Today’s Quote: Focus on your strengths … Delegate your weaknesses. – Kim Garst
Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today we are going to talk about how VAs help their clients. If you’re not sure why a client should hire you – be prepared to take some notes today!
Click the play button above to tune in, or choose your favourite podcast player below:
Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
The reason that VAs exist is to help business owners get things done. In a nutshell anyway.
But why do they need help to begin with? What moves a client into action to hire a VA? It’s because they are struggling with something that you can help them with.
There are many things that our clients deal with in their businesses, and many of them are the main reason that they hire us as VAs to work with them.
Today I want to talk about these things as struggles that they face – because that’s really what they are.
What moves a client into making the decision to invest in a VA? Sometimes they are excited to move into a new direction, and we’ll talk about that later in this episode, but more often than not, they are looking for help with something that is not working well in their business. They are not happy about it – it is taking too much of their time, or it simply isn’t working the way it should be for them even though they know how to do it.
Let’s gol
Organization:
One of the most simple services a VA can offer a client is to get them organized. Many of our clients don’t excel in this area. Just like we were never taught sales in our admin roles in our corporate jobs, they were not taught admin skills in their roles either.
It does not come easily to a lot of business owners, and as you know I always say it’s the main service offering that they need from VAs.
How does disorganization show up in their business?
They can missed appointments, or do the appointments but then be terrible at follow up and miss out on sales
They can start projects and never finish them
Or they can half ass their marketing initiatives and launches.
All of these add up to their business suffering.
How can we help?
We can help them clean out their inboxes and keep their email organized so they get back to people in good time and always know where to find the things they need. Or keep their clients better informed and taken care of.
We can help them automate their scheduling, or organize it better – so that . their day shapes up more efficiently. Booking more appointments for them can get them new clients too.
We can help them get back to people who inquire, or follow up with people they have connected with, so that they can nurture relationships with them and again, potentially get new clients.
We can help them complete their open projects and prioritize new ones.
We can help them check off all the tasks needed for the marketing tasks or launches that they know are important to grow their business.
So it’s more than I can manage your email – you want to be able to articulate to them WHY it’s important – and often that starts with telling them what is happening by them NOT doing this well right now.
Time Management:
For a VA, time is money. We are a service business and so we trade our time for dollars no matter how you do your billing.
How does terrible time management show up in your client’s business?
They can take way too long to do some things – or everything.
They can simply not do things that they don’t have time for, even if they know they are important.
They can spend their time doing many things that are not actually bringing revenue into their business. Busy work. Without revenue a business can not survive.
How can we help?
We can help them by setting up procedures for things that need to be done – or teach them how to use automation.
We can of course also take things off of their desk so they don’t do them anymore – and use those procedures and automation to get them done as efficiently as possible.
We can ensure that the tasks that they say are priorities for them get done each week or month. This is especially important with things like customer service and marketing tasks.
We can help them spend their time more wisely doing things that will actually bring revenue into their business. Networking, working with clients, creating new ways to serve their clients. Really that’s it! And we can help them make the most of their time.
Tech Issues:
You don’t have to be a tech goddess to provide tech support for your clients.
We know how much of a struggle it can be to have to learn something new, especially if we are not good at it or don’t understand it.
How do tech issues show up in our client’s business?
System crashes or data loss – usually these are urgent issues and website hosts or servers are sought out, but not always
Security issues – viruses or hackers, access for social media platforms
Online platform issues – access, logins, passwords, recordings, meetings and events
Online file storage and management – where their stuff is
How can we help?
We can help them get safeguards and backup systems in place before any bad happens.
We can make sure they have a system in place, a plan and security for when things do go wrong. We can learn the basics and explain and document what they need to do – and ensure secondary people are in place for social media accounts.
We can make sure there is a system in place to manage passwords and logins and access. We can manage event recordings and moderate meetings and events..
Creativity:
Good looking marketing collateral definitely helps clients grow their audience and their business. Amateur looking stuff or stuffy looking stuff can really derail anyone’s efforts. Luckily this is a very strong service for VAs.
How do creativity issues show up in a client’s business?
Plain presentations – not standing out or looking good may look unprofessional to clients
Crappy workbooks or no workbooks – clients may not implement their teachings fully or easily
Unbranded colours, fonts and graphics – just plain bad graphic design
Copyright issues from Googled images – so many clients pull images from Google searches that could be copyrighted, and don’t think anything of it. This could cause legal issues (not to mention redo issues) when they are caught
How can we help?
We can help them by creating eye catching presentations and handouts to uplevel their stuff
We can use systems like Canva to create templates so all of their stuff is cohesive and professional and polished.
We can help them look more polished in everything they post
We can help elevate their brand
We can save them a ton of time if it’s something they don’t do well
There are a lot of things that our clients struggle with but these 4 are pretty common ones, and things that they often seek help for.
What I hope you got from today’s episode is how to describe the struggle to the client. They may not realize what is going wrong in their business, or what is the most important thing to get help with.
When you can reframe it for them and describe the struggle – and the relief they will see by getting help, you can help move them into action to say YES and work with you.
Now I also said I’d talk briefly about how you can help a client when things ARENT so bad. When they are just looking for growth in their business and they know they need help to get it.
Maybe they need your organization skills to pull of a huge event or launch, or a new podcast.
Maybe they need to have you do things for them because they are super busy and they don’t have time to manage all of the details they shouldn’t be managing anyway.
Maybe they want you to help them with their tech and creativity so that you help them stand out.
Yes, many business owners already KNOW why they need our help. And we still talk to them in the same way. Actually it’ can be a great exercise to ask them why they need help and what they think they will get from it (or if you are already working with them, what they ARE getting from it) – and then use that with your other clients.
Think of these three questions every time:
What do you do that you can help a client with?
How does it show up in their business?
How can you help them?
Need Some Help?
If you want my help to figure out how to start talking to your clients in language that they understand, and BUY, reach out to me at tracey@yourvamentor.com. I’ve helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I’d love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and registration for my new mastermind group The Virtual Circle is open now. Maybe one of those is right for you!
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.