may be possible that a lot of people will be kick off. It may also be possible that they have not worked in the CV which the applicant has mentioned.

I believe that the only way to major a sales person success is the actual rewards, it does not really matter if you mention in your CV that you are strong in sales and met targets continually. We all can mention those sentences in our CV, but what  is more important than listing these skills verbally is to prove it with things such as rewards, KVFs and previous managers recommendations; those will speaks on your behalf. One of the very common mistakes that a sales representative can do is to over flatter himself in the CV, while he/she does not have the prove for these achievements.

In sales CV one must not exaggerate functions which are not a part of a sales process or proffession.An employer always try to identify your achievements and find out how many companies you left before.

one must indicate what was his/her growth in his past companies because growth is based on performance. 

There are many types of mistakes such as providing wrong contact information , lack of experience explanation,small font ,misunderstanding the job requirements , wrong keywords...etc

this happens because the candidate specially on recruitment portals will try to apply to any and many jobs , so he will not edit C.V based  on the job requirements ,

the employer can find mistakes because he doesn't provide job application form  to candidates to fill  , the application form will guide the candidate  providing the answers  required for specific job , if the application form was built according to  job requirements the candidate from the first questions can understand he is fit to the job or not , also by using points calculation system and optical mark reader in the  application form the employer will go for the top ranked application so he will save his time and efforts .

The most common mistakes that I have found so far in a CV for a sales representative are:

1. They sound over ambitious at times which is usually not practical and true when it comes to real grounds

2. They cannot demonstrate the experience (fake) which has been claimed in the CV. No proven track record

3. And last but not the least, they all pose themselves as marvelous communicators which of course is an essential trait for one to be a superb sales person

Now in my opinion; what can be done to avoid these mistakes:

1. People must know the difference between being ambitious and over-ambitious as there is always a thin line between selection and rejection, after you have been called over for an interview. For adept interviewers, it hardly takes 30 seconds to make up their minds.

2. Avoid being fake but if that's what has landed you an interview, prepare very well. Gather all the information, talk to people who have been in those similar jobs, browse the internet, read books and make yourself look like an experienced chap. 

3. Communication skills are something which cannot be acquired just before you have received an interview call. If you cannot communicate well, sales is not for you; PERIOD! You always have enough time to improve on your communication skills, don't waste it. Join language classes, read a lot, enhance your vocab, speak to people, prepare and give presentations, attend conferences/seminars. Remember, if you can't tell it, you can't sell it. 

1. Lack of Clarity

2. Cramming Too Much Information Onto the Page

Not Using the Right Key Words

Taking a One-Size-Fits-All Approach

5. Making It All About You

Using an Inappropriate Email Address

Focusing on Tasks Instead of Results

Listing Skills They Don’t Really Have