Sales executives are the most important people in the organization when it comes to expanding markets, driving sales, and increasing revenue. To achieve these ambitious targets, sales executives establish a new business, negotiate contracts, review sales performance, and develop marketing campaigns. However, to successfully advance your executive sales career, you need to master one more crucial skill – cover letter writing.
Your cover letter is the first document the employer sees, so consider it as a sales pitch. Ideally, your letter should spark the interest and encourage the hiring manager to read your resume top to bottom, and then invite you for an interview. And this target is achievable provided that you take that cover letter writing seriously.
In today’s guide, our resume writers online will explain as follows:
A cover letter is your introduction to a target employer. Not only it will be compared against the letters of your competitors, but also your professional competencies, career history and communication skills will be evaluated. With this in mind, you want a flawless, error-free letter that clearly articulates your professional value. The resume wizards of Resumeperk.com can prepare a compelling custom cover letter that humblebrags about what makes you a perfect fit for that sales executive or VP of Sales role. The writer will work on your letter until you are fully satisfied.
The whopping 45% of recruiters will reject a resume that goes without an attached cover letter. The situation is more serious with the C-level position. The cost of the wrong hire is higher; hence the recruiters are pickier about the candidates. Since your sales role implies heavy interaction with high-profile clients, relationship building and communication, the hiring manager can easily see these qualities – or lack thereof – from your cover letter. A focused, concise, error-free letter increases your chances for an interview dramatically.
The essential elements of any cover letter include contact details, introduction, body, and closing. Your C-level letter is no exception from this rule. Here are a few guidelines for you to follow:
• Address the hiring person by name. A student or entry-level professional may write ‘Dear Hiring Manager’, but as a leader, you are expected to have better etiquette.
• Show how you learned about the position. It’s better to avoid saying ‘I found the listing on a job board’. The best strategy is to show your connection with the company. For instance, you might say that a friend working for them recommended you to apply, or that you’ve spoken to someone during the conference and heard that the company was hiring new sales teams.
• Focus on accomplishments. As a leader, you will need to deliver tangible results. So, show how you gained previous results in the past – for example, increased market share, surpassed sales quotas, grew customer base, and built high-performing teams. You might also mention whether you encourage teamwork or individual work with your subordinates.
• Close confidently. It takes confidence and even aggressiveness to a certain extent to succeed in sales. So, keep the tone of your letter confident and persuasive. In the closing, say that you will follow up about the progress of your application and express the confidence that you’re an ideal fit for the opening.
In addition to listing your previous experience and accomplishments, your letter should also showcase the skills that the employers look for in successful sales leaders. The specific skills you’ll want to mention depend on the particular position and your strengths. If you don’t know which skills to focus on, here are some suggestions for you:
• Persuasion and negotiation
• Decision-making
• Strategic planning
• Marketing campaign development
• New business development
• Brand awareness
• Account management
• Client acquisition and retention
• Team building and motivation
• ROI analysis
While you may want to list these skill names in a resume, avoid doing so in a cover letter. Instead, give the real situation when you applied these skills and how it helped you achieve the goals set. Being a sales leader is stressful, so take a look at these ways to eliminate stress at work as recommended by our experts.
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Writing a persuasive cover letter that will wow your target employer is a tough task. To help you out, we’ve collected some extra writing tips:
Do’s:
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Don’ts
Now that you know the principles of effective writing, let’s take a look at the letter example. This letter will give you an idea of how a successful letter should look like, the overall letter structure and the tone of voice. However, avoid copying the parts or the entire letter, as your own letter should be unique and based on your experience.
Image source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/db/d2/4f/dbd24f3b38b5561ca4886399aa34b3b2.jpg
As you see, this candidate successfully highlights their professional accomplishments and recognition, explaining which steps they took to meet their ambitious goals. The letter uses persuasive and aggressive tone of voice as recommended for sales executives. It also uses bullet points to draw attention to the results the candidate delivered in the first place.
Once you’ve made it to the interview stage, you’ll need to master interview skills to make an excellent impression in person. Here are some pointers for you to get perfectly prepared and ace your next interview:
Tailor your cover letter for the job posting, using the same language and highlighting the skills and attributes that the employer requests for in the first place. Being highly relevant will ease your way through the ATS and build a connection with a human recruiter.
Now that you know how to craft a compelling cover letter, it’s time to make sure that your resume is up to scratch. Our website offers a free resume evaluation for professional and executives. Email your resume to us, and one of our resume makers will describe its strengths and areas for improvement to you.
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