Sales Cover Letter
If you’re part of a dedicated sales team, then you don’t tell me what a stressful job it can be. Especially if you’re active in a competitive market.
A successful sales person not only needs a lot of commitment, dedication and patience but also an engaging personality which can connect with potential buyers without coming across as arrogant or obnoxious.
This is a tricky job to do when you’re able to chat to somebody face-to-face but it becomes even more difficult when you have to try and build a rapport with someone with just a pen and a bit of paper.
With that in mind, we’ve come up with a few ideas on how to write a cover letter to a potential customer.
Research
As with all cover letters, before you even start thinking about what you’re going to write, you need to do some background research into the company or individual that you’re writing to.
In today’s digital age, this is a lot easier than it used to be. An internet search will reveal details of key management figures and the vast majority of companies these days tend to have either a website or a company brochure which can be used to research a particular organisation’s history.
All of this kind of information should be written down, with the most relevant two or three points being used in your final draft.
Formatting your letter
Understandably, a lot of business is done via email these days, so this may not be relevant to all of our readers.
However, if you’re planning on sending a pitch in the post then it’s important that you’re cover letter follows some fairly standard rules to ensure that you come across professionally.
Your company details
First up, you need to ensure that your details are included at the top of the page on the left hand side. These details should include your name, your position and the full address of the company that you work for.
Date
Three or four lines below your company details, you need to insert today’s date. This should not be abbreviated at all and should include day, month and year.
e.g. 14th March 2011
Name of contact
From your research above, you should start your letter by addressing the person most relevant to your sale pitch. This should be done in a formal manner using Mr/Miss/Ms as appropriate. The relevant name should then followed by a comma.
e.g. Mr. Holloway,
The Main Body
What follows should be the essentials of your sales pitch. Make sure you tie in what your organisation offers with the background research you’ve done into the history of the target company.
Generally speaking, this main body shouldn’t be longer than four or five paragraphs and should encourage the reader to look through the main sales package which you have included with your letter.
We would suggest breaking down your paragraphs as follows:
First Paragraph
Use your introductory paragraph to introduce yourself and add credence to your company. You might want to do this by dropping a few names of people/organisations that you’re aware your target audience knows, respects or even worked with in the past.
Second Paragraph
From there, go into a bit more detail about what your company does and how it operates. Again, use your research to emphasise the products that you know your target audience needs or requires and make reference to the enclosed sales package for the first time.
Third Paragraph
Spell out specifically how you view the two organisations working together and what needs you feel can fulfil. Identify any relevant qualities that you believe your organisation has, especially when it comes to solving any problems that you know your target audience has experienced in the past.
Final Paragraph
Be clear in your desire to see your companies working together and again point the reader in the direction of the enclosed sales material.
Be proactive and state that you will follow up on your letter with a phone call at a specific time to answer any questions that may have arisen and make sure you phone when you say will – it’s important that you show any sales prospect that you’re reliable, keen and able to be trusted.
Finally, thank the recipient for their time.
The Sign Off
As you should have written your cover letter to a specifically named person, you can sign off your letter with the phrase ‘Yours sincerely’
If for whatever reason, you have used a more general term to address your prospect (such as “Dear Sir” or “To whom it may concern”), then you will need to sign with “Yours faithfully”
Check and Check again
Once you’ve finished the first draft of your letter, it’s time to go through it and fine tune what you’ve written. Your letter needs to have a good flow and read well so make sure your sentences aren’t too short and contain the correct punctuation.
You might also want to check the following:
- Spelling. I know it seems crazy to mention it, but in a digital age where spell checks are everywhere, a few mis-spelt words can seriously damage your credibility.
Run everything through a spell check and then go through it again manually to a make sure that you’ve spelt similar sounding words correctly (“their” instead of “there” etc)
- Once you’re happy everything is spelt correctly, run through the letter again and remove any contractions – those words which contain apostrophes in them. Therefore words like “You’re” should become “You are.” It creates a much more professional air.
- On a similar note any colloquial expressions need to go – as does any slang that you might have thrown in there. This is a professional organisation that you’re writing to asking them to trust you with their money … any kind of slang will just make you sound instantly untrustworthy.
- With the exception of dates and sums of money, any numbers that you have included in your letter should be in word form. For example “having been the major supplier to Company xyz for six years …”
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