The Gritty Virtual Assistant Blog

November 22, 2010 – 10:00 am

Trust and Confidence: Are Your Potential Clients Feeling It?

(This was published today in The Portable Business™ weekly ezine–be sure and subscribe here!)

Here’s what you have to always remember about clients looking to hire you: They don’t know you.

You know you, but they don’t know you. Sure, they might have seen something you wrote–an article or a post on a forum, perhaps–and had their interest piqued. Or they were given your name by someone they know and whose opinion they value.

But other than that, they don’t really know you.

And so they are nervous. It’s a big commitment to work with a new provider. They have a lot riding on the line. They have a challenge to solve or need to make their business run easier. They dread having to start all over again with someone new and want to make sure their decision is the right one.

This is why they are always looking for evidence. They want to see things that back-up your message that you are great at what you do. They want to feel trust and confidence.

So how do you do that? How do you help instill the trust and confidence potential clients are yearning for? It’s surprisingly simple:

Present a website to them that demonstrates your competence. What does that mean? Well, let’s put it this way, if you say you’re the grammar queen, but your site is littered with misspellings and incorrect punctuation, um, you can forget about clients thinking you are any good. No matter what you say you are, it must be backed up visually and in practical demonstration.And even if the thing you do for a living has absolutely nothing to do with spelling, writing or typing, people still buy with their eyes (an analogy coined by the awesome Harry Beckwith). They will directly correlate the professionalism and competence of your website with your actual skills and qualifications for the thing you are in business to do. It all has to match. It’s called walking the talk and looking the part.
Present a website that shows you care. When you care about the presentation of your own website, you are telling your site visitors that you take pride in what you do (a pride-filled service provider is a MUCH better service provider) and that you are invested in their business and the work you want to do for them.Soooo many people think this isn’t important, but it is actually one of the most important things you can do to instill trust, confidence and rapport. If your site shows a lack of effort, if it’s sloppy and lacks any originality whatsoever, what gets communicated is that you are someone who will only exert the least amount of effort possible. That’s not very inspiring, is it?
Give them someone to connect with. Whether you are a solo or the head of a big company, people do business with people. Put your name and face up there prominently so they know who is talking and they have someone to relate to. It’s an instant rapport builder and will make them feel so much safer and more comfortable.
Talk like a real person. Corporate speak is soooo over. Please know I say this in the most loving way, but you really gotta take the stick out of your arse and be a human being! Stop with all the pretensions and being so stiff, formal and uptight. Speak directly to your site visitor as a person, as if you were in a real conversation with him or her. Do this in your writing and in your recordings and videos. Look in their eyes and smile. Let your words be warm and human.
Talk about them, not you. Sure, there’s going to be a sprinkling of “I” and “we” in there, but overall you should be talking about your ideal client and his/her goals, challenges and objectives. Your copy should mostly be using the words “you” and “your.” If it’s not, go in there right now and turn those sentences around.

CHALLENGE: Today, go through your website. Fix typos and misspellings. Ask someone else to proof. Reword your sentences to focus on “you” and “your.” Make sure all your graphics are rendering correctly and fix any sizing that make them appear wonky. Double-check that all links are active and go to the right pages. A site that is checked and updated regularly is a site that will instill trust and credibility in clients.

Your thoughts? Post a comment!

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Marketing | Tagged instilling trust and confidence in prospective clients, talking the talk, walking the walk | Comments (0)

November 18, 2010 – 10:00 am

Value Is Not a Two-for-One Sale

When we talk about and use the term “value,” we aren’t talking about bargains and two-for-one sales.

Value is about providing your expertise in a way and at a level that supports the big picture goals, objectives and needs of the client and his/her business.

Client’s don’t hire Virtual Assistants/Administrative Consultants for the fun of it or because they have money burning a hole in their pockets. They also don’t hire them simply for tasks.

Our work is our expertise, and we should quite rightly have great pride and respect for it–those who do are MUCH better service providers.

But our value is never about our work. Clients hire us because our work and expertise helps them accomplish something or get somewhere they are striving for.

Always get to the “why.” Why do they need the work or support? What goal, objective, ideal or aspiration is it in support of? THAT’S where your value is and what your work and expertise is all about.

Your thoughts? Post a comment!

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Administrative Consultants, value, Virtual Assistants | Comments (0)

November 16, 2010 – 10:00 am

Private or Public Forum?

If you’ve been by the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce site lately, you’ve seen that we are in the midst of some major updating and site reorganization. One of the things we’ll be working on soon is our new forum platform, and I want to pick your brain about privacy.

The main question is whether the forum should be public (able to be viewed by anyone coming to the site) or whether it should be private (where only members with accounts can view the postings and conversations).

There are pros and cons to both and I honestly can’t decide which way to go.

The benefits of a public forum is that it attracts more users/members. Site visitors can see what’s going on and it’s great for PR and search engine rankings.

On the other hand, it’s not always a good thing that site visitors can see what’s going on. Some of the conversations I’ve seen on some of the public forums are quite embarrassing. If I was a client seeing some of these discussions and the questions asked, I’d be pretty leery about hiring some of these people if the quality of competence and qualification and lack of skill/knowledge was any indications of what I’d be getting.

Hey, I don’t blame anyone for asking questions, but clients and prospects just don’t need to see some of this stuff. Which is one of the benefits of having a private forum. I’ve always felt that VAs need a private sanctuary where members can let their hair down, vent on occasion if need be, and ask those questions and have those conversations without any fear that client eyes will ever see them. And in my experience, when there is a slight barrier to entry, you tend to attract the folks with a higher caliber of skills, competence, qualification and business sensibility.

The con of a private forum, however, is that you may not get the same amount of traffic and interest as you would with a public forum and people tend to lurk longer (which I can’t stand; I hate that feeling of someone looking over your shoulder, but never letting you know who they are).

So what do you think? If a combination of both private and public wasn’t an option, and you had to choose between one or the other, which kind of forum would you prefer? Which would make you feel more comfortable/safer participating in? Please select your choice in the poll below. I would love to hear your two cents and any suggestions you have!

Do you prefer a public or private Virtual Assistant forum?customer surveys

9 Comments

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Cool Stuff, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce, Virtual Assistant Forums | Comments (9)

November 12, 2010 – 10:00 am

Clients Are Responsible for their Own Success

Just because what we Virtual Assistants and Administrative Consultants do helps clients and gives them to ability or opportunity to increase their income, doesn’t mean we are responsible for whether that happens or not.

While we are definitely passionate about our work and how it helps them move forward and gives them back more time, space and energy that ultimately can mean the difference in increasing their incomes, clients are still always responsible for their own businesses and success.

You all get that, right?

2 Comments

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Administrative Consultants, Client Success, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (2)

November 9, 2010 – 10:00 am

New Video: How to Work with a Virtual Assistant

Hey, check out our new video to help clients understand how to work with a Virtual Assistant/Administrative Consultant. Would love you to subscribe to our channel, rate the video and leave your comments. Let me know how you like it.

Oh, and by the way, this was made for Virtual Assistants and Administrative Consultants to use on their websites so feel free!

5 Comments

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Cool Stuff, Marketing, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Danielle Keister, How to Work with a Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce, Virtual Assistants | Comments (5)

November 1, 2010 – 10:00 am

Featured on Biznik Today!

Another one of my articles was selected to be on the Biznik homepage today. Would love if you could check it out and give it a rating! Here’s the link: http://biznik.com/articles/marketing-and-service-lessons-from-a-greasy-spoon

I just love Biznik… they really do networking right.

Your thoughts? Post a comment!

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Tootin' My Own Horn | Comments (0)

October 28, 2010 – 10:16 am

Take These Words Out of Your Vocabulary

We are having a great conversation about yet another dumb article about Virtual Assistants over on our Facebook group page.

One thing I am always trying to get through to Virtual Assistants and Administrative Consultants is to take certain words out of their vocabulary when it comes to their marketing and conversations with clients.

First, the word “assistant.” If you are a business owner, you aren’t anyone’s assistant. You are a professional providing an expertise. In our case, that is administrative support. The only connotation people understand when it comes to “assistant” is the employee kind. If you want clients to approach you as a fellow business peer with a valuable expertise to offer, stop calling yourself an assistant.

Second, the word “employee.” Stop making all those comparisons to employees (how much they save over employees, those ridiculous cost comparison charts, etc.). What we do isn’t about replacing employees. It’s about providing an expertise and a service for people who need it. When you compare yourself to an employee, all people hear and understand is the word “employee” and think that’s what you are.

Third, stop using derogatory words about our work like “menial,” “mundane” and the like. People don’t value grunt work and if that’s how you are portraying your work, they certainly aren’t going to see it as an expertise, much less pay professional fees for it. Words like that only portray you as a flunky and a gopher. If you don’t value and respect your work, no one else is going to either. You will never be able to help clients see and understand your work as valuable in the bigger context of their business if you keep using words like that.

Our work IS important. It is the backbone of every business and it absolutely does help business owners grow and move forward.

Don’t confuse the fact that there might be some mundane tasks and steps involved with the work overall (every expertise has those). Because it’s not about the tasks, it’s about the results–how your work helps clients grow and progress and keeps their businesses humming along smoothly, professionally, effectively and profitably.

For more words to be take out of your vocabulary, see a couple of my older posts here, Delete These Words from Your Business Vocabulary and here, Affordable Should Be Taken Out Back and Shot.

1 Comment

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Marketing | Tagged Administrative Consultant, Administrative Support, Virtual Assistance, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (1)

October 26, 2010 – 10:00 am

Which Are You?

I was going through some old listserv messages the other day that I had saved for one reason or another and came across one where a Virtual Assistant was lamenting about possibly losing a client. She had learned inadvertently that this client was seeking a new VA and she was upset that she hadn’t been told about it directly. She complained that she had bent over backward for this client and they hadn’t mentioned a word to her about being unhappy with her work or anything.

While it is understandably upsetting when people aren’t upfront, I still couldn’t help but notice her poor writing skills. She used the wrong spelling of certain words, didn’t punctuate her sentences properly, etc. It naturally made me wonder if this was any indication of her skill level and competence. Because if it was, it could explain the reason the client was seeking someone else.

Everything we do as administrative experts is a demonstration of our skill and competence (or lack of it, as the case may be). And language and written communication skills are integral to everything we do. If you aren’t able to communicate clearly and coherently with clients in proper form, we can’t honestly be upset with them if that poor communication doesn’t inspire their confidence. They want their work to be as professional as it can be. How can they trust that you can accomplish that if you don’t show them a command of the necessary language skills?

I don’t know if this was the case or not with this VA, but it did lead me to another thought… that there are basically two groups of people in our industry.

There are those who take healthy pride in the administrative skills and talents they possess. They elevate their work to the level of craft, of art. They are able to apply abstract, critical thinking to not just do the work, but do it really, really well. Beautifully even.

Then there are those who got into this industry because they heard it was a way to make some extra money. They sit passively waiting to be told what to do (sometimes even how to do it!), and are either unable or unwilling to exert any more effort or thought beyond the literal request.

Which group do you think provides more value for clients? Which creates more ease for them and inspires their trust and confidence?

Which group do you fall into?

2 Comments

By Danielle Keister | Posted in Business Savvy, Virtual Assistant/Virtual Assistance | Tagged Administrative Consultants, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistants | Comments (2)

October 21, 2010 – 11:19 am

What Size Monitor Do You Use?

I’m curious about what size monitors Virtual Assistants are using these days (desktop, not laptop). If you have a quick second, please indicate your monitor size in the poll below (choose the answer that is closest; if you use dual monitors, select the size of the smallest monitor). Will be interesting to see the results!