The Gritty Virtual Assistant

One of our members was feeling disheartened today after reading yet another blog post from an industry outsider miseducating OUR marketplace. In that post, the fellow spoke of Virtual Assistants in not very professionally respectful terms, indicating that Virtual Assistants are to be trained and supervised.

(SIDE TANGENT HERE: Sorry, buddy, you got that flat-out wrong. And clients, do yourselves a favor–STOP listening to these ya-hoos. They have NO business telling you how WE run our businesses and work with clients. They are doing you a HUGE disservice because you’re going to be in for an awakening when you contact us and we tell you that’s not the way it is.)

And then in another video post, she said the speaker was ranting about yet another Virtual Assistant who had disappeared on them.

Our member was lamenting that with all the miseducation that goes on, is there any hope of finding clients who “get it” anymore?

I say, emphatically, YES! But it requires some shifts in thinking and how we educate our marketplace. First, you have to understand the problem on both sides of the fence. 

On one side, it is unfortunately the Virtual Assistant world itself that is largely responsible for creating this thinking in clients that is insulting to us. It is Virtual Assistants themselves who are misinforming these people, creating unrealistic expectations, wrong understandings, and working with clients as if they were employees.

On top of that, the term “Virtual Assistant” has been completely bastardized by virtual staffing/team VA/secretarial service businesses. It doesn’t even mean what it is intended to mean anymore. I would argue that it wasn’t a good term to start with in the first place because it focuses clients on a role (and a subservient one, at that) rather than what we do. It does nothing to convey the sense that they are retaining the services of a professional administrative expert.

On the other side of the coin–and they will deny it and make excuses all over the place–but I guarantee you that most clients who complain about Virtual Assistants not having the skills they advertise or who disappear on them hired those Virtual Assistants because they were cheap (or cheaper than the alternative).

They will vehemently argue, “$X/hr isn’t cheap!” But ask those clients, why didn’t you hire Virtual Assistant X who charges $65-75/hr and up, who has an established, committed business (and not a fly-by-night, project-oriented freelancer), who demonstrates her competence on her website and in her interactions with you and all that she does, and who has a track record of dependability, qualification and service? Why didn’t you hire that person?

The answer is because they were trying to save a buck and/or were engaging in magical thinking. Why hire a Virtual Assistant who clearly knows her value and conveys her skills and qualification in demonstrable ways when I can hire someone cheaper? Why hire a real web designer when I can get a Virtual Assistant to do it cheaper? Why hire a real copywriter when I can get a Virtual Assistant to lump it in with administrative support as if it was the same thing and not charge me extra for it? Those clients have no one but themselves to blame. They had the wrong priorities, were depending on the Virtual Assistant’s devaluing of themselves, and they hired based on price instead of value/skill/demonstrated competence/quality.

And we can’t change them. We can only continue to steadily put out information that educates clients on how to choose, on what their priorities should be if they want Virtual Assistants with professional-level skills, qualification, dedication, who can do what they say they can and who won’t disappear on them (because they weren’t operating a committed business in the first place or they weren’t charging profitably enough in order to a create a reliable business). If they want X, they need to be prepared to pay $X. They need to shop based on value and stop cheapskating out.

Pricing profitably absolutely has a direct impact on a Virtual Assistant’s ability to create the kind of true business and systems and foundations that will allow her (or him) to stick around and deliver a superior level of service. No Virtual Assistant can create a real, solvent business at anything less than $35/hr. No one. The Virtual Assistants living off that are either broke, don’t depend on the money to live on (it’s just hobby/side income or extra pocket change for them) or they have other income (e.g., a day job, a spouse, another business). And when that is the scenario, clients risk their investment because that Virtual Assistant hasn’t created the kind of profitable foundation that will allow them to stay in business, be committed and focused, and deliver consistent, quality support and service. On top of that, if their interest in the work is only as “some money on the side,” why on earth would a client expect any kind of professional-level of commitment and reliability?

We also have to continue to steadily put out information that educates Virtual Assistant themselves on how to market themselves better. Virtual Assistants have got to get off of this marketing message that focuses almost exclusively on issues surrounding money. Just the other day I saw a new Virtual Assistant’s website and that’s ALL she talked about. Not how she improved the client’s life and business and how she does that, or what things she helps clients with, or helps them understand the ongoing, collaborative relationship so they can see it in the context of how it helps clients move their business forward. NOTHING about that stuff whatsoever. Just money and comparisons to employees and how much they would save and how little it all costs and how they could get a discount….

It’s no wonder a lot of clients are cheapskate-minded. Virtual Assistants like that are TRAINING them to think like that, FOCUSING them on exactly those things. We’ve GOT to change the focus of our conversations with clients. Stop talking about money. Period. Talk about how you improve your client’s lot, the ways in which they can move forward, how your work can help them achieve their goals and objectives.

We also have to break this connection with the brick and mortar admin/employee thing we have in our head. We are service providers now. Completely different animal. If you want to stop being treated and approached like an employee, stop making these comparisons (in all forms) to brick and mortar secretaries and administrative/executive assistants. Focus clients on the concept that you are an administrative expert–that is, a professional who specializes in providing administrative support and expertise. Show them how you help clients move forward in their businesses and take the burden of wearing all the hats off their shoulders. Focus on painting a picture of how you help them improve their life/business and achieve their goals/objectives. THAT’S the value. Leave all the other comparision (to employees, to admins in the real world, etc.) and price out of the conversation (on your website and marketing, that is) completely.

None of this will ever completely go away. There will always be cheapskates in the world who want something for nothing. And the Virtual Assistant industry isn’t unique in having this issue (both with cheap clients and not knowing how to market itself). But you can help yourself by supporting organizations like the VACOC that is helping to better educate clients in ways that make it easier for you to find the right-thinking ones out there. Focus on concentrating your energy on creating your client message in the ways I described above, stop talking about money and price and costs and discounts and incentives and seductions, and you will begin to attract the RIGHT clients with the RIGHT mindset to you.