Sales are the engine that drives the growth of every venture. And when you set out on an entrepreneurial journey, you’re the best salesperson for your business.
But is it enough for one person to don the sales hat as your business grows?
Absolutely not.
You only have so many hours each day. And you're stunting your business growth if you spend them following up with leads and sending emails.
A virtual assistant takes on your sales and sales support tasks, allowing you to spend time on ‘core’ functions that directly affect your revenue. Hire a virtual sales assistant to get stellar sales support while you focus on scaling your venture.
Who is a sales virtual assistant?
A sales virtual assistant is a remote contractor who offers their skills and services to businesses. They are extremely meticulous and organized and are skilled administrators. They take care of the routine everyday tasks, allowing you to focus on core business activities.
Reliable and trustworthy, a virtual assistant for sales is an ally that can help you accelerate your business and improve sales.
How do virtual sales assistants work?
Unlike an in-house employee, a virtual assistant works from the comfort of their home or from a co-working space. This gives them the freedom to choose their work hours, making them more productive and efficient.
Communication is key with your virtual sales assistant because you work from different locations. Therefore, pick a channel of communication that's comfortable for you - such as Slack, email, or WhatsApp.
Sales virtual assistants are independent workers, so once you’ve communicated your requirements to your VA, they can take over the administrative responsibilities, and you can occupy yourself with more important work.
Why should I hire a Virtual Sales Assistant?
The future of work is remote – according to a study by IWG, 70% of professionals work remotely at least one day a week. Sales is no exception.
A virtual sales assistant will help you with the following roles:
- Research company directories for leads
- Manage CRM software like Salesforce and Zoho
- Schedule calls and appointments
- Organize and update the lead database
- Set reminders for follow-ups
- Data entry
- Cold calling
- Prospect research
- Communicating with potential customers
In a nutshell, your sales virtual assistant will free up your and your sales department’s time from administrative tasks. So, let’s look at the reasons to hire a virtual sales assistant today.
Benefits of Hiring a Virtual Sales Assistant
Supercharge Productivity
1. Increased productivity
Your time as a business owner is extremely valuable. Look at it this way. If you make $500 per hour and spend that time sending follow-up emails instead of hiring a VA to do it for $9 an hour, you’re losing a lot of money. You should instead spend your time on critical, productive tasks that grow your business. Once you hire a skilled VA for sales, you will experience increased productivity, thanks to the time you save.
2. Save time
According to a recent study, 53% of business owners think that handing over 10% of their burden to an employee can help their company grow by more than 20%. Imagine what you could achieve by delegating! Hire a virtual sales assistant to handle critical sales tasks and free your bandwidth for more meaningful work.
3. Flexible working hours
Unlike full-time employees, your VA is available even after regular business hours, especially if they’re from a different time zone. Because sales VAs are so affordable, you can hire them for multiple shifts, ultimately boosting your business productivity.
4. Focus on core business
When your virtual sales assistant looks after daily repetitive tasks, you can use the saved time to focus on core business operations that are directly responsible for growth.
5. Improved retention
Because remote employees work (and get paid) by the hour, they’re more motivated and productive than in-house workers. The flexible work arrangement is likely to result in higher job satisfaction which means your VA is less likely to quit. Naturally, your business grows by leaps and bounds when employee retention improves.
Outsource Sales Activities
6. Market research
Without knowledge of your target audience and current market trends, searching for prospects is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Get your sales virtual assistant to conduct thorough market research and update you on the latest trends and developments to help you stay relevant and improve sales.
7. Updating CRM
Virtual sales assistants are experts in CRM tools, handling customer requests and closing deals. As opposed to an in-house CRM specialist, getting a virtual assistant for sales on board is quicker and cheaper. Your virtual assistant can manage the entire CRM system, pitch to prospects, train other employees on the tool, and effectively drive sales success.
8. Data entry
Managing and updating databases is an integral part of your sales efforts. Instead of wasting your time punching data entries, hire a virtual sales assistant to take care of data entry tasks.
9. Communicating with prospects
Get a virtual customer assistant to reach out to prospects on various social media platforms. They are trained to contact prospects to convert them into leads. Additionally, they can conduct email marketing tasks to stay connected with and convert prospects. Choose a skilled virtual assistant for sales to help you with tedious tasks that swallow up your time as you focus on growing revenue.
10. Scheduling meetings
Find it hard to keep track of daily meetings and calls? Your virtual assistant will organize your calendar and schedule meetings for the sales team.
11. Be your point of contact
Your virtual assistant for sales can be the point of contact between you and your clients, team members, and other employees, saving you time on unnecessary interactions.
12. Contacting old leads
Many businesses fail to keep in touch with or reconnect with old leads. Your virtual customer assistant will manage a database of new and old leads and keep in touch. They will speak with old leads to find out if they’re still interested in the product. Because this is nothing like cold calling, i.e., your leads have already expressed interest in buying, your virtual sales assistant is the right person to handle this task for pushing sales.
13. Build your sales team
Think you need an in-house army of salespersons to succeed? Hire virtual sales assistants instead. Tap into a vast pool of talented virtual assistants and build a virtual sales team easily. With a virtual sales team, you get the agility to scale efforts up and down based on your ever-evolving business needs.
Increase Conversion Rate
14. Timely follow-up with new leads
Find a virtual sales assistant to call prospective leads and win them over. And to maximize your cold calling efforts, make sure to use a business phone system like ULTATEL.
If it’s taking you days to respond to new leads, it’s probably because you’re stretched too thin. To win customers over, you need to be responsive and make them feel valued. If your sales team is too busy to respond, hire a virtual sales assistant to follow up quickly. Train them to answer pre-sales questions, respond to queries, and schedule sales calls.
15. Lead nurturing
Lead nurturing is a powerful sales practice; it results in a 45% lift in ROI and a 20% increase in sales opportunities. When leads indicate they aren’t ready to buy yet, you may file them in a category to be contacted later. But most small businesses struggle to nurture such leads, which essentially means lost business. Hire a virtual sales assistant to set up lead-nurturing tools and train them to stay connected via newsletters, free resources, and regular follow-ups. Your virtual assistant can be a powerful force for nurturing leads and ensuring you never become irrelevant.
16. Quality customer service
Every business owner understands that growing an existing customer base is much easier than acquiring a new one. This is why you need to keep current customers happy to fuel profits. Crucial to doing so is ensuring exceptional customer service. Your sales virtual customer assistant is trained to resolve issues and keep customers satisfied. They know how to manage frustrations, handle inbound service inquiries, and tackle customer issues.
17. Encourage word of mouth
Who can deny the power of word-of-mouth sales? In this department, your virtual sales assistant can also be an asset. Your virtual sales assistant can encourage customers to spread positive reviews - through email follow-ups, thank you notes, and consistent relationship building.
18. Social selling
Succeeding in the modern world requires you to have your finger on the pulse of social media. You’ll find your customers talking, ranting, asking, and engaging on social networks. With a virtual sales assistant, you can update your business pages, engage with current clientele, and assist in attracting new customers on social media.
19. Keep customers happy
Customer service is a strategic ally to the sales department. Today, customer service is about delivering exceptional experiences, irrespective of the channel on which your interaction happens. So instead of spending your time answering calls and chats, hire a virtual sales assistant to take care of customer support.
Give your customers immediate answers to increase satisfaction. For example, if your VA can’t service a request, they will feed the information to your CRM and route the issue to the right team, facilitating a quick resolution of queries.
Scale Your Business
20. Manage peak seasons
You can hire a virtual sales assistant on a contract, monthly, or per-project basis. This means you can manage busy seasons by hiring on demand. When your sales VA takes on critical sales support tasks, you (and your team) get the flexibility to focus on higher-priority work.
21. After-hours support
While a regular employee is available only during business hours, your VA is there for you even after business hours. Especially if your VA hails from a different time zone, you get after-hours support to research prospects and close deals.
22. Utilize diverse skill sets
Unlike an in-house resource who will likely hold an exclusive sales skillset, virtual assistants hold diverse experience. This means you can bank on your virtual sales assistant to do much more than sales; they can help you with admin work, data management, travel bookings, etc.
Reduce Company Costs
23. Reduced overheads
The most significant benefit of hiring a virtual sales assistant is the money it saves your company. Compared to full-time employees, VAs come with no overheads. Because your VA works remotely, you don’t have to spend on office rent, furniture, computers, stationery, etc. You also don’t need to pay benefits; their pay is calculated using the actual hours worked. If you build a team of virtual assistants, you can significantly bring your costs down. This leaves you with more money to invest in scaling your business.
24. No fixed costs
Virtual assistants are available to work when you need them, meaning they’re only paid when your work is done. So, you bear no fixed costs in the form of salary and other benefits.
25. You don’t need an office
Building an in-house team needs a physical office location of your own. But when you hire remote employees for your sales efforts, you don’t need to rent an office. Save loads of money by hiring a virtual sales assistant.
26. No employee benefits
Apart from getting freedom from paying a fixed salary, you also don’t have to pay for insurance premiums, health benefits, taxes, and vacation time. Simply pay for the virtual assistant sales services delivered to your business!
27. No recruitment costs
Every time you have to hire, you spend a lot on creating job posts, hiring recruitment agencies, scouting for talent, and other hiring procedures. With a virtual service provider that offers trained professionals, you can save valuable money and time involved in the recruitment process.
28. Say goodbye to temporary staffing
Because virtual assistants are available on demand, you no longer need to make temporary, unstable hires. Your virtual assistant offers the flexibility of a temporary employee with the stability and caliber of a full-time one. Best of both worlds, isn’t it?
29. Pay per use
As a small business, you may not have enough daily sales tasks to keep a full-time resource busy. Or you may need more support than usual during a busy time of the year. So why pay someone a fixed salary to work 40 hours a week when you’re only using them for 20? Hire a virtual sales assistant to pay only for the hours you use their virtual assistant sales services.
30. Trained professionals
Your VA is a trained sales professional who can get to work immediately. You simply brief them on expectations and start work right away. This can be especially valuable if you’re running a busy ship and need extra sales support but don’t have time to ramp up a new hire.
Avoid Burnout
31. Stay calm
Because running a small business requires you to wear many different hats, it’s easy to go through each day frazzled out of your mind. If you often end your day on an exhausted note and find your productivity bogged down by the small tasks, it’s time to hire a virtual sales assistant.
With a VA, you can delegate time-consuming but important sales activities and regain your peace of mind. Having your VA take care of daily work will also save you from decision fatigue, allowing you to stay calm and be more productive at work.
32. Less stress
You don’t have to deal with redundancy every single day. You don’t have to feel like you’re doing all the work. When you’re less stressed, you’re able to do more things. As a result, your mood will improve, and you’ll become a better leader for your team. You’ll be able to think straight, making more sound and informed decisions for the business.
33. Be a digital nomad
Work in the 21st century doesn’t really need you to stick to a place for too long. If you’ve always dreamt of the digital nomad life, hiring a virtual assistant is your ticket to freedom. When you have your sales VA taking care of everyday work, you can travel the world without a worry.
34. Get work done as you sleep
Build an army of remote sales assistants that works 24*7. This means you make money even as you sleep! Isn’t that what every entrepreneur dreams of doing?
Access a Global Talent Pool
35. Time zone no bar
Have clients who stay in a foreign land? Hire an international virtual sales assistant who can work when your customers do. Skilled and exceptionally trained, VAs in different time zones can take your business forward by working when you can’t.
36. International talent
Sometimes, your business needs a multicultural perspective to move forward or serve international clients. With a global talent pool at your disposal, you can choose from a diverse skill set.
37. Low-cost talent
Your virtual assistants work from their specific locations. So you don’t have to spend on office rent. Hire a VA to access low-cost talent that propels your business to success.
38. Multi-lingual services
When you hire a virtual sales assistant from a different country, you get someone who speaks at least two languages. This can do wonders for your international business. Contacting prospects and nurturing leads is easy when your salesperson speaks your customers’ language.
39. Flexibility
Be it CRM management, prospect research, or cold calling, virtual sales assistants can do it all. Diverse and flexible in their skill set, they can take on multiple roles to support your business.
Quick and Easy Hiring
40. Easy onboarding
There are times when you desperately need to recruit someone. But finding the right person is a long, drawn-out process of research, recruiting, and training, which you may not have the time for. With Wishup’s virtual assistance, you get trained VAs in just a few clicks. In addition, onboarding sales talent is both easy and affordable with Wishup.
41. You don’t have to train them
Because virtual assistants are trained professionals, you spend no time or money on training them for your role. Instead, just communicate your expectations and protocols, and they’re ready to go!
42. Easy replacement
Not happy with your VA? Worry not. Find a replacement in no time. Then, simply choose from a pool of talented virtual sales assistants at Wishup and continue business as usual.
43. Free 7-day trial
Is it possible to try out an in-house employee's services before you hire them? No, but you can do that with a virtual sales assistant. At Wishup, we offer a 7-day trial period to help you try out their virtual assistant sales services before making a decision to subscribe. If you want to know how to make the best of your 7-day trial, read our blog on the virtual assistance trial.
People also ask
How do I communicate with my virtual sales assistant?
Sales virtual assistants are extremely tech-savvy and communicate via any medium of your choice - be it phone, email, WhatsApp, or video call.
How many hours will my virtual assistant work for?
Depending on your work requirements, you can choose between a 4-hour or 8-hour package. The renewals are monthly, and you can change your subscription if there are changes in the workload.
How do I track my virtual assistant’s work?
Your virtual sales assistant will send you a detailed end-of-day report on how they spent their workday, so every hour of work is accounted for.
What are you waiting for? Hire a sales virtual assistant now!
With so many benefits, it’s difficult to ignore the value and productivity a virtual sales assistant can bring to your business. Keep your focus on business growth, and let your sales assistant take care of the rest. Click here to schedule a free consultation today, or drop us an email at [email protected]
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