How To Write A Simple Yet Powerful Cover Letter (Part Two)

Did you know that over 85% of resumes received by hiring managers arrive without a cover letter?

While that may not mean much to you, it means a lot to the people reviewing and vetting resumes for the job you are applying for. Resumes that are sent in without someone taking the time to write a cover letter appear to the hiring manager to be submitted almost blindly. It is as if the job applicant has sent their resume in to lots of jobs - shotgun approach - hoping someone might call them back.

This is NOT the kind of first impression you want to give a hiring manager.

On the other hand, those resumes that do arrive with a cover letter get extra attention and are often the first resumes an HR person reviews. A cover letter tells the hiring manager that you care enough about the job you are applying for that it is important for you to stand above the competition. When you take the time to write a cover letter, it also shows initiative and evidences your ability and willingness to go that extra mile. It signals that you are someone who is attentive to detail and that you are willing to do what others applicants (and workers) are not willing to do.

In essence, it shows that you are organized, capable, and professional. A well written cover letter tells the hiring manager that you are serious about getting the job, and it gives you the best chance (along with a relevant resume) of landing an interview and ultimately the job you really want.

While a cover letter is a huge benefit for job applicants, there are both things to avoid and some definite best practices you can use to insure your cover letter is heads and tails above anybody else's.

How to Address your Cover Letter:

Let's start first with what to avoid. The most obvious thing you want to avoid is writing a generic cover letter that is unspecific to the job you are applying to. Doing so erases any benefit of putting one together to begin with. The first thing you want to avoid is addressing your letter to the generic: "To Whom it May Concern." This, once again, just lumps you into the generic cover letter pile, and doesn't differentiate you from the other applicants.

To avoid this, try to find out the hiring manager's name or job title, and direct the cover letter to him/her. If this is not possible, then the following addresses are best:

1) Address your cover letter to the department head you are applying to. So if it is sales, use: "Dear Hiring Sales Manager," or "Dear Hiring Marketing Director," or "Dear HR Director." 2) If you don't know the department, then a good address is: "Dear Hiring Manager," or "Dear Human Resources Director." 3) If you do know the name of the hiring manager, then always use their name as such: "Dear Mr. Brooks," or "Dear Ms. Collins."

This is the kind of detail that takes just a minute or two to customize, but it makes a huge first impression on the hiring manager. Again, it evidences that you care enough - and are resourceful enough - to take the time to go beyond what the majority of job seekers are not willing to do. The inference is that you will also be more organized and detail oriented on the job as well. And this is the kind of person hiring personnel are looking for.

Next, the content of the cover letter is where you will make or break a good impression. Now, don't be intimidated here. The hiring manager is not looking for a college essay, nor are they looking for a sample of your writing skills. What they do want, however - and what you want to give them - is why you are uniquely qualified for this particular job. In other words, they are looking for relevant experience that matches up specifically to the position you are applying for.

Let me say that again because this is key: What the hiring manager is looking for is relevant experience of yours that directly relates to the specific job skills and duties they are hiring for.

And the good news is there are some easy, sure fire, best practices you can follow that will immediately give them what they are looking for. Here is how to go about it:

Number One: Carefully review each employer's ad description and pick out specific words and phrases that describe the skills and day to day activities they are advertising for. An example would be the phrase:

"Relevant experience in prospecting by phone, candidates should be prepared to make between 50 to 75 cold calls per day. In addition, the ideal candidate should also have experience in contacting existing or non-active accounts to expand and grow client base."

Once you see something like this, it is telling you exactly how to write your cover letter. What you need to do next is match up any (or as many as possible) of your past positions where you performed similar duties. And then include a brief description of that in your cover letter. For example:

"The skills and duties which you are seeking - specifically prospecting by phone and calling into non-active accounts - are exactly the kind of work I did at Sherman Rentals and ABC Financial. I am highly adept at cold calling and regularly average 68 prospecting calls per day.

"In addition, I was also responsible for calling into existing accounts and even won awards for my ability to reactivate and up sell existing customers."

Now how easy was that? By taking just a few minutes to highlight specific words and phrases and repeat them in your cover letter, you will be doing what 98% of your competition simply won't take the time to do. Your effort will get noticed and it will move your resume to the top of the stack.

By the way, if you didn't win any awards, then don't make it up! Instead, talk about the achievements you did accomplish and the results that you did get. Your goal here, again, is to match up your relevant experience that directly relates to the specific job skills and duties they are advertising for. Remember, the key is to use their exact words and phrases when describing your experience in your cover letter.

Taking this simple step is 75% of writing a powerful cover letter. The other part is to show a sincere interest in their company and job opportunity, and to keep it brief. Here is a complete, best practice cover letter that you can use as a template:

Dear Sales Hiring Manager,

My name is John Brown, and I was very excited to find your job listing on Monster.com. I have always been interested in the online advertising industry (whatever industry their company is in), and feel that I have the relevant experience you are looking for that would enable me to be highly successfully with your company.

The skills and duties which you are seeking - specifically prospecting by phone and calling into non-active accounts - are exactly the kind of work I did at Sherman Rentals and ABC Financial. I am highly adept at cold calling and regularly average 68 prospecting calls per day.

In addition, I was also responsible for calling into existing accounts and even won awards for my ability to reactivate and up sell existing customers.

I would enjoy the opportunity to learn more about the position of account manager you are advertising for, and look forward to exploring how my career experience can be an asset to your company.

I have attached my resume for your review and would be happy to discuss my experience or any questions you may have.

The best way to reach me is by my cell phone: (515) 555-1234. Alternatively, you can email me here: John@youremailaddress.com

I hope my experience meets what you are searching for, and look forward to hearing from you soon.

John Brown

Use this template for any sales job you are applying for. (Or any other kind of position as well.) Simply change the name of the company and type of job where appropriate and match up your skills and duties as discussed previously.

By taking just a few minutes to customize a carefully worded cover litter like this, you will instantly become one of - if not the very first - candidate that gets a call back. You will be very much in demand and soon you will have your pick of which opportunities to pursue. And having many companies who are interested in hiring you gives you the leverage to ask for and get things like a higher salary, a better commission structure and even a possible hiring bonus.

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Mike is the go-to inside sales trainer and phone script writer in the industry. He is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. If you're looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

How to Beat Your Competition

Many sales reps send me emails asking the same thing, "How can I sell against my competition and win the deal?" They tell me it gets more and more difficult as there is always someone who has a similar product for less money, or who can offer their kind of service with more bells and whistles, etc. What can they do?

Let's look at a few facts and then put together a sales strategy. To start with, if a prospect hasn't bought anything yet, it means they haven't found exactly what they're looking for, right?

And, as always, only your prospect knows what the magic "it" is (their true buying motive), and so it's up to you to ask the right questions to figure out what it's going to take to close each particular prospect. I'd start with these:

1. If your prospect is telling you they can get it cheaper somewhere else, ask:

"Why haven't you gone ahead and placed your order there yet?"

Or,

"Yes, that is a good price, just curious, what's preventing you from going with them on this?"

Or,

"What were you hoping to gain by talking with me (or with my company)?"

All these questions will force your prospect to tell you what their real buying motive is and will give you a chance to earn their business.

2. If your prospect says they have been doing business with X, or that XYZ offers more service, or better add-ons, etc., say:

"Yes, I've heard about their offer - what's missing about it that still has you looking around?"

Or,

"Yes I know, in fact many of their customers call me as well. What motivated you to call me?"

And,

"Yes _________ I know all about the other companies and their promotions. Just out of curiosity, why haven't you made a decision on this yet?"

Once again, these questions (and all the other ones I know you're thinking of right now) will reveal what your prospect's true buying motives are, and until you know them you've just shooting blind.

Kind of like 80% of your competition does. Once you understand what it's going to take to sell them, you need to build the value of doing business with you and your company.

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If you found this article helpful, then you'll love Mike's NEW book, "The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts." Buy now and get over$500 worth of free bonuses from top sales trainers like Tom Hopkins and many others by taking advantage of this SpecialOffer: http://mrinsidesales.com/booklaunch.htm Find out why Brian Tracycalls this the best book on inside sales available today!

The 3 Keys to Successful Sales Management

If you are a business owner or sales manager responsible for getting your team of sales reps to make their numbers or achieve sales quotas, then I feel your pain. If you're like many of the sales managers and owners I work with, then I know you're being pulled in many different directions. You're busy; you have endless meetings to attend to, reporting to do, and on top of it all you have many different personalities to deal with on your team, and each of them have different skill levels, motivation levels, etc.

It can seem like an overwhelming job.

Add into that you've probably never had any real sales management training or reinforcement, and your actual sales training that you are supposed to give your team probably isn't very highly developed either. I can just see you nodding your heads and thinking, "Yeah, you got that right. Now what?"

Well, here's what. Sales management is actually real easy and straight forward if you break it down to its three most important elements. If you concentrate on these three keys and actually make it a priority to implement them, your job will get so much easier, and, more importantly, you and your team will actually start closing more business and making their numbers.

Here's what they are:

1) Define your sales process best practices. Provide your team with clear, easy to follow best practices as far as sales techniques and skill sets go for your specific sale. Give them the specific scripts and rebuttals to follow, specific qualifying questions, proper closing tools, and make sure they are unambiguous.

In other words, identify what actually works in your selling cycle and what the best approaches are and then develop them into a solid selling system and make it company policy that this is the best way to handle every part of your selling process from the first call, to qualifying, to leaving voice messages and emails, to getting back to your prospects to closing the sale and handling objections.

You absolutely must make this selling system clear enough for anyone to understand and follow. Once you have this, then:

2) Implement and monitor the use of your best practice system. Think of a great football team. What do they do? The coaches come up with the best game plan (the system), and then they teach it to their players and practice every formation, every play and every technique. They drill it in over and over and they watch film of each practice and game to make sure their players are following the plan and using the best technique.

And that's what you need to do with your sales team as well. Once you've given your team the best practices, it's up to you to train them on it and reinforce adherence to it. You do that by observing your sales reps as they are on the phone with their prospects and customers. You record their calls and review them with them, and then you make sure they are using the best practices. If you do that - actually get your team members to use the best practices that you know work - then they will without a doubt get better and make more sales.

3) Discipline your team members when they aren't following your sales best practices. First, let me say a word about discipline. Discipline comes from the Greek word that means "to teach," not "to scold or make others feel bad." The proper role of a teacher, coach or sales manager is to point out when a student or sales rep isn't following the proven tools to succeed, and then to help them, or "teach" them to do it better. And that's where your skills as a manager (and where your time) will be most efficient.

You can do this in your one on one's with a rep, and you can do this in sales meetings where you can play recordings of reps who are doing it correctly, and you can do it by feeding lines to a rep while they're on the phone, or by instant messaging while you're listening in, etc.. The bottom line is that it's your job to give your team the right tools to succeed, manage them to implement them, and then to monitor and teach them to use them.

If you implement all three of the above keys in your selling environment, you will see the quickest and easiest return on your time and investment. If you miss one of these keys, then you will spend all your time wondering what's wrong, and your frustration with the team, with your company and with your efforts will only get worse.

Look at your current selling environment and see which one of these keys is missing. Once you find it, you'll now know what to do!

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If you found this article helpful, then you'll love Mike's NEW book, "The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts." Buy now and get over$500 worth of free bonuses from top sales trainers like Tom Hopkins and many others by taking advantage of this SpecialOffer: http://mrinsidesales.com/booklaunch.htm Find out why Brian Tracycalls this the best book on inside sales available today!

The One Email Guaranteed to Get You a Response!

Ever had a client or prospect never get back to you?

Because you're in sales, then I know it's happened to you (or is happening with several of your clients or prospects right now!).

If you ever find yourself in a place where you've qualified a prospect, sent information to them on your product or service, and then find that they just won't return your calls or emails, then I've got a guaranteed email that will get you a response.

In fact, don't take my word for it. Check out this word for word email I received a couple of weeks from one of my readers who used this technique himself:

"Mike, just wanted to drop you a note and say thanks. Just one tip I took from you about your 'guaranteed email' worked so well I needed to say thanks.

'Should I stay or should I go'

I had a 30% response from a group of prospects I could not get on the phone a second time and did not want to chase. It worked like a charm and of the 42 responses I picked up 2 sales I would not have gotten otherwise. I also made several people smile that day. Thanks again for the technique! - Eric K."

You're welcome, Eric!

OK, so if you're ready to learn and use this technique, here it is:

(Note: this email technique was one I learned last summer when I spoke at the L.A. Chapter of the AA-ISP. One of the participants shared it with us and I've been passing it along ever since!)

Subject of your email: "Should I stay or Should I go?"

"_________ While I've tried to reach you, I haven't heard back from you and that tells me one of three things:

1) You've already chosen another company for this and if that's the case please let me know so can I stop bothering you,

2) You're still interested but haven't had the time to get back to me yet

3) You've fallen and can't get up and in that case please let me know and I'll call 911 for you...

Please let me know which one it is because I'm starting to worry...

Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing back from you."

Is that great or what?? This works on so many levels including using a "Clash" song everyone can relate to in the subject line, to giving them options and an out in case they've decided not to work with you.

And, of course, you give people a reason to smile and that always relieves the pressure from the sales situation.

Use it this week and see for yourself how it works to get your prospects to get back with you and how it gets you deals. And then email me yourself with your results - I'd love to hear them!

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If you found this article helpful, then you'll love Mike's NEW book, "The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts." Buy now and get over$500 worth of free bonuses from top sales trainers like Tom Hopkins and many others by taking advantage of this SpecialOffer: http://mrinsidesales.com/booklaunch.htm Find out why Brian Tracy calls this the best book on inside sales available today!

The Four Errors to Avoid when Putting Together Your Resume (Part Three)

How many resumes do you think an HR Director or hiring manager receives for each job posting they advertise for? Would you guess twenty? Thirty? I hate to break it to you, but if it is a sales position you had better revise your estimate way up. Try over seventy or eighty - and that is just in the first couple of days of posting the job!

Now ask yourself how hiring managers decide who to put in the "to call" pile or folder, and who to disqualify and delete. If you think that appropriate skills and experience are the most important parts of a resume, think again.

As you will see, there are many other factors that affect what qualifies a resume for a call back versus the delete button. Before we get into the best way to write and organize your resume, let us first start with the common problems you want to avoid - problems that can automatically get your resume disqualified regardless of your experience or appropriateness for the job.

Error Number One: Obvious spelling errors or out of date resumes. While this may go without saying, the first thing you want to do is thoroughly spell check your resume. Even one misspelled word can flag your resume - and you as a job applicant - as not being detailed enough or well prepared enough to be taken seriously. At the very least it can move your resume to the bottom of the stack.

Your resume is your written representation of yourself, and if you submit one with obvious spelling (or grammatical) errors, it raises the red flag that you may not be organized, detailed, or careful in your job either. Obviously, this is not the impression you want to give a hiring manager.

Error Number Two: It is important that you list the dates on your various jobs properly. Two things to be careful of here: The first is that none of your dates overlap; the second is that there is no time lapse between jobs is longer than two months.

The first is easy to do. If you worked at the xyz company from March of 2009 to July of 2013, then your next job should begin on August of 2013. Don't make the sloppy mistake of putting down that your new job started on July of 2013. This is a red flag that gets the hiring manager to wonder how you worked at two different jobs at the same time. If you happened to begin the new job sooner, or if you worked at both jobs during the same month, then just stagger the start dates so it appears contiguous.

There may be some situations where there was a three or four month gap between jobs. This isn't bad per se, but unexplained time gaps on resumes are red flags that put suspicions and doubts into a hiring manager's mind. What you need to do here is put in a brief description of the time lapse (and I mean brief - a sentence or two).

Error Number Three: Listing a history of jobs lasting two years or less. I can't tell you how many resumes I have seen where a job applicant has not been at a single job (or perhaps only one) longer than two years. When you list five or six jobs that you stayed at for 24 months or shorter, it screams to the hiring manager that they will have you for less than two years at their company as well. And this means that all the time, energy and money they will invest in you will be wasted because you will leave them in under 24 months. Even if you have good reasons for leaving your jobs every two years, it will look to the hiring manager that you are a short term player with a history of quitting often.

There are several things you can do if this represents your job history. The first is prominently display and describe the job that you were at the longest. For example, if you were at one company for five or six years, then make sure and describe how you took on more responsibility, talk about the production and awards you earned, and talk about the skills you used that are appropriate to the new job you are applying for.

In addition, if any company you worked for was taken over by a new company or renamed, then don't list this as a new company! Instead, mention it in your job description, as well as any other job title you took. Many people make the mistake of listing a new company as if it helps their experience, but it doesn't. What helps you is to show a potential employer that you are a long term player who is loyal.

If you do have a string of jobs that you stayed at for under two years, you have a couple of options. The first and best thing to do is to explain why you left each company. Here again, your answer needs to be brief and professional. "Found a better opportunity" is NOT the right reason regardless of whether it is true or not.

Much better reasons include things like, "Company reorganized and position was eliminated," or "Company slow down resulted in layoffs". These are both good, professional reasons that hiring managers can identify with.

If you did leave the company for a better opportunity, then you can state that, but always explain any increased job responsibilities or positions: "Was recruited into a team lead role," or "Was hired by ABC Company to head up new lead generation division." The point here is to show increased job responsibilities or positions which required better skill sets or offered job growth. Opportunities like this that show career advancement make you seem more desirable to the hiring manager.

Error Number Four: Making your resume too long. Many job seekers think that more is better. That is not the case with your resume. Similar to the above example of not listing too many short term job stays, what you want to strive for with your next resume is to keep it under two pages total. Even one page is preferable, if possible. The way you will do this is to limit the number of jobs - and years - you have been working.

I hate to tell you this, but listing every job you have had since you got out of High School is not what the hiring manager is looking for. In fact, by listing page after page all the jobs you have had, you will once again be raising a red flag that tells them that you tend to move around a lot. Furthermore, the only thing a hiring manager is looking for is current, similar experience. So listing many different types of jobs and companies - especially if the job responsibilities were different - is not going to help your cause.

The bottom line with the length of your resume, is you want to make it easy for a hiring manager to get through it. You don't want them to have to navigate three or four pages trying to discern which jobs are relevant and which aren't. The hiring manager doesn't need to know your first job was at McDonalds. What they want to know is how your current experience lines up with that they are looking for now.

To summarize the list of the four errors to avoid: The first thing you want to do is make sure your resume is free of spelling and grammatical errors. Your resume represents you - make sure it does this well. Second, you want your dates of employment to match up. In addition, if there are any lapses of employment longer than three or four months, be sure to explain these in a professional way. Third, make sure you don't list job after job with a length of time of two years or less. Remember, whatever you put down in terms of how long your average length of employment is, that is how long the hiring manager will think you will stay with them as well.
And finally, number four is to keep your resume short. One page is ideal, but one and half will do if absolutely necessary.

Now that you know what you should avoid, in our next installment of this series, I will tell you what you should do to write a solid resume that will put you on the top of the list of who to call back for an interview. What you will discover is that it is easier than you think - if you know what to do!

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Mike is the go-to inside sales trainer and phone script writer in the industry. He is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. If you're looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.MrInsideSales.com