Business Development Cover Letter

You may know how to identify a business’ opportunities for growth, but you’ll need to articulate your knowledge and skills succinctly in a cover letter to ensure your application gets shortlisted.

Convince employers you’re the right person to help grow their business with a compelling cover letter, and your job search is sure to gain some traction.

Use these three tips to write a business development cover letter to prove you can create long-term value for a business:

1. Highlight your business development skills

If you’re goal-oriented and have strong business acumen, you’re a great fit for a business development position. But first, you need to showcase your commercial awareness, creativity, analytical skills, interpersonal skills, and computer proficiency throughout your cover letter.

To prove you have the right skill-set to thrive in this dynamic role, highlight critical business development hard skills when providing a snapshot of your skills and experience in the cover letter body. For example, knowledge of CRM software and the ability to analyze market research and sales data is essential for most jobs in business development

Here are other key business development technical skills employers look for:

• Data analysis
• Market research
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software (Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Sungard Assurance)
• Project management software (Microsoft Project, Microsoft SharePoint, and Confluence)
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft SQL Server 
• Tableau

However, your technical expertise isn’t the only thing that’s required to help businesses reach their full potential. To show employers you’re the ideal candidate, emphasize important business development soft skills throughout your cover letter.

Here are critical business development soft skills to include:

• Creativity
• Organizational skills
• Communication skills
• Time management skills
• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving skills
• Leadership skills
• Decision-making
• Negotiation
• Collaboration
• Networking
• Adaptability
• Delegation
• Project management skills
• Sales skills
• People skills

Here’s a great example of how to showcase some of these skills in the cover letter body:

Currently, as a Business Development Manager for the technology and services company VINTRA, I lead a team of 15+ sales professionals to generate new business and sell analytics solutions to large-scale government contractors and Fortune 500 clients.

Additionally, you may sum up your skills and achievements in bullet points like this:

Below are the highlights of my key achievements:

• Awarded Presidents Club rewards for achieving 118%, 141%, and 112% quota in 2017, 2016, 2015, respectively

• Developed and implemented a highly effective business development strategy that drove a 130% sales increase of AI-powered analytics to key accounts

• Grew revenue from $20 million to over $47 million by successfully closing 50 new accounts

2. Open with a strong introduction

You may have the knowledge and skills to execute long-term business growth strategies, but do you know how to start your cover letter convincingly? Begin your cover letter with a strong introduction to ensure your job application stands out amongst countless business development professionals.

Need some help? Here’s how to write a job-winning business development cover letter introduction:

• Show your excitement. Because business development professionals typically oversee various aspects of the sales pipeline, you need to assure employers you have the passion to keep up with this fast-paced, multifaceted role. For example, “With 10+ years of experience in driving revenue and business growth, generating new product pipelines, and building profitable partnerships, I’m confident that my skills and background perfectly align with the Business Development Manager role at XYZ Company.”
• Analyze the job posting to uncover what skills the company is seeking. Next, align your talents to the job so employers can see you’re a perfect match.
• Focus on the value your experience can bring to the organization rather than describing the experience itself. For example, “Currently, as a Business Development Manager for the technology and services company VINTRA, I lead a team of 15+ sales professionals to generate new business and sell analytics solutions to large-scale government contractors and Fortune 500 clients.”

3. Provide examples of your achievements (with numbers)

Business development professionals are responsible for driving growth and profitability — from identifying new markets or partnerships to presenting realistic but commercially successful strategies to stakeholders.

Because this is a goal-focused role, employers are mostly interested in hearing about the results you can deliver. To prove your worth, provide examples of your accomplishments and use real numbers to show them how your skills tie in with their business’ long-term vision.

Here are some examples of how to use numbers in your cover letter bullet points:

• Awarded Presidents Club rewards for achieving 118%, 141%, and 112% quota in 2017, 2016, and 2015, respectively
• Developed and implemented a highly effective business development strategy that drove a 130% sales increase of AI-powered analytics to key accounts
• Grew revenue from $20 million to over $47 million by successfully closing 50 new accounts