Understanding Your Sales Index Score

Learn about the sales index score results from your ResyMatch scan.

Written by Austin Belcak

Updated 3 years ago

When you scan your resume against a job description in ResyMatch.io, our tool separates the scan into four different categories to help break down the match results. One of these categories will cover your sales index score.

What Is A Sales Index Score?

Our sales index score consists of four subcategories:

Word Count
Measurable Results
Action Verbs
Cliches & Buzzwords

We scan your resume for these important aspects to ensure that your resume is following best practices, as well as give you the opportunity to create a better one if you're not.

We recently analyzed data from over 125,000 resumes and compiled those statistics to help jobseekers excel in the market. You can check out our full analysis here.

Let's break down each category:

Word Count

A recent TalenWorks study showed that, in most cases, resumes clocking in under 475 words or greater than 600 words saw significant decreases in effectiveness

The ideal resume length is 475 – 600 words.

According to our data, 77% of the resumes scanned with our ResyMatch tool were outside of that range.

There are many easy ways to track your resume's word count. You can use the Word Count data from a ResyMatch scan. You can use the Word Count tool in your word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word, Google Docs). Finally, you can use an online word counter tool like WordCounter.net.

Measurable Results

For ResyMatch's scoring algorithm, we set our measurable metrics parameter at five instances. What does that mean?

Resumes with five or more instances of measurable metrics “pass” and get additional points towards their total resume score. To clarify, five instances is still fewer than we'd recommend in an ideal world, but we wanted to make it achievable for candidates since we knew that many people don't include metrics at all.

Our data shows that only 26% of resumes included five or more instances of measurable metrics. In fact, 36% of resumes didn't include a single measurable metric whatsoever.

If you need some help, we've created a free tool called ResyBullet.io that will score your resume bullets and help improve them.

All you need to do is copy a bullet from your resume, paste it in, and use the feedback and scoring mechanism to improve!

Action Verbs

Most people's attempt to “stand out” with their resume action words fail. Why? Because they end up plugging in the same information everyone else is!

Candidates are all using the same buzzwords and catchphrases like “results oriented team player” or “passionate growth marketer” that they copied and pasted in a weak attempt to be seen.

Breaking News!

Recruiters have been seeing this for years now, to the point where resumes that don't include these vague buzzwords are actually the ones that stand out.

If you want to make a great first impression that lands you the job interview, you're going to have to do more than just use some fancy resume action words. You need to understand the science behind weaving those actions words into your resume bullets in a way that immediately grab's the hiring manager's attention and conveys your value.

This post has 175+ examples of resume action words you can use to improve your bullets.

Cliches & Buzzwords

I get it. As a job seeker, you want to make sure that people understand that you're a professional – someone to be respected, who adds value. But packing your resume with buzzwords and jargon achieves the exact opposite. It only serves to muddy the waters and make your value harder to understand.

51% of the resumes in our data set included some sort of buzzword, cliche, or improper use of pronouns.

The good news is that the vast majority of these resumes only have one or two instances, which makes for an easy fix.

Our mantra for resumes is that your writing should always be selling your experience, not summarizing it. Concision is at the core of great persuasive writing – the shorter and simpler your sentences, the easier it is to convey your value.

Buzzwords, fluff, and cliches are unnecessary and take away from your message, but the vast majority of resumes include them. If you take a few extra minutes to remove them from your bullets and focus on writing in the style / format mentioned earlier in this post, your value will be clear and you will stand out from the crowd!