Whatever stage you’re at in your business, you’ll be able to achieve a higher degree of efficiency and a lot more sales by having a sales assistant on board.
The good news is, in this digital day and age, you don’t need to hire an on-premises assistant. Instead, you can get help from a virtual sales assistant who works remotely. You can then outsource specific tasks to create a more efficient sales process.
But before you start searching for an assistant, you need to ensure the person has the right traits. Here are some of the key traits that you should look for.
Make sure the assistant has the traits needed for the specific job duties
First off, to discern what traits your specific virtual sales assistant should have, you should determine what duties the person will be given.
For instance, you could need an assistant to find leads and make sales calls. You could also need your assistant to perform a wide variety of admin tasks, like managing your CRM, performing bookkeeping duties, setting up reminders, performing data entry, and reporting expenses.
Once you have made a list of job duties for your virtual sales assistant, you can better determine what skills the individual should have. And once you know that, you can figure out what specific traits your assistant should have.
For example, if your assistant will be performing administrative tasks, you will need him or her to be highly organized and have a keen eye for detail.
If your assistant will be dealing with leads and customers in person, he or she will need to have traits like a friendly and outgoing personality and strong communication skills.
It can be a good idea to use a provider of virtual assistants, like Prialto, to ensure you find the right sales assistant for the job.
Prialto is focused on human-centered connections and empowerment and it makes sure that you don’t just get an average virtual assistant to whom you can simply offload tasks.
For instance, unlike traditional virtual assistants who might just make sales calls once and move on, Prialto’s professional sales assistants always make follow-up calls to ensure no qualified leads slip through the cracks.
Speaking of leads, it might be helpful for you to check out this guide on how to generate leads if you run a small business.
Traits to look for in an excellent virtual sales assistant
Even though it’s important that you match traits to the skills your assistant needs to perform his or her specific duties well, there are some traits that all virtual sales assistants should have. So, let’s take a look at some of the most important ones.
A high level of reliability
Even if you find the most qualified and skillful virtual sales assistant in the world, you won’t want to keep the person if he or she is unreliable.
It’s imperative that your assistant can be relied on to do things like making progress reports and answering emails in the correct and timely manner. If your assistant doesn’t, it can cause great harm to your company in the long term.
Since your virtual assistant will be working in a remote capacity, he or she must exhibit a level of responsibility and autonomy to complete assigned tasks and be highly reliable in every way.
Strong communication
Your virtual sales assistant will need to communicate with lots of different people, probably through various communication channels, such as email, phone, texts, and VoIP systems. Therefore, it’s very important that he or she has strong communication skills.
Also, if your assistant’s first language isn’t English, it’s vital that they can efficiently communicate in English. And you need your assistant to be able to communicate well with you. An inability to communicate could result in misunderstandings that cause issues like extra expenses, lost leads, and delays, which could actually harm your business.
Resourcefulness
The last thing you want is for your virtual sales assistant to waste your time. Therefore, you need to make certain that the person you hire is able to be independently resourceful.
He or she should have the initiative to perform research by using technological resources to find the answers to most questions. Avoid anyone who appears to need a wet nurse.
Honesty
If your virtual sales assistant isn’t trustworthy and honest, you could soon run into problems. When issues happen, you need to be aware of them. If your assistant makes a mistake and tries to cover it up or shift responsibility, he or she isn’t someone you should have working for you.
Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. The important thing is that when your assistant makes an error, he or she is upfront and honest about it. Indeed, your assistant should be honest with you regarding any business matters.
The ability to multitask
Is multitasking a trait or a skill? Regardless of the right answer, you need to make certain that your sales assistant is able to multitask.
There are sure to be incidents where there’s a higher than normal workload or unexpected problems, in which case, you’ll need your assistant to be able to handle various tasks at once while keeping a cool head.
Furthermore, did you know that multitasking can positively affect both productivity and brain health?
Friendliness
Even if your virtual sales assistant has all of the above traits, if you don’t get on well with your assistant, things probably won’t work out.
You need someone who is friendly. Your assistant should not only be friendly and have a positive attitude when communicating with you. He or she should also be just as friendly and positive when communicating with clients, leads, and other members of staff.
But it’s especially important that you and your virtual sales assistant simply click.
The takeaway
You’ll gain a plethora of benefits by hiring a virtual sales assistant. For instance, with the help of an assistant, your business could gain greater efficiency and productivity, generate more sales, and be in a better position to grow quickly. Just make sure that you find someone with the right traits.
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