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By Gayle Buske, President and CEO Team Double-Click®
You may not have the financial resources to hire a full-time administrative assistant, receptionist, or marketing assistant to join your staff, but that doesn't mean growing your business is out of the question. Read on to learn how to grow your business this year utilizing Team Double-Click® pay-only-for-what-you-use virtual assistants.
Hiring a full-time assistant to join your staff may not be in the plan this year, but growing your business should be on your must-do list for 2009.
Want to know the top five business-growth tasks you should be focusing on to keep your business moving forward? We asked our most successful clients what they were doing to grow their businesses right now. Here are their top picks:
1. Cold calling
How do new clients and customers find you? If yours is like many companies, cold calling is a must to reach more and more people and more business. You have target markets and geographic regions which are preferred. But do you have the time (or the desire) to sit down and cold call all of those prospects in order to make the sales?
While we can’t speak for independent virtual assistants or other staffing agency’s virtual assistants, Team Double-Click’s virtual assistants are sent through a very thorough cold calling course. The cold calling course teaches them how to successfully get past gate keepers, how to effectively present products and services to the prospect, and how to gain the best advantage when it comes to making a sale.
Why not pass that icky cold calling task and your list of prospects on to a virtual assistant and watch your business grow?
2. Lead follow up
Your company’s quick follow up (or lack of) to new, inbound leads gives potential clients a glimpse into what working with your company will look like. Additionally, if you don’t follow up fast enough, experts agree that the potential client will quickly move on to someone who either answers their call on the first try or calls back quickly. Missed lead follow up results in lost sales. Period.
Make sure there is always time for quick lead follow up. If you don’t have time to personally follow up with leads, have your virtual assistant follow up for you. It’s quite simple to create a list of common FAQs to pass along to your virtual assistant so she can answer any question that comes along. It’s equally easy to educate your virtual assistant on your company’s product and service offerings so he or she can seamlessly follow up with and reel in new clients for you.
3. Social networking
These days, social networking on sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and others is all the rage. And with good reason. They’re helping businesses connect with new prospects and new clients.
However, it’s hard to find the time to sit down in front of the computer long enough and consistently enough to get maximum value from the hundreds of social networking sites out there. With social networking, consistency is key. Your virtual assistant can efficiently and consistently use these social networking sites to drive new business your way.
4. Internet marketing
It goes without saying that if your business is on the internet in any manner, getting your internet marketing done and done well is a must. And again, consistency is the key to making internet marketing a success.
Again, while we can’t speak for independent virtual assistants or other staffing agency’s virtual assistants, Team Double-Click’s virtual assistants are sent through a very thorough internet marketing course. The course teaches them internet marketing trends, terms and principles, web analytics, affiliate marketing, search marketing, blogging, social media, email marketing, and digitally enhanced productivity strategies.
These virtual assistants can unleash those internet marketing talents on marketing your business on the internet and bringing new clients your way.
5. Customer service/reception
First impressions are often made when a client calls your company. Do your phones roll to voice mail? Or worse still, do they go nowhere when you’re out of the office? In economy like this, you can’t afford to miss an incoming phone call from either a current client or a prospective client.
Make sure your phones are always answered, your current customers taken care of, and potential clients get their questions answered and are shown how to become a new client by having a virtual assistant answer the phones for you. You gain instant “bigger company status” by not answering the phones yourself. And what’s more, if you are out of the office, your customers and potential customers still receive the assistance they need. Since virtual assistants only “clock in” when they’re performing your tasks, you don’t pay for unproductive standby time.
Talented virtual assistants are available for either ongoing work through Team Double-Click® or direct placement through our new Direct Placement Virtual Assistant Program. With ongoing work through Team Double-Click® you receive all of the benefits of working through an agency, such as ongoing virtual assistant coaching, we do the hiring and firing, we do the billing and payables, etc. With our new Direct Placement Virtual Assistant Program, for just a $495 one-time fee, we’ll expertly match you with one of our screened and trained virtual assistants and then you’re free to work directly together. Most clients enjoy savings of more than 50% without the ongoing agency fees, etc.
About the author
Gayle Buske is the President and CEO of Team Double-Click® the country’s leading virtual staffing agency, which is trusted by thousands of small and home-based businesses. As the head of the original virtual staffing agency with tens of thousands of virtual professionals in its pool, Ms. Buske is uniquely qualified to speak to the ins and outs of the industry.
Gayle enjoys spending her free time with her husband and business partner, Jim, their daughter Madison, practicing Yoga, reading, hiking, flower gardening, off-roading, watching NASCAR®, and playing with the family’s three Vizsla dogs.
Team Double-Click® provides virtual assistance for small and home-based businesses. By using Team Double-Click® virtual assistants, clients can have a staff without having employees.
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catherinepelkey[.]teamdoubleclick.com 
