After following the steps and creating your perfect sales assistant resume, you finally feel ready to send the resume and be one step closer to getting the job you wanted.
Your resume demonstrates all the skills a great sales assistant should have, such as excellent communication and interpersonal skills, good organizational abilities, knowledge of payment processing, and attentiveness to customer needs.
However, your job application is still not completely ready.
Your perfect sales assistant’s resume needs an equally impressive cover letter.
Let us help. Here you are going to learn:
► how to write a perfect sales assistant cover letter that actually gets read by employers
► how to format a cover letter to stand out among the rest
► what to do before you send your cover letter
Additionally, you’ll get a word-for-word template. Just replace some of the keywords and your cover letter will be ready in no time.
How to Write a Perfect Cover Letter?
A cover letter should complement the content of your resume.
In a concise, straightforward way, you should put your skills and experience in the context of the job you’d like to apply for and convince the employer that you are the best candidate out there.
Be careful, all that should be done in 300-350 words.
Considering the limited space, a cover letter is not a place to duplicate content from your resume.
It is, however, a place to build your brand, position yourself as an expert, add value to your application and express things that cannot be added to a resume, such as your motivation for applying, the story behind your most impressive achievements or the reasons why you want to work for this company.
Cover letter allows you to build your brand, position yourself as an expert, add value to your application and express things that cannot be added to a resume, such as your motivation for applying, the story behind your most impressive achievements or the reasons why you want to work for this company.
To do so, here is the proven structure that should be followed:
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1. Greeting
Start with a greeting.
It may seem silly, but this part sets the tone of your cover letter and can easily be a deal-breaker, so you need to do it right.
Greetings to avoid: Do not use ‘To Whom It May Concern’ or ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ – they are obsolete, unnatural and way over-used. Some hiring managers stop reading a cover letter as soon as they see one of those two phrases, so avoid them.
Address personally: Try to address your letter to the hiring manager directly. If no name is listed with the posting, research the name of the department director, recruiter, or other contact associated with the position via LinkedIn.
Or: If you can't find a name, start the letter with ‘Dear Hiring Manager’ or ‘Dear XYZ Team’.
But don’t: Don’t combine too many options starting your cover letter with ‘Dear Sir/Madam/Hiring Manager/Mister/Miss’. It makes you look indecisive and unconfident. We just wanted to mention this, because we have seen it in cover letters - unfortunately, more than once.
2. Opening paragraph
Grab the reader's interest with your opening paragraph. This sentence should be a sneak-peek at the expertise and knowledge you can bring to the table.
To make it right, in one or two sentences you should:
tell them who you are
summarize your experience
and express your enthusiasm for the role.
For example, you could start by saying:
After nearly three years of work experience in telemarketing, I was excited to see your advertisement for a sales assistant position.’
The sentence above is more informative and grabs attention more effectively than:
I am writing to apply for the sales assistant position which was advertised on the XYZ job board.
It will also set you apart from other candidates, as you will have an opening sentence that differs from 98.6% of other cover letters.
3. Body
Spoiler alert: This is where you win employers over!
This is the most important part of your cover letter.
It consists of two to three short paragraphs where you answer two main questions:
What experience, skills and knowledge do you have that is, of course, relevant to the job?
How does your experience, skills and knowledge add value to the company you want to work for and to the job you are applying?
Showing that you have done your research about the company is vital for this section.
Demonstrate your knowledge of the organization's current situation and how your background, interests, and experience can contribute or help them resolve problems. The best way to do this is to highlight your achievements, as they are the best evidence of your abilities.
The two best things you can do here are:
Include numbers to take your cover letter to the next level. They effectively grab attention and make it easier for readers to understand the impact of your actions. So, let the numbers speak for themselves.
Put spotlight on your achievements by creating a short bulleted list of two to three key achievements. Visually, this will draw attention to this part of your cover letter.
So, instead of this:
I have improved the customer satisfaction in every store I have worked at, which in turn has increased the revenues and profits of my employers. I want to bring the same success to the sales assistant position you have posted on your website.
Write this:
As a Sales Assistant, I ensured excellent customer service, which resulted in:
increased positive customer feedback score by 21%
improved customer satisfaction with successful complaint resolution in 98% of cases
increased average dollars sold per sale by 47%
Seeing that your company is currently expanding and opening new stores, based on my previous experience, I am confident that I can bring the same success to your sales assistant position.
And that is how you create an exciting cover letter that employers actually read.
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4. Closing paragraph
Finally, summarize what you've written.
Restate your interest in the position and interview. For example, a good closing paragraph could be:
I am confident that my experience and skills would make me a great fit for this position. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my application in more detail.
Additionally, express your appreciation for the hiring manager's time and consideration. The final greeting can be “Sincerely”, “Best”, or “Best regards”.
