Outside sales representative cover letter

Outside Sales Representative Cover Letter

When you’re applying for a job as an outside sales representative, writing a great cover letter is just as important as writing a solid resume.

While your resume gives a great overview of your skills and experience, your cover letter is where you can really start to convince the hiring manager that you’re the best person for the job. This is especially true in a highly personable field like sales. If you can’t sell yourself, how are recruiters supposed to believe that you can sell their product?

The good news is, writing a strong cover letter is simpler than you’d think. In this article, you’ll find advice on what to include in yours as well as an example outside sales representative cover letter to use as a reference while you write.

Parts of an Outside Sales Representative Cover Letter

1. Your Contact Information

2. The Date

3. The Recipient’s Information

4. Salutation

5. Opening Paragraph

6. Body Paragraphs

7. Closing Lines

Outside Sales Representative Cover Letter Opening

The opening paragraph of your cover letter is your opportunity to introduce yourself to the hiring managers and to give a brief explanation of why you’re the best candidate for the job.

Your goal is to hook readers in, so provide enough information to pique their interest while still leaving yourself enough room to build on it later in the letter.

As you write your introduction, be sure to specifically mention the title of the position you’re applying for and the name of the company that’s hiring.

This may feel like you’re stating the obvious. Still, recruiters often have stacks of cover letters and resumes for several different positions that they have to sift through, so putting this information at the top of your letter will remind them what you’re applying for as they read.

Even with all of these details, this section doesn’t need to be long. Here’s an example of what it could look like:

Outside Sales Representative Cover Letter Body

The body of your cover letter is the most critical part. These paragraphs are where you’ll flesh out who you are and what you bring to the table as a candidate. Here are some elements you should be sure to include as you write:

1. What sets you apart as a candidate. The most important thing to discuss in your cover letter is why they should hire you over everyone else who applied.

   Yes, you listed your qualifications and accomplishments on your resume, but so did every other applicant, and hiring managers know that resume bullet points often don’t reflect the truth about what you can actually do.

   Your cover letter is your opportunity to demonstrate your skills by explaining how you’ve put them to use in the past and by showing off your communication skills, which every sales representative should have.

   Talk about your most significant accomplishments. You can do this by going through the job posting and note what skills and qualifications the company wants from a candidate and talk about how you’ve used those in the past.

   Be specific, giving quantitative evidence of the impact your work has had wherever you can, even sharing short anecdotes where appropriate. Remember to paint a picture of who you are instead of simply listing your resume’s bullet points in sentence form.

2. What you’d add to the company. Companies aren’t hiring you out of the goodness of their hearts, believe it or not. They want to know what’s in it for them, too.

   Your cover letter is the perfect place to show what you’d add to their organization if they hired you. Doing this may take a little research on the company and its culture, values, mission, and accomplishments, but this will pay off because it shows you’re invested in getting this job and working for the company.

   Talk about how your skills align with the company’s goals and will help further them. Even showing that you understand the company’s goals will demonstrate to hiring managers that you’d add value to the organization.

3. Why you want this particular position at this particular company. Along the same vein as the previous point, recruiters want to know why you’re applying for the job beyond the fact that you need a paycheck and meet the qualifications.

   Talk about what attracted you to the job description, how the position aligns with your professional goals and passions, or simply why you want to work for the company. Even if it’s as simple as explaining that your friend worked there and couldn’t say enough good things about it, that’s enough to add heart to your cover letter and show you’re invested.

Check out these cover letter body paragraphs to see one example of how you can incorporate all of this information into your cover letter:

Outside Sales Representative Cover Letter Closing Lines

When you’re finished with the body of your cover letter, take a few lines to wrap up and thank the readers for their time and consideration.

You should also leave them with a call to action of some kind. This could be a subtle note about how you’re looking forward to talking with them some more about the position, or it could be a bolder request to do the same.

Usually, you’ll only need to ask for a meeting if you’re sending in your resume cold-turkey without an application. Otherwise, it’s understood that an interview is the next step in the hiring process and that you would like to have one.

Here’s an example of a cover letter closing paragraph:

Example of an Outside Sales Representative Cover Letter