50 Reasons You Need a Sales Virtual Assistant

Posted May 8, 2020

In Business Development, Client Tips, eCommerce

Sales tactics that work today may no longer be as effective tomorrow. As a business owner, you need to continuously assess and update your plan to ensure a fruitful, cost-effective, and efficient sales process. As a sales strategist, Jill Konrath said, “What differentiates sellers today is their ability to bring fresh ideas”.

This is why having a sales virtual assistant is extremely important. As specialists in the field, sales assistants have a unique perspective, training, and skill needed to determine what works, what can be improved, and what needs to go away. But why choose a virtual sales assistant over one you can employ locally?

Here’s one good reason: virtual is becoming the new normal.

In-House vs Virtual Assistant for Sales

How do you turn passive customers into regulars? How do you determine why some products are more lucrative than others? How do you ensure that orders are fulfilled on time and inventory logistics always run smoothly?

The answer: you work with a sales assistant.

Apart from keeping your organization running smoothly, a sales assistant can also provide unique input to drive sales and contribute to growth. If the current economic climate is any indication, now is as good a time as any to work with a virtual sales assistant online.

Although people have been working from home for many years now, the Covid-19 pandemic is quickly changing global business. In its wake, virtual assistance is becoming the apparently sustainable working setup versus traditional employment.

Virtual assistance, and remote work in general, are more than just a passing trend or a temporary response to global lockdowns. Virtual assistance is a staffing solution that is proven to work in the present and the foreseeable future. Even before the world was ravaged by the pandemic, people already preferred to work from home, and businesses benefited from this setup.

50 Reasons Your Business Should Hire a Virtual Sales Assistant

Just how much can you benefit from hiring virtual assistants versus in-office employees? Here are 50 reasons your business should hire a sales virtual assistant (VA):

Oversee sales performance. Are you meeting your sales targets? What do your past and current sales activity indicate? A virtual sales assistant has the proper training to evaluate your sales performance. They can interpret numbers and translate them into practical plans to increase or manage sales over time.
Generate better leads. A virtual sales assistant doesn’t only generate leads —they make sure you get quality ones. Being remote workers, sales VAs have a strong suit of online tools and workarounds. They can channel this strength to target leads with higher value and conduct a faster turnaround.
Research prospect partners. Whether it’s another company to complement yours, an influencer to expand your audience, or an investor to give financial support, finding a business partner can quickly grow your business. This essential task entails extensive research that you may not have the time for. Outsource it to your sales VA so you can focus on creating your pitch instead.
Conduct cold calls. Cold calls are one of the oldest sales tricks and the book that still works! The trouble is, it can take hours of your day and requires expert sales techniques to work. If you delegate this task to someone who has the proper training for it, cold calls can do wonders for your business.
Organize meet-ups with new clients. Meeting with new clients can be unnerving. You need to present your best proposal and prepare for questions and misgivings. Get more time to prepare by delegating the appointment setting a task to your sales VA. Your VA can organize a place and time that works for everyone and make the necessary preparations.
Reach out to old and dormant customers. There’s a wealth of potential waiting to be uncovered in old or dormant customers. These are people who have already tried your products or are already interested in your services. Your sales VA can reach out to them to win them back or remind them of how much they enjoyed their previous purchase.
Draw up sales reports. Monitoring your sales activity is key to honest performance evaluation. You need a detailed sales report that you can study and analyze with the rest of your team. A sales VA can draw up a comprehensive sales report and help in interpreting results.
Optimize social media followers. Social channels have shown enormous marketing potential in the past years. It’s no longer enough to gain followers; you must also optimize them to increase your revenues. This is a task that your sales VA can do. To get started, here are 10 social media tricks that will boost your sales.
Manage sales team. Expanding one’s team is inevitable in a thriving business. When you get more people on board, you need an expert to serve as your second-in-command. A sales virtual assistant can help with your executive duties and ensure everyone is right on track.
Strategize and update sales plans. Knowing how to adjust and cope with different external and internal factors can go a long way. This is why you need a sales virtual assistant that knows how to strategize and modify plans as necessary. With their skill and relevant know-how, sales VAs know how to fine-tune a plan to make it more effective.

Prompt lead management. With their busy schedules, entrepreneurs may take a longer time to follow up with leads. Don’t let hard-sought prospects lose interest by promptly responding to inquiries and delivering results. A sales VA can ensure timely lead follow-up to win customers and close deals.
Nurture leads. Lead nurturing is another sales-boosting practice. Take note that not everyone who expressed interest in your service will end up purchasing. A sales VA can nurture these leads and ensure these hesitant prospects still get the proper media to pique their interest in your service.
Encourage social media selling. Virtual sales assistants are in the know about the hottest selling platforms, not the least of which are social channels. They can apply their sales skills with their ability to run social media to market and create selling opportunities.
Create customer retention plans. Companies compete against dozens of similar brands over the same audience. You need to be creative and strategic to keep your customers happy. A sales VA can brainstorm, execute, and manage retention plans to keep existing customers satisfied.
Create and test CTA plans. There are many ways to prompt customers into action. The more creative and strategic you are, the more results you get. Have your sales VA create call-to-action plans, monitor them, and test variations until you come up with the most effective one.
Oversee PPC ads. Paid ads are 50% more likely to convert compared to organic traffic, according to a report. You need to play your cards right so that your PPC campaigns will turn in more favorable results. Virtual sales support can help you in this regard. They can create an ad copy inviting enough to elicit a click and a landing page relevant enough to convert.
Collect and optimize testimonials. Testimonials are social proof that when used properly, have the power to increase sales. Your sales support VA can set up emails to ask for testimonials, moderate feedback, and ensure these are prominently displayed in your digital properties.
Plan and execute a service guarantee. Another way to increase conversion is by adding a service guarantee. This encourages customers to buy and shows that you’re confident in the quality of your products and services. Your sales VA can create the terms and help execute this, whether it’s a refund warranty or a price-match guarantee.
Refine branding strategy. Is your marketing plan bringing you close enough to your target audience? As a selling expert, a virtual sales assistant knows what factors turn a casual visitor into a paying customer. They can refine your branding by adding elements that you might have overlooked.
Craft a clear value proposition. You compete with brands with more advertising funds and a longer run in the industry. For customers to pick you, you need to show them your unique advantage. A sales assistant can help craft your value proposition so you can edge out other brands.

Practice top-notch customer service. With so many communication channels used in business today, customer service can get overwhelming. When you hire a virtual sales assistant, you ensure that quality customer care is executed in all your digital channels.
Offer after-hours support. You can’t man the desk round-the-clock, but customers expect a prompt reply all the time. Virtual assistant sales support can offer after-hours support to reply to customers, process orders, or solve a problem.
Push for word-of-mouth recommendations. As someone who works directly with sales, your sales VA is the first to witness successful transactions and satisfied customers. They can leverage this and ask for endorsements and testimonials to push for word-of-mouth recommendations.
Manage live-chat inquiries. Live chat gives customers and prospects a quick, convenient way to clarify issues. It’s only fitting to have someone offer live chat support to turn inquiries into sales. As a sales and customer service specialist, your VA for sales perfectly suits this job.
Handle real-time sales issues. Change of address or order, payment issues, shipping questions — there are many problems that can stop a sale. Your sales VA can handle issues that may come up before, during, or after shopping to close more deals.
Manage reputation. Under-delivered expectations and product or shipping mishaps can frustrate customers. Be sure to have your sales VA deal with upset customers and de-escalate issues. As someone who knows the ins and outs of your products and service terms, sales VAs are the best people to manage brand reputation.
Send abandoned cart emails. There are many reasons why customers don’t finish placing orders. Whatever they are, an email reminder can help them reconsider or remember their unfinished shopping. Get your sales assistant to automate sending of abandoned cart emails to increase returns.
Conduct social listening. What people say about your products or how they react to your campaigns is valuable information. It’s information that must be collected and handled by no less than your sales assistant. You can then share this input with the rest of your team for product development or advertising techniques.
Bridge gap between customer care and promotions. You no longer have to identify between a customer-centric or a sales-driven brand. Having a sales support VA can bridge the gap between customer relations and promos. Sales VAs can combine their customer skills with their selling expertise to create campaigns that resonate with the audience.
Encourage brand loyalty. Win new customers and make sure they stay. Get your sales VA to come up with loyalty plans and execute consistent customer care to encourage repeat purchases.

Data entry and management. Updating databases is a time-consuming part of running a business. Delegate this to your sales VA so you can focus on core responsibilities.
Manage and update CRM. As a virtual worker, a sales VA likely knows many CRM tools. When you work with one, you no longer have to teach them how to manage and update your CRM. What’s more, they can offer input to improve your CRM system.
Do target market research. Go beyond the basic demographics of your target audience. What are their goals and misgivings? How can you make their day-to-day better? Get your sales VA to research your target market. The more you know about your prospects, the better your chances are of winning them over.
Source better suppliers. Offer competitive pricing by getting better suppliers. Your sales assistant can research suppliers with better offers, terms, or rates. Your VA can also reach out to them and organize a meeting so you can strike a deal.
Manage orders. Process orders correctly and fulfills them on time. No matter how busy you get, you can ensure orders are taken care of when you work with a virtual sales assistant.
Manage refund requests. Refund requests may be unfortunate but managing them can appease customers and build your credibility. Have a sales VA evaluate, process, and confirm refund requests to keep your customers happy.
Organize calendar. Stay on top of things with the help of a sales VA. Your VA can coordinate with you or your prospects to ensure you don’t miss anything. This gives you more time for more important tasks.
Draw up proposals to investors or partners. As a selling specialist, a sales support VA knows power words and techniques that close a deal. Have them assist you in creating proposals to investors or partners to get favourable results.
Create digital content. As virtual workers, sales VAs know the tools and psychology behind digital content. This makes them the right fit for creating digital media for promotions or customer education.
Update and monitor content. Need to change business info? Adding a new product in your roster? Make sure your website visitors and social media followers are up to speed. Get your VA to monitor your digital content and update it so all details are correct.

Reduce business costs. The longer you run a business, the higher your overheads are. If you need support for sales, you’re better off getting one virtually. Have a look at these 5 business expenses you can reduce by hiring a virtual assistant.
Access diverse and global talents. Never settle for a lesser qualified assistant for hiring convenience. You can access sales assistants with better training, more skills, and more experience when you hire them remotely.
Boost productivity. People have a better chance of finding a work-life balance when they work from home. This results in increased productivity and better work output. Expect higher productivity from yourself and your assistant when they work from home.
Secure service continuity. The current business climate has highlighted the sustainability of virtual assistance. Shoulder economic or internal crisis better when you work with a virtual sales assistant. VAs work from home and are immune to transport issues and various safety threats that traditional employees encounter.
Manage seasonal highs and lows. Peak season demands an extra pair of hands while slow months may need reduced working hours. Virtual assistance is a flexible work arrangement where you can hire more people and add or reduce work hours as needed.
Smoother recruitment and onboarding. Why waste time and resources in recruitment, onboarding, and training when you can have someone do it for you? Hire a sales VA through a staffing company to take care of these aspects of the business.
Scale with the company. Need to get more people in your sales team? Have a one-time project that requires specialized input? Hiring sales virtual assistants answers your staffing solutions without the restrictions of traditional employment.
Better time management. Delegating low-impact and repetitive tasks can boost your productive time tremendously. Of course, you can’t delegate tasks to just about anyone; you need to outsource them to people with sales training and expertise.
Better employee retention. Because people are more productive when they work from home, they are less likely to quit their job. Employee retention is one of the many perks when you work with a virtual sales assistant online.
Access to professional input. Have someone proofread and improve your sales pitch. Get an expert eye to review your proposals and campaigns. Virtual assistance makes it possible for businesses to access professional sales input.