instead: "Gimme a fun sales job where the pay just keeps getting better and better."

While the above might actually be our goal in life, it's not the kind of goal that is going to motivate a hiring official to give us the time of the day. When your sales executive resume hits the desk of a hiring official, you've got seven seconds to make a good first impression. And since your objective is likely to be the first thing read, your fortunes are riding on a mere handful of words. With a tip of the hat to professional resume writers, here's how to buy yourself another seven seconds, and another seven beyond that. In other words, here's what you need to know to write a sales executive resume objective that will keep the prospective employer reading.

It's About The Hiring Official

That's right, contrary to conventional thinking, the objective is not about you. It's not about your wants or your needs or your corporate lifestyle demands. Believe it or not, it's about the hiring official. He (or she) is under pressure to fill a job opening not just with a warm body, but with an individual whose hiring won't come back to haunt him. Ideally, he wants to find a candidate who'll make him look good to his superiors.

Because your resume objective is the first thing he'll read, he'll be using that opportunity to quickly size you up. Are you a sales professional, or a goof off? Have you done your homework, or did you skip that prep? Do you have a defined and realistic goal, or will any old work for any old paycheck do? Do you give a damn about the company, or have you just got your hand out? You'd be surprised how much one can tell from a resume's objective.

First Things First - Do Your Homework

The best resume writers start by researching their field. Even if you're making a lateral move, brush up on the economies that are driving this field, the technologies that are changing it, and the qualifications that are most in demand.

Research your prospective employer. Acme Manufacturing, with it's generic products and cardboard cutout employees is gone like Mayberry--if it ever existed in the first place. In its stead are highly competitive niche players that have their own peculiar structures and workforce demands. Identify the company (or companies) you want to work for, then research and identify the workplace environment and business philosophies that drive that company. Start your research with the company's web presence. Glean additional insight from archived news articles, Dun and Bradstreet (check your library) and analysts' reports (if the company's stock is publicly traded).

Finally, research the sales executive position you want. Much of detail of the sales job will remain elusive until the face-to-face interview, but any nuggets of facts you can uncover ahead of that will help you in targeting your resume. Otherwise, you may never make it to the face-to-face.

Bring It All Together

By doing your homework on your prospective field, specific company and target position, you're ready to begin work on that sales executive resume objective. Knowing that it's not about you--it's about the hiring official--put your research into words. Instead of "Seeking a position with advancement opportunities to senior management," which is self-serving and all about "me," your resume objective is now going to focus on the needs of that hiring official. Something like the following: "Executive-level sales position which could fully utilize a top performer with an expertise in training and a strong drive to maximize corporate profitability in a competitive global marketplace."

And bingo, in a single sentence you've drawn a straight line between a key ingredient of the job position and your skill set, acknowledged the company's bid to go global, and signaled your understanding that profits are key to everybody keeping their job--including (and most importantly) the person reading your resume.

If resumes were nothing beyond objectives, you'd have won the job right then and there. You've shown yourself to be professional, focused, on top of it, and dedicated to what matters. But of course, there's more to the hiring process than the scan of a single objective. The important thing is that you've bought yourself another seven seconds in the screening process. And the hiring official keeps reading.

David Alan Carter is a former headhunter and the founder of Resume One of Cincinnati. For more than ten years, he personally crafted thousands of resumes for satisfied clients from all occupational walks of life - entry level to executive. David evaluates and ranks the web's most popular online resume builders and professional resume writers at the website BestResumeServices.org.