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”.
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How to Format a Cover Letter?
Unlike resumes where the perfect length is not set in stone and depends on different factors, a cover letter shouldn’t be longer than one page.
If you aimed at 300-350 words of tailored content, this shouldn’t be a problem.
In terms of a layout, resumes and cover letters both need to be visually appealing. A cover letter must look like a polished, carefully crafted and well-structured professional document as well.
To wow employers and come across as a motivated, professional and detail-oriented candidate, make the formatting consistent throughout all documents you are submitting.
Since cover letters are typically sent along with resumes, it means those two documents should have a matching format.
If your resume is already aligned with resume-formatting best practices, simply copy the same style.
Copy the same header and footer.
Apply the same font style and size in both documents – both for the body text and for headings.
The same works for the white space – apply the same spacing between rows and margins as you have applied in your resume. Make sure you have enough white space that makes the document easy on the eye.
If your cover letter looks cluttered and you need to change the font style or other formatting elements, go back to your resume and do the same to have complementary documents.
In case you need to re-format both documents, here are some actionable formatting tips:
A. Font style
Select a professional, readable font. Avoid too complex, unprofessional or hard-to-read fonts.
Here is a short list of best and worst resume fonts:
Best resume fonts: Calibri, Arial, Corbel, Cambria, Georgia, Source Sans Pro/Light
Worst resume fonts: Comic Sans, Book Antiqua, or any cartoonish or handwriting font styles
Another factor in making your words highly readable is setting an appropriate font size. Generally, you should stay between 10 and 12 points.
Additionally, if you want to highlight some information, apply bold font. Don’t underline it, as underlining hurts the readability of the text.
B. Bullet points To break the monotony of the text, include two or three bullet points to describe and highlight your achievements.
It’s a visual trick that will make the most impressive part of your cover letter more eye-catching.
C. White space
Last, but not least, the element that contributes to readability of your cover letter is the amount of white space - an area of your document that remains unused when separating sections and paragraphs of text.
Lack of sufficient white space can make your cover letter look cluttered and disorganized, whereas too much can leave it feeling bare and lacking in content.
So, to make a cover letter easy on the eye, it’s important to achieve the right balance between white space and content.
Pay attention to:
Spacing between rows: If your cover letter looks crammed, increase the spacing between lines from 1.0 pt to at least 1.15 pt. The latter makes it less cluttered without taking up too much valuable space.
Spacing between paragraphs: Instead of having a jammed-packed block of text, cover letters should have a clear structure with four to five distinctive paragraphs. The easiest way to create it is to increase spacing between the paragraphs to 1.5. Or you can simply add an empty row between two sections.
Margins: Margins (white space around the content) will depend on the amount of text you have. It should be between 0.5’’ to 1’’. Play around with it until you get a layout that looks the best.
Alignment: The most common recommendation is to align your text to the left. An alternative solution is to justify it (align both to the left and right distributing your text evenly in line between margins). This depends on your preferences. The only option that needs to be ruled out is centering the whole content – it’s OK for headings, but not for the body of a cover letter.
What to do before sending a cover letter?
Read your resume out loud. Cover letters usually require a lot of editing, copy-pasting and re-organizing sentences a million times. This can inevitably lead to some oversights. Reading your cover letter out loud helps you to make sure that the content is correct, and that it flows smoothly and sounds natural.
Let someone proofread it. Give your cover letter to someone else who can proofread it for you. A proofreading-buddy is your 2-factor authorization for job applications. After working on your cover letter for a while, you cannot see your own mistakes anymore. Since spelling, grammar or punctuation errors are not acceptable, you need to share it with someone to make sure your cover letter is safe to send.
Save in the proper format. Make sure you have saved your cover letter in a format requested by the employer. The most common formats are .docx or .pdf. If the employer hasn’t specified the format, save your cover letter as a PDF file to preserve the formatting, regardless of the operating system someone is using.
Name appropriately. Name your cover letter professionally. Don’t send it as ‘Cover letter - final Company X FINAL v7’. They don’t need to know how many times you edited it. Instead, save it as ‘Name Surname_cover letter’.
Now, let's see how these tips work in practice.
Sales Assistant: Cover Letter Template
Just replace the underlined keywords and you'll have a cover letter that works for you!
Dear Mrs. Smith,
As a Sales Assistant with 5 years of sales experience in retail and telemarketing, I was excited to see the advertisement for the Sales Assistant position within Company X. Being well-experienced in providing excellent customer service, I believe that my expertise in advising the customers and dealing with customer complaints, as well as my personal characteristics, make me a strong candidate for this position.
In my current position, I am working on the sales floor. My responsibilities include greeting the customers when they enter the store, assisting customers with their questions and purchases, advising the customers, and stocking the shelves. I am also processing both cash and credit card payments, as well as managing refunds and complaints.
During my employment with Company XYZ, I have achieved exceptional results, including:
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.
On a personal level, I pride myself on being confident in my approach to work. At the same time, by having strong communication skills and being attentive to customer needs, I can guide the customers in finding what best suits them and make sure that they are satisfied.
I am confident that my experience and skills would make me a great fit for the sales assistant position. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my application in more detail.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Name Surname
► Just replace the underlined keywords and you'll have a cover letter that works for you.
And that’s it! Your cover letter is done and ready to impress employers.
LET'S RECAP:
A well-crafted cover letter sent with your resume can give you a competitive advantage. When done properly, a cover letter shows the employer that you're the right person for the job.
Your cover letter should have four main parts: greeting, intro paragraph, body and closing section.
It’s important to showcase your skills by describing and quantifying specific achievements. Connect them with the company’s current situation to show you have done your research on them and you know how you can add value.
Match the formatting with the style of your resume. Make sure that the font is professional and readable, that you have enough of white space between rows and around content and that achievements are highlighted in bullet points.
Get your cover letter proofread, save it in the right format, name it professionally and send it along your resume.
Do you have any questions about writing a perfect cover letter for a job in sales? We’d love to help! Book a FREE coaching call with our job search experts and have all your questions answered in 30 minutes.