A member of the VACOC posted this article on the forum. I found it to be a nice piece of advertising for the VA industry. It gave some good information that could answer many questions and alleviate concerns that potential clients might have when trying to make the switch to the virtual world. It can be found here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/SpecialSeries/story?id=3431434
So, check it out. You might find it interesting as well.
I met with a potential client the other day and knew, even before I was able to sit down with him, that it wouldn’t work out. I arrived about 15 minutes early and had to wait for him to finish with a customer. I could hear him speaking with this person and from his demeanor and inflection in his voice I knew that he would be an extremely demanding person. Now, I don’t have a problem with someone having demands about their business. However, I do have concerns about someone who will be yelling them to me and possible treating me as an employee instead of a partner in the success of their business.
It is hard to avoid the temptation to work with anyone and everyone who might need, and want, our services. But, if you take the time to really look at what works best for you and study past business relationships you will create your “ideal” client mold. It will also keep you focused on connecting with the right people and building on those connections to solidify and maintain strong VA/Client relationships.
Knowing who will “fit” in with your ideal client is paramount to the success of any VA/Client relationship. You should be able to know if a potential client will be a good “fit” for this relationship within the first 5 minutes of the conversation. Having conducted much study on the VA industry and performing a consultation, this is one area where being unsure can be a complete detriment to the new business relationship.
So, take a moment to really understand what it is you’re looking for and you will find it.
I’ve always considered myself very outgoing. I can talk to anyone on just about any subject (one that’s interesting to me, of course) and not even think twice about it. However, I’m not a sales person and I’m finding this carries over into the selling of my VA services - something I find EXTREMELY interesting.
I know the services I offer carry many great benefits to the potential client and I know the services I offer are very necessary. I’ve found though that helping this to come across in my presentation is somewhat harder for me than I’d hoped.
I could try to blame it on the fact that I just moved to this area - Buffalo, but we VAs know that would be just an excuse. We are Virtual you know! Geography does not matter to us, right? Well, in my case, it might matter somewhat. I am meeting with two potential clients next week, in person, in a new town, and my presentation is definitely going to make or break the possible business relationship.
Nerves and stress over the move to Buffalo might well play a part in preparing for these meetings. I must try very hard to overcome this potential obstacle.Sharing this here will, hopefully, be therapeutic for me and over the weekend I will be working on my benefits/features list and getting my VA speak burned into my memory!