Business Development Résumé Summary Statement
Dear Deb,
Q. Would you have a better suggestion for this opening summary statement?
"Especially skilled at opening doors and building relationships that result in win-win sales scenarios for customers and companies alike".
Thank you in advance! - MB, Rockford, IL
A. I am not sure from this question if you are truly referring to a summary statement or want to use this as more of what we would consider a branding statement. The sentence below, which is a reworded version of what you wrote, could be either a branding statement or part of a summary, depending upon how you choose to organize your document.
This sentence would not make an ideal lead in if it were part of a summary. You would first want to describe your strengths with a few choice adjectives and then add this sentence as part of a 4-6 sentence paragraph or a bulleted list with no more than 5 or 6 bullets. Again, it depends upon the format and style of your résumé.
Highly skilled at developing new business and nurturing key relationships to create win-win scenarios.
A summary statement has to be powerful. The reworded version above removes redundancies while providing similar information in a concise way. The original sentence had 21 words whereas the new sentence has only 15. That is a substantial difference! When busy hiring managers and recruiters review résumés, unnecessary or convoluted wording can lead to a loss of interest. Here are a few more tips about creating an effective summary statement:
- Your summary should answer the larger question of why they should hire you.
- It should be focused on what they need, rather than what you want.
- Good summary statements highlight core competencies, relevant skills, and past experience while touching upon notable accomplishments.
Each résumé is somewhat unique and while many people create their own résumé summaries, hiring a professional résumé writer to develop a high impact summary statement has advantages. The summary appears in the top third of the page and is of critical importance to the résumé. If you have a mediocre summary, it is likely you will be perceived as a mediocre candidate. Either way, it is a good idea to get some feedback on your summary statement so you ensure that it makes the most positive impression of what you offer.
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