Sales and Management Jobs - Why Your Cover Letter Should Be Different

Sales and management jobs have similarities that have to be understood by both sides. Product knowledge is one of them. Yet the positions are very different. Let's take an applicant for a job in sales. What would a resume and cover letter need to point out or focus on? How should it differ when one is applying as a sales manager? This article will cover what I found to be the biggest difference and how I had to adjust to the difference to make see results in my job hunt.

First, I was applying in sales management. I have sales experience, that's for sure. I was a sales person for a while but what I found to be the difference between the sales and management jobs was that a manager focuses more on the ability to grow the skill set of a sales person via coaching and mentoring. Sales didn't do this. The understanding of people is there on both but applied differently.

A manager, as I mentioned above does mentoring and coaching along with the development of sales strategies, goal setting and plans. I also understood that a manager has to review sales trends and communicate this to their team, becoming a source of information for the sales team. Also a difference between sale and management jobs is that the management side is a communication point between the sales team and the corporate side of the company and its expectations.

Because of the differences between sales and management jobs, I found it necessary to change my resume and cover letter. Using a similar resume and cover letter for management that I had been using for sales wasn't giving me the results I expected. For this I used a resume and cover letter program to help me craft a cover letter that would appeal to the management side of the field. I wanted to communicate in a way a manager communicates and I found it very helpful to take advantage of those resources. I was able to better communicate because of this, being sales and management communication is key.

Making these changes helped me a lot with the results I was getting applying on the management side of the field. Sales and management jobs I think are important parts of a company. Sales for its production of new business and the management side bye keeping the sales force motivated and educated. Recognizing these differences helped me better apply and interview for sale and management jobs.