As a consultant, you are by nature a problem solver. You use your experience to understand the situation and suggest strategies and tactics to achieve the desired objective. When you are applying for a consultant role, writing a compelling consulting cover letter is a tactic that should be approached in a certain way.
Your consulting resume will provide the business side of your job search pitch, so the cover letter should be more behaviourally led. Influencing those around you is a crucial skill for any consultant, so the free-flowing cover letter is the ideal place to showcase a range of soft skills.
The cover letter is commonly used to convey motivation and outline ideas. When you are making a case for your participation in a certain project, the flexibility to write 300 words about your suitability should not be passed up. In the following consulting writing guide and example, we consider:
- The best format for a consulting cover letter.
- Which parts of your consulting career story to include.
- Expert advice to challenge your thinking.
- Writing a consulting cover letter if you have no experience.
Let’s get into the details of how to make the best of the cover letter opportunity.
The following cover letter examples may be of interest:
Best format for a consulting cover letter
Consultants understand the importance of structure. When you are constructing a series of arguments, the person that you are seeking to influence needs to be guided to the right conclusion. The format for a consulting cover letter is no different to any other – you take them through your career story step by step, making your case as you go along. The cover letter should contain:
- The cover letter header
- The greeting / salutation
- The cover letter intro
- The middle paragraphs (body of the letter)
- The ending paragraph of your cover letter
Every part of the letter should relate back to the specific nature of the consulting assignments that you will undertake. Resist the temptation to run through the “greatest hits” of your career, as some of them will likely not be entirely relevant. If you take the time to tailor each cover letter to each consulting role, you will be pre-empting the content of a potential interview and getting your arguments in early.
Consulting roles are all about delivering results, so make sure that the cover letter has plenty of numbers and growth in evidence. The difference with a CV lies in the fact that you now have a brief opportunity to start a conversation about how these achievements came about. What was your unique contribution and how will you replicate this in the future?
It is important that the cover letter is no longer than one page. You will likely have plenty to talk about but stick to the main 3-4 projects. If they are interesting enough, you will have plenty of opportunity to expand on other achievements during an interview. Whet the appetite of the employer, don’t drown them in detail. We are delighted to share further advice in our comprehensive cover letter guide. Our consulting cover letter sample may also help.
Dear Mrs Blackman,
I am writing to express my interest in contributing my skills to Morgan Consulting as a Consulting Associate. Having served as a dedicated Junior Consultant at Rodman Consultancy for several years, I am eager to leverage my proven track record and passion for business development to help to drive growth for your clients.
Throughout my time at Rodman, I have consistently provided strategic insights and data-driven solutions through collaborative teamwork in the telecommunications department. I have demonstrated this on a range of projects, using and improving my analytical abilities, communication skills, and client relationship management.
One of the highlights of my career was working with a client whose revenue had been stagnant at £9 million for several years. My audit and roadmap helped them to break this pattern and start consistently bringing in seven figures of revenue per month. I accomplished this by working with the COO to streamline their sales process, increase their average customer spend and frequency, and build strategic partnerships with businesses in the sector that offer complementary services.
I am particularly drawn to Morgan Consulting's unique approach in using robust data analysis and complementing it with a relationships-first approach. This has characterised my philosophy over the last few years in my current role. My expertise in market research and analysis has positioned me as the go-to in my current team for the discovery phase of client projects. However, it is my ability to create and maintain relationships that have allowed me to increase my team’s client retention by 25% during my time here.
I hope you will agree that my passion and skills would be an excellent fit for Morgan Consulting. I would be delighted to further discuss how I could help to make an impact in this role on your team.
Sincerely,
Kate Merryweather
Cover letter header
The header of a cover letter should contain your full contact details — in addition to being included on your CV. You never know when you may be invited to interview. Include your full name, email address and phone number.
You don’t need to include your full home address. There are potential data protection issues here. You can share it at the offer stage. The inside address of the employer is also not required — this is a formality left over from when cover letters were delivered by mail.
Cover letter greeting
The greeting of the cover letter should not be too tricky to get right. Formality is important, so a “Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Surname” will be fine. It is important to address the hiring manager by name, if possible. They should be mentioned on the job description, or you can potentially opt to call the company to find out. Make sure that you spell it correctly.
Cover letter introduction
Every consultant knows the importance of grabbing the audience with a compelling early message. If you know the value that you can add to your future employer, lead with your strongest and most relevant story. Many of your competitors will lead with some big claims, so make sure that the stats around your accomplishment are impressive.
Pick the story that you start with carefully. It should be something that few other candidates will be able to tell. You might think that going with a common story of success is a good idea, but opting for the non-standard stories will make your experience seem so much deeper. You obviously won’t be able to tell every story in the cover letter, so the hiring manager will assume that you have covered all the basics.
Dear Mrs Blackman,
I am writing to express my interest in contributing my skills to Morgan Consulting as a Consulting Associate. Having served as a dedicated Junior Consultant at Rodman Consultancy for several years, I am eager to leverage my proven track record and passion for business development to help to drive growth for your clients.
Cover letter middle part (body)
The middle part of the cover letter should contain a mix of achievements, personality, and motivations. It is essential to show that you understand the demands of the role, so make sure that every sentence speaks to how you will solve problems and provide added value.
Sprinkle the cover letter with the sort of industry jargon that you would use in your consulting assignments. It is important to show that you can be “one of the team” from day one, so this will help.
Throughout my time at Rodman, I have consistently provided strategic insights and data-driven solutions through collaborative teamwork in the telecommunications department. I have demonstrated this on a range of projects, using and improving my analytical abilities, communication skills, and client relationship management.
One of the highlights of my career was working with a client whose revenue had been stagnant at £9 million for several years. My audit and roadmap helped them to break this pattern and start consistently bringing in seven figures of revenue per month. I accomplished this by working with the COO to streamline their sales process, increase their average customer spend and frequency, and build strategic partnerships with businesses in the sector that offer complementary services.
I am particularly drawn to Morgan Consulting's unique approach in using robust data analysis and complementing it with a relationships-first approach. This has characterised my philosophy over the last few years in my current role. My expertise in market research and analysis has positioned me as the go-to in my current team for the discovery phase of client projects. However, it is my ability to create and maintain relationships that have allowed me to increase my team’s client retention by 25% during my time here.
How to close a consulting cover letter (conclusion and sign-off)
The close of a consulting letter should finish with one last success story. Let the future employer feel that there is a lot more to come – consultants will typically have countless tales of success. After all, that is what they are paid to deliver.
As you close the cover letter, it is worth mentioning your curiosity to find out more about the role. This call-to-action will show that you are keen on the role and will hopefully prompt the hiring manager to invite you to an interview.
I hope you will agree that my passion and skills would be an excellent fit for Morgan Consulting. I would be delighted to further discuss how I could help to make an impact in this role on your team.
Sincerely,
Kate Merryweather
Consulting cover letter with no experience
Many experienced professionals move into a consulting role at some point in their careers. If you do not have significant consulting experience, do not worry. If you can prove your project management experience and have the industry expertise, you will have every chance of success. It is worth focusing on the following if you do not have consulting experience:
- Focus on your management and influencing skills. Consultants need to work with a wide range of people to achieve objectives in tight timescales, so project management experience is important.
- If you are moving from a permanent role into consulting, share some of your motivations. Employers need to understand why you are making this step.
Moving into consulting with no specific experience will not put a potential employer off. If you can prove that you have what it takes to deliver results, they will be happy to consider you.
Key takeaways
- Make the cover letter a mix of professional and personal qualities.
- Share only your most specific consulting experience.
- Think about the projects that you will be taking on.
- Take a look at our cover letter samples for some inspiration!
- Decide on an attractive layout with our cover letter templates.
