How do you write a good sales cover letter?

Featured

Featured connects subject-matter experts with top publishers to increase their exposure and create Q & A content.

6 min read

how to write a good sales cover letter

© Image Provided by Featured

Table of Contents

14 Tips for Writing a Cover Letter for a Sales Role

How do you write a good sales cover letter? Here are 14 tips for writing a cover letter for a sales role from career coaches, recruiters, and business leaders:

  • Be Creative and Showcase Strengths
  • Highlight Your Passion, Your ‘why’
  • Show Your Best Accomplishments – Quantitively
  • Do Your Research
  • Paint a Picture of Your Future Vision
  • Use Numbers to Your Advantage
  • Focus On Data and Numbers
  • Write It Like a Tailor-fitted Sales Pitch
  • Apply the Five Seconds Rule in Your Cover Letter
  • Share How Your Skills Have Shown Up Outside of Work Too
  • Reflect the Job Description’s Tone
  • Generate Interest in Your Candidacy
  • Sell Yourself—by Nailing What the Recruiter Wants
  • Start by Sharing Some of Your Biggest Accomplishments

Be Creative and Showcase Strengths

It is important to be creative and showcase your strengths. Start by summarizing your previous experience in the sales field and how that would fit with the company you are applying to. Next, highlight why you are interested in this position and what specific skills or knowledge you have that will make you an ideal candidate. Finally, provide examples of how your skills could be put to use on the job and how they would contribute to increasing business revenues. Remember: A well-written cover letter can help get your foot in the door, so make sure it is top-notch!

Paw Vej, Financer.com Ltd

Highlight Your Passion, Your ‘why’

When writing a cover letter for a sales role, it’s important to balance quantifiable sales achievements with the expression of real passion. Highlighting why you went into sales and what motivates you to do good work can make your cover letter stand out from the rest, especially in a field where interpersonal communication is so important. While it’s important to keep things short and sweet, authentic passion can be expressed concisely and still have an impact. Tie that passion into the specific company you’re applying for, and you’re even more golden. Short bursts of storytelling and humanity catch a recruiter’s eye, so get your ‘why’ in alongside more quantifiable career events.

Stephen Light, Nolah Mattress

Show Your Best Accomplishments – Quantitively

The primary purpose of the cover letter is to proverbially “put some meat on the bones”. If the resume (literally meaning summary in French) is the skeleton which broadly outlines your work experience, then surely cover letters are the meat on them that flesh out your application.Now while trying to quantify your results and achievements is always the way to go nowhere is this perhaps more prevalent than in sales jobs. After all, you’ll be surrounded by numbers all day. Revenue, profit, success rate, conversion %, ROI, etc., etc. any way you cut, sales is a numbers game, so use your cover letter wisely to prove beyond any doubt, what an overachiever you are.Write what the quotas were and how you exceeded them. Use percentages to demonstrate your impact. Ultimately, you want your cover letter to serve as a sales deck where the hiring manager get convinced that you’re right for the job.Prove them right. Good luck!

Peter Bryla, ResumeLab

Do Your Research

Undertake extensive research on the organizations for which you are applying so that you can tailor your cover letter to each one. Begin by looking for the name of the hiring manager at the company. Addressing the hiring manager by name provides a personal touch that will grab their attention. Don’t forget to look into the company’s objective, goals, principles, and culture. Knowing them and integrating them into your cover letter informs the hiring manager that you are astutely familiar with the firm and its brand. It would also be beneficial to highlight the organization’s unique interest or goal that corresponds to your personal or professional objectives. Assume the company is committed to environmental sustainability, and you share that commitment. You may use that alignment of values to provide yourself with a competitive advantage. It conveys that you will be an excellent culture fit.

David Bitton, Doorloop

Paint a Picture of Your Future Vision

Your cover letter should look back on your previous achievements in the sales industry, but don’t forget to address the future in your cover letter, too. It’s well and good for recruiters to see what you’ve accomplished, but they also want to know your vision for your future to determine whether your needs and desires are the right fit for the role. Use the cover letter to explain your ambitions and how you can fulfill them within the position you’re applying to win. Include how you feel your skills will help the company grow so the recruiter knows “what’s in it for them,” too.

James Diel, Textel

Use Numbers to Your Advantage

The entire purpose of a sales role is to persuade and “sell” others on a product or service, so your cover letter needs to do an adequate, if not outstanding, job selling you to a hiring manager. Your cover letter is the first thing employers will see, so it’s critical to get your sales pitch just right. Rather than rhyming off a list of skills that every other application mentions, provide quantifiable proof. If your team helped boost revenue growth by 10% in 2 years or your sales were the highest on the team for 3 years in a row, presenting your wins in a real, measurable way will give you instant credibility in the eyes of the recruiter.

John Li, Fig Loans

Focus On Data and Numbers

Selling yourself as a salesperson should include your previous numbers as a salesperson. Make sure that your numbers are up to trend with what your new employer would be asking, and also make sure they are true. Do not try to lie about your numbers, it is better to be honest with your previous sales, but definitely ad them into your cover letters.

Daniel Tejada, Straight Up Growth

Write It Like a Tailor-fitted Sales Pitch

Your best bet to making your cover letter stand out in the 30-second sort that most hiring managers do is by writing it like a sales pitch tailor-fitted to the company of your choice. Highlight only the most relevant and impressive experiences and qualifications you have. Be brief but specific about the details of your accomplishments. Make the recruiter want to check your resume or interview you for more details. Remember, the best way to land a sales job is to showcase how well you can sell yourself as a product. Make your cover letter accomplish that.

Kris Lippi, I Sold My House

Apply the Five Seconds Rule in Your Cover Letter

Apply the five seconds rule in your cover letter. If in the initial five seconds they’re intrigued, they might read the cover letter. But if they don’t get drawn in the initial five seconds, they actually will move to the next. It’s more like a first impression is the last impression. Show who you are, your experience/ position, years of experience, from where, and your reason for applying. Along these lines, you’re giving them all the vital detail they need to ponder about whether to hire you or not. Keep it short yet informative because that’s what they want.

Meera Watts, Siddhi Yoga International Pte. Ltd.

Share How Your Skills Have Shown Up Outside of Work Too

The skill of selling is such a ‘people’-based skill. It is not just something you learn on the job, but likely something you’ve been honing for a lot of your life. So yes, share your work experience, your success stories, your testimonials. But also, can you share a personal story that is very unique to you and your personality – something that is part of you, rather than something you’ve ‘earned’ via the workplace? That is what will connect an employer to your own unique ‘why’, and the deeper reason that they could hire you.

Hannah Ray, TAKE Coaching Amsterdam

Reflect the Job Description’s Tone

Use your cover letter as a reflection of the job description, relating every bit of content back to the company’s vision of the perfect candidate. You should highlight your possession of the required skills and back up your claims with data from your previous job experiences. Even your language style can help attract or detract a hiring manager – subtly mimic the style of the job description for the best results. Mimicry and sharing language is a proven tactic that subconsciously builds trust and understanding with those around us.

Scott Lieberman, Touchdown Money

Generate Interest in Your Candidacy

No matter how exciting or promising a job or an opportunity to work in a company may seem, it is important to handle the job application process properly. A good way to start the sales job application process is to immediately send a cover letter with relevant and recent information about you, similar to the resume. A cover letter should be 300 words or under and it should help you generate interest in your candidacy by highlighting the relevant skills and experience you have to offer. It should also make the employer feel that you are the right person for the job.

Adam Gaskill, CRC Industries

Sell Yourself—by Nailing What the Recruiter Wants

As someone who’s recruited many salespeople, I always have high expectations for how the candidate sells *themself*.One easy way to stand out in a cover letter: lead with what the company wants. You can infer this by studying the job description and noticing the company’s must-have criteria. Assuming you meet them, cut the fluffy intro and lead with exactly why you’re the perfect fit for the role. It’ll make your letter stand out from the rest.

Zach Grove, Zach Grove

Start by Sharing Some of Your Biggest Accomplishments

The best way to write a cover letter for a sales position is to share some of your biggest accomplishments as a salesperson. Start by highlighting any relevant experience you have in sales, whether it’s from working in retail or another job. Then, emphasize why why you re the best match for this position. Then, explain the skills that make you a good salesperson, such as persuasion, problem solving, and customer service. finally, let the employer know why you’re excited about the opportunity to work in sales at their company.

Petri Maatta, DreamMaker

Submit Your Answer

Would you like to submit an alternate answer to the question, How do you write a good sales cover letter?

Submit your answer here.

Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.

Up Next