15 Tips to Writing Cover Letters You Should Know
The traditional cover letter rules of thumb are as follows:
1. When contacting decision makers, purchasing agents, and cold networking contacts, use bullets for easier scanning.
2. When contacting your decision making managers, purchasing agents, and warm networking contacts (when you know the recipient will spend more time reading), use a paragraph letter style.
3. Use one-inch margins all around. (Some say ½- or ¾-inch.)
4. Keep paragraphs to five lines or fewer.
5. Consider changing the font size on bullet points so they’re one to two sizes smaller than your text portion.
6. Suggested fonts (Use between 10-12 point.):
Ariel*
Garamond*
Bookman Old Style
Tahoma
Times New Roman
Verdana
7. Keep the interests of the reader in mind. The letter may be about your product or service, but it’s for them.
8. Communicate how you’ll meet the recipient’s needs or solve a problem by using your product or service, rather than what you hope they will do for you.
9. Highlight your top three to five key points from your product brochure, using keywords and phrases. Don’t repeat your “sell sheet” but add information that is not on it.
10. Keep the use of “I” or “my” to a minimum. Try to use “you” or “your” so that you come across to your reader on more friendly terms.
11. Refer to the organization as “it” rather than “they.”
12. Leave some breathing space in the letter for “visual relief.”
13. Sign the original cover letter with blue ink and paperclip it to the sales presentation.
14. Remember to follow up within three days of emailing or five days of mailing your cover letter. In your email subject line, include the problem you help solve with your product or service and your name. Include the cover letter within your email and as an attachment with your product presentation.
15. Remember that this is all good old-fashioned professional business etiquette!
Additional Writing Advice
1. Write when you are fresh. Write during your prime time, whenever that is.
2. Write alone, without any distractions.
3. There are a lot of resources, particularly samples of cover letters, available online and in books. Turn to them for assistance.
4. I suggest you visit your local library and take out several books on business correspondence and cover letter writing. My suggestion is to browse through a few of them and then take the stronger books home to review. Create a folder titled “Cover Letter Samples/Examples” and include photocopies of the stronger examples to modify for your search needs.
5. Professional writers suggest writing your cover letter from the bottom up. That means you start with your closing paragraph, then include the real content of the letter, and finally finish up with the introductory paragraph.
Try this approach and see if the letter-writing process becomes easier and faster for you.
6. Write a really great letter, recycle it when possible, and then tweak and customize it.
7. Rinse and repeat these techniques throughout your new business process.
Again, the key is to differentiate yourself from the hordes of other executives offering their business services. If you have a business product you are trying to present, make sure that you explain clearly how your product is different and offers better value than your competitor’s product relative to solving a problem for their organization. And one surefire way to accomplish that is with great follow-through and follow-up!
As you prepare to move on to the next week’s blog, try to get six to seven leads moving this week.
Precision of communication is important,
More important than ever, in our era of hair-trigger
Balances, when a false or misunderstood word may create
As much disaster as a sudden thoughtless act.
—James Thurber
In next week’s Corporate Success Partners blog, I will share with you:
“Time Management: Tools and Tricks of the Trade”
If you would need professional help in the area of determining whether or not you have optimistic support members on your team, please call us at 847-577-2000, or 1-800-227-5802 to discuss your options on understanding your team more fully in terms of their ability to support and achieve the corporate success you are looking for this year.
Have a great week and productive week, managing the changes and challenges that are currently going on in your company.
I wish you a wonderfully successful and productive week ahead.
Eleanor Anne Sweet
Corporate Success Expert
Eleanor Anne Sweet
Corporate Success Expert
Your Success Expert. Trainer, Author and Speaker
Eleanor Anne Sweet
President/CEO
Your Corporate Success Consultant, Trainer, Speaker and Author
Corporate Success Partners.com
www.CorporateSuccessPartners.com
sweet@CorporateSuccessPartners.com
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