How To Convey Value In A Cover Letter - Work It Daily

How To Convey Value In A Cover Letter - Work It Daily A cover letter is still a valuable and persuasive tool in your job search, and communicating your value within your cover letter without replicating the content in your resume is essential. Related: 4 Inside Secrets To Writing A Great Cover Letter So, how do you show the value you offer a potential employer without repeating yourself? Here are a few tips. 1. Keep It Concise Avoid the tendency to get overly wordy. In fact, if you can keep your cover letter to 150 words or less, you’re really doing GREAT. Write everything you’d like to say within the cover letter, and then check your word count, then go back and start deleting superfluous words. 2. Know What They Want Know what they want, and then address it. Start your cover letter by hitting a vital pain point the employer has. Here’s a good model to follow: Are you looking for a (insert: job title here) who can (insert: deliver something you know they need really badly here). So for me, if I were writing this to my prospective clients, it would sound like this: Dear Executive Job Seeker, (title of person I’m addressing) Are you looking for a $100,000 - $1M+ executive-level position? (what my clients need) 3. Focus On What You Accomplish Here’s the most critical part of showing how you add value; you must focus on what you ACCOMPLISHâ€"not on what you do. Write three short bulletsâ€"and by short I mean one line, no more. Additionally, the bullet point must contain $$$ or %%%. Here’s what this would look like if I were writing it to my target audience. Here are some of our results: 99.6% interview-winning success rate in less than 60 days. Job searches shortened from 9+ months to 3 months or less. 50% secure interviews in less than two weeks. The three bullets include numbers, percentages, and time frames. These all communicate how I offer value to my clients. Model your cover letter the same way. Keep your bullets brief and focused on what you’ve accomplished for your prior employers. The key is to not get caught in the trap of writing about what you do every day. The three tips above provide a detailed outline of exactly how to write a cover letter that expresses the value you offer employers. Once you start incorporating these tips into the cover letters you write, I’m positive your response rate will increase significantly. Is writing just not your area of expertise? We write cover letters and value proposition letters for our clients every day. Find out more at www.greatresumesfast.com. PS: Don’t forget to add a PS to your cover letter that tells the reader where they can find more information out about you! (i.e. a professional website or your LinkedIn profile). And while you’re on LinkedIn, let’s connect. You can send me an invitation here. Related Posts 5 Key Steps To A Cover Letter That Opens Doors 7 Examples Of Fresh New Ways To Start Your Cover Letter Does Your Cover Letter Make These 5 Critical Mistakes?   Photo Credit: Shutterstock Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!