How to Showcase Relevant Experience in Your SaaS Resume

Thinking about moving into the SaaS industry? Luckily, according to Verified Market Research, the SaaS market is expected to grow at a rate of 27.45% from 2024 to 2031. This article will talk you through how to take advantage of this market growth with a next-level SaaS resume! Read on to improve your chances of landing your ideal SaaS role.

Key Takeaways

• Personalize your resume using keywords from the job description throughout - don’t be afraid to format key terms and figures in bold.

• Be specific, using metrics, action verbs, and precise instances to demonstrate your experience and results in relevant roles.

• Each company uses a set of tools and looks for key phrases that you should mention in your resume to fit into the role. 

How to structure a high-impact SaaS resume 

Although the SaaS industry is in a period of positive growth, it can sometimes feel like the job market is saturated with competition. Navigating the SaaS job market can sometimes be overwhelming, wondering what key skills to prioritize, how to format the experience section, and whether or not to write a summary. 

It’s important to present a clear picture of who you are and what your experience is to SaaS hiring managers in order to capture their attention and be short-listed as a potential employee.

To do this, you want to make sure your resume really emphasizes the following elements, which we will talk you through more below:

• Measurable achievements

• Relevant SaaS skills

• Industry experience 

• Cross-functional team collaboration

If, at a quick glance, a hiring manager can determine that you are a candidate with potential, the hiring manager will read through the rest of your resume. Remember, to really improve your chances of being shortlisted for an interview, every facet of the resume has to convey the right fit for the SaaS industry and the job description you’re applying to. 

Get help from professional resume writers here!

Formatting and layout

• Write experiences and achievements in reverse chronological order, placing the most recent experience first.

• Use bullet points to convey information clearly.

• Keep the resume down to one page unless it is a senior role with 10+ years of experience.

• Use one of the default fonts - Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, etc.

Ensuring its ATS-friendly

• Ensure columns, images, and videos are clearly readable by application tracking systems.

• Use keywords from the job description throughout your resume.

Ensuring it’s easy for recruiters to scan

• Use action verbs at the beginning of sentences to keep the information clear.

• Use shorter sentences to keep the hiring manager’s attention.

• Make keywords and important numbers bold to draw attention to them.

Resume sections to include

• Header - This includes your name, number, email address, LinkedIn profile, and potentially your geographical region. 

• Summary - Write 2-3 sentences summarizing your skills and experience, integrating keywords from the job description.

• Skills - Make sure the skills you highlight tie back to SaaS solutions and the job description.

• Relevant Experience - Highlight your experience in previous SaaS platforms and SaaS roles or, if you haven’t worked in SaaS before, any related experience.

• Education - Mention your highest level of education and any certifications relating to your field or SaaS in particular.

• Miscellaneous - If relevant to you, you may want to include mention of any specific project, award, or publication that helps to illustrate your suitability for the role and stand out against other applicants.

If you are struggling to create a resume that captures your career story, it might be helpful to consider Otto’s Resume’s free resume review.

How to highlight relevant SaaS experience

In addition to the visual appeal of your resume, the content must hold value and present your experience and qualities in the most relevant way. This means you must display your proven track record and ability to work in a fast-paced, revenue-driven environment. 

Here’s how to do this.

Display metrics  

Using highly specific figures and details, describe your impact on driving revenue growth,  customer retention rates, or lead generation.

• A bad example: Responsible for the sales team.

• A good example: Drove a team of 5 to raise sales by 33% over 3 months.

Prove your relevance

This is where you will want to display your proven track record in the field (or related field), displaying direct experience relevant to the SaaS role. The more relevant and valuable you are in the field, the more likely you are to be short-listed for the role.

Don’t be afraid to be specific and draw comparisons and similarities evident between your past experiences and the job description.

• A bad example: In charge of 5 major accounts.

• A good example: Handled 5 key accounts in the SaaS CleanTech industry, maintaining client relationships and retention rates.

Cross-functional team collaborations

SaaS hiring managers want to see you can function within cross-functional teams. This is so important for a fast-paced SaaS environment. Not only that, but they want to know which teams you have collaborated with and to what effect. Specify everything, but keep sentences short and to the point. 

• A bad example: Worked with different teams to improve the product. 

• A good example: Collaborated with the product team to develop sales strategies, increasing lead generation by 40%."

Show results, not responsibilities

Specificity should be the theme of your resume. Hiring managers are not interested in the job description of your old job.

SaaS professionals need your help to solve a problem they’re hiring for. And your resume should display experience in solving these problems rather than explaining the problem. In essence, responsibilities are the problem, while results are the solution.

• A bad example: Responsible for sales processes for the whole company.

• A good example: Developed new sales processes, providing new training programs that increased the ratio of closing deals by 7% in 1 month.  

Perfecting SaaS resumes for different roles

The tricky part of creating a resume isn’t in the writing or even the formatting. Though those steps are necessary, nothing makes or breaks your resume like personalization. Simply put, your resume has to be highly tailored to each job description you apply to. It’s not enough to “EasyApply” on LinkedIn to multiple roles with just one resume and expect a high success rate.

Tailoring your resume should cover everything from key skills to relevant work experience you’ve gained in the SaaS field from previous roles. Different job descriptions will have different keywords for you to focus on. And, of course, these change depending on the role.

Here, we’ll walk you through specific examples of how to tailor a resume for particular roles. 

SaaS Sales roles

Job Title Examples: SaaS Sales Professionals, Account Executives, BDRs/SDRs

What to emphasize in your resume

• Closing deals - How well did you convert leads to customers?

• Sales quotas - Have you hit your target consistently?

• Revenue growth - How much business did you bring in?

• Account management - What strategies did you use? 

• CRM tools - Show your proficiency in day-to-day tools of the trade.

Summary example

Results-driven SaaS Sales Executive with 5+ years of experience in B2B sales, consistently exceeding sales quota by 120%+. Skilled in prospecting, pipeline management, and enterprise sales presentations, with expertise in Salesforce and sales automation tools. Increased annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 40% through strategic account growth and consultative selling.

Key phrases and skills to mention

• Quota achievement and revenue growth - “Exceeded sales quota by 130% in 2023"

• Lead generation and pipeline management - “Developed a lead qualification process that increased conversion by 20%"

• Closing deals and contract size - "Closed enterprise deals averaging $250K ARR"

• Sales strategies and methodologies - “Consultative selling, solution selling, Challenger Sales”

• CRM and sales tools expertise - Salesforce, HubSpot, Outreach.io

• Collaboration with marketing and customer success teams

Customer Success roles

Job Title Examples: Customer Success Managers, Account Managers, Support Specialists

What to emphasize in your resume

• Customer retention – How did you improve customer loyalty?

• Upselling and cross-selling – Did you increase value?

• Customer experience and onboarding – How did you improve product adoption?

• Support metrics – Response time, satisfaction scores, or Net Promoter Score.

• Collaboration – Working with product teams to enhance the customer journey.

Summary example

Customer Success Manager with 4+ years in SaaS, specializing in post-sale engagement, customer retention, and upselling. Led initiatives that reduced churn by 25% and increased contract renewals by 30%. Experienced in onboarding strategies and proactive account management to maximize lifetime value. Strong communicator and relationship builder with a focus on SaaS customer experience.

Key phrases and skills to mention

• Customer retention and churn reduction - "Reduced churn from 18% to 9% in 12 months"

• Upselling and renewals - "Increased customer lifetime value by 30% through consultative upselling"

• Onboarding and product adoption - "Improved onboarding process, reducing time-to-value by 40%"

• Customer engagement strategies - "Maintained a Net Promoter Score of 75+"

• Collaboration with product and sales teams - "Provided user feedback that led to a key feature update"

• Customer success platforms and tools - Gainsight, Zendesk, ChurnZero, HubSpot

Product Manager roles

Job Title Examples: SaaS Product Development and Strategy, SaaS Product Managers, Technical PMs, UX PMs

What to emphasize in your resume

• Roadmap planning – Experience in defining and executing product strategies.

• Feature development – How have you driven successful product launches?

• User research and feedback – How do you incorporate customer needs?

• Cross-functional team collaboration – Working with engineering, marketing, and sales.

• Data-driven decision-making – Using analytics to improve product performance.

Summary example

Data-driven Product Manager with 6+ years in SaaS, leading cross-functional teams to develop and launch scalable solutions. Experienced in defining product roadmaps, gathering user feedback, and driving feature adoption. Successfully launched a key feature that increased user engagement by 45%. Proficient in Agile methodologies, A/B testing, and working closely with engineering teams.

Key phrases and skills to mention

• Product roadmap and feature development - "Led product roadmap execution, launching 3 features in 12 months"

• User research and customer feedback - "Conducted 50+ user interviews to refine product strategy"

• Collaboration with engineers and designers - "Worked with engineering to reduce feature release time by 30%"

• Data-driven decision-making - "Increased user retention by 25% through data-backed UX improvements"

• A/B testing and experimentation - Google Optimize, Optimizely, Mixpanel

• Agile and Scrum methodologies - JIRA, Confluence, Trello

Learn more about crafting a project manager resume here.

Marketing Roles

Job Title Examples: Growth Marketers, Digital Marketing, Demand Generation

What to emphasize in your resume

• Lead generation – How many Marketing Qualified Leads did you generate?

• Campaign performance – Success of email, paid, and organic campaigns.

• Marketing automation and analytics – HubSpot, Google Analytics, and attribution modeling.

• SEO and content strategy – Blog performance, ranking improvements, and inbound growth.

• ROI and revenue contribution – Did your marketing efforts directly impact sales?

Summary example

SaaS Growth Marketer with 5+ years of experience in lead generation, digital campaigns, and automation. Increased inbound Marketing Qualified Leads by 60% through optimized content strategy and multi-channel marketing. Experienced in SEO, paid search, and HubSpot automation, driving pipeline growth of $2M+ annually.

Key phrases and skills to mention

• Lead generation and demand generation - "Generated 3,000 Marketing Qualified Leads per quarter via content and paid campaigns"

• Conversion rate optimization - "Improved landing page conversion by 40% using A/B testing"

• SEO and content marketing - "Increased organic traffic by 80% through targeted content strategy"

• Paid advertising performance - "Managed $500K Google Ads budget with a 5x ROAS"

• Marketing automation and analytics - HubSpot, Marketo, Google Analytics, Tableau

• Collaboration with sales teams - "Aligned marketing campaigns with sales to improve lead quality by 30%"

Learn more about the typical structure of a B2B SaaS marketing team here.

Push your resume to the top of the pile!

Using these tips, your resume will align with the requirements of the role, will intrigue the hiring manager, and will increase your chances of progressing to the next step of the hiring process. Remember to be specific, accurate, and above all, confident in your resume! If you’re struggling to get results from your resume, it might be time to consider hiring a resume writer. Learn if it is worth paying a resume writer here.