Virtual Assistants:
First, thank you for all the kind words and support you’ve given me in the last few weeks after the launch of my ebook. I love to hear from you!
Second, I hear you.
I know you’re out there, and I know many of you think no one’s listening.
I admit I didn’t know you at all, until a few months ago, until I took the time to talk to you. I was just like a lot of the other clients you’ve known who were in such a hurry to build their own businesses that they didn’t give a thought to yours.
We’re really not that different, you and me. Those of us who support others can sometimes have our best messages fall on deaf ears.
I know what it’s like to be un-listened to by clients. No matter how many times you list the many many ways VAs can help, you don’t really know if they hear you. They’re so intent on their own interesting circumstances that they often don’t seem to see you marching along beside them – sometimes they don’t recognize your worth. If only they’d open their eyes and really see.
One thing I found out from talking to you, and to the clients you work with: your clients need you more now than ever. And more new and different entrepreneurs who need virtual partners are coming out of the woodwork every day. This is the time to really make your voices heard. You have to wake the sleeping giant up so he can hear you. And as a sleeping giant myself, I can give you a perspective of what might get our attention.
I will spread the word about you through my writing, speaking, and ebook, but I need your help: help me make some noise.
Here’s what you can do, right now:
1. Communicate your worth to your clients. Sing it from the rooftops!
Write a blog post or ezine article and link it to this one. Send out an email blast and copy me. Mail letters and put me on your list. List your credentials as well as the many ways you support your clients in their businesses, and make sure they know exactly how you help them. Use case histories to remind them of past successes and suggest future ideas. Be authentic and specific.
2. Wake your clients up to the collaborative possibilities.
Make a list of all your current clients, and the ways you could be collaborating with them, but haven’t been asked. Estimate the value of this to your client. Suggest projects your client may not have thought of – but you have, because you know their businesses. Then send an email to each of them with your individual suggestions for them and the value they could be profiting from. Or bring your ideas up the next time you talk. Do this in the right way and you never know what could happen.
3. Let your clients know your plan for your business, your understanding of entrepreneurship, and of partnerships.
Write out your plan for your business, your growth strategies, your hopes and dreams. Detail your worth as a partner and your understanding of business, and of being an entrepreneur. Make sure your clients know this smart and savvy part of you.
4. Show them how you can REALLY help their businesses.
What do you REALLY know about your clients’ businesses that could help them reach their goals? Do you even know your clients’ goals? What part could you play in supporting them to reach those goals? Let them know.
5. Choose your ideal client. Let them know you’re looking for them.
Do you know who your ideal client really is? Can you describe her? Is this profile what your client roster looks like now? If not, how can you get it to be?
6. Get testimonials.
Ask satisfied clients to write outcome-based testimonials for you and put them on your website and in your ezine. Or just send one out via email to your list occasionally. If you have trouble getting them from busy clients, do it for them — write what you think they’d say and ask them to edit it.
7. Organize your systems and communicate their possibilities.
What systems do you use that really rock? Did you put a bit of this together with a bit of that and make magic? Do your clients know about the way you work or is this a best-kept secret? Unique systems that work can help you stand out from the pack – find out what yours are, document and talk about them.
8. Get out from behind your computer occasionally – go places and talk yourself up.
Are you actually getting out and meeting people? Do people really know what you do and how cool you are?
9. Gather in groups to brainstorm, mastermind, and support each other.
Are you trying to do this alone? As someone who knows the value of partnerships and support, you know the value of a like-minded group to grow with. Group coaching and mastermind groups provide inspiration, accountability, and encouragement. Get involved.
10. Learn. Be coachable.
Never stop learning. Don’t confine your education to software programs and techniques — learn about yourself, your mindset, and your values in business. Find someone you like, trust, and click with, and be coachable, no matter how long you’ve been in business.
It’s up to each of us to sing our own songs. No one knows how good you are as well as you do. It’s a disservice not to tell, not to let your clients and future clients know exactly how you could serve them better, really, in ways that they can hear.
Become more visible to them, let them really see you, and your clients just may become better listeners. And better clients as well.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think this is great information. When just starting out, sometimes you just don’t know the avenues to take to get the word out there of the type of business your trying to incorporate. Me for example my niche is Transportation, there are not many VA’s that I see who focus on transportation, and because it can be a sensitive area from a government view, you have to leave yourself open to others as well. In my experience and education I have given myself different avenues, but I love the transportation world as far the truck drivers and the safety. I now have given myself the oppurtunity to work from home, spend time with my family and read valuable information and articles such as this one. Thank you and I look forward to more.
What a fantastic post, and a reminder to everyone (including VA’s) that we need to market ourselves just like everyone else. It is true that one of the best ways to get new clients is through referrals, but, clients can’t refer you if they don’t know all your talents. Not to mention if they don’t know your business plan and if you are even “accepting” referrals.
The virtual assistance profession is very new to me but very exciting. It is exactly what I have been looking for, before I knew it existed. The sky is the limit in terms of specialty but we need each other and our clients to succeed.
Thanks, Marcia, for hearing and offering sound advice. I intend to put into action your suggestions.
Warmly,
AA
Thank you for clearly stating, for the benefit of both Virtual Assistants and those who need our services, the value in what we do. And most importantly, what to do right now.
I like how you put this: ” It’s a disservice not to tell, not to let your clients and future clients know exactly how you could serve them better, really, in ways that they can hear.”
Thank you.
@timetogovirtual
Jeeesh! For real, Marcia! This is such a plain spoken call to action and I love it. I’ve only begun to really own my talents and share them with my clients and with my networking community. I was trapped in the doing and never realized that the things I was doing for my clients were (1) incredible (2) business helping (3) business changing (4) extra money making (5) reducing crazy-making for my clients.
Off we go!!!
Dianna, Ivette, Antonette, Gennia, Angie,
Wow, thanks to YOU! VAs are such helpful people, you know? Yes, you do know, and others need to be reminded. It’s helpful for clients to be reminded — it gives them ideas. And then the cycle starts over again.
I’m grateful to you for reading and leaving your thoughts.
Marcia