“As a virtual assistant, I market but I don’t do sales for others.”
“As a virtual assistant, I support businesses with their marketing plans, strategies, and implementation but I don’t cold call, negotiate joint partnerships, or close sales deals.”
I maintain very clear lines between marketing and sales and the tasks that fall into each of these areas. While I do have experience as a successful sales representative I choose to only focus on marketing aspects as part of my virtual assistant service offerings because I feel strongly that the person closing the deal should be 100% invested and believing in the product or service – knowing it inside and out; standing behind it ready to grant only the best customer service towards this product or service. This role is best carried out by the business owner and the employees of the company.
It’s important to understand the difference and recognize why sales and marketing are different.
The nitty gritty of marketing is communicating the value of a product or service customers for the purpose of selling the item. Marketing is a science that draws on identifying a target group, market analysis, market segments, and understanding consumer buying behavior. Marketing builds on getting to know the customer and building a relationship with them.
Sales is often done by a one-on-one meeting, cold calls, and networking. It’s anything that engages with the prospect or customer on a personal level rather than at a distance. Most of the time, the potential customer has been driven to you via marketing efforts.
Marketing comes first and, hopefully, successful sales will follow. Marketing begins the familiarity with your company’s service or product that it takes to lead a customer to want to make a purchase. If the marketing is done correctly it will lead a customer from a cold call to a warm (i.e. interested) lead and to someone who needs to finish the circle (a hot lead) and buy what you’re selling.
Sales teams who work with lead generation, cold leads (the person receiving the call is not expecting a call or has not specifically asked to be contacted by a sales person), and warm leads may implement a direct mail piece, try telemarketing, or a special promotion offer created by marketing to help introduce services and products to buyers. See how marketing lays the groundwork and supports the decision, always giving enough data for an informed decision to say “yes” and reinforcing the choice? The sales process covers the out-bound calling, the sales pitch, handling objections, opportunity identification, and the close. The marketing reinforces the value, benefits, outcomes to be expected, and results to be gained.
How does a virtual assistant fit in?
Unless a virtual assistant offers sales services the VA’s support should come in marketing areas. A few areas virtual assistants can assist with include:
- Website development
- Sales pages
- Copywriting
- Mailing lists and email campaigns
- Social media management
- Press releases and article marketing
- Database management
- And the list goes on and on …
It’s important that the business owner be the leader of their company and have advisors assembled should expert guidance be needed. Even with advisors on staff as employers or hired as consultants the final decision must come from the CEO. The business wins…and losses are on the business owner’s shoulders. Deciding which marketing mediums to use, when, and the budget amounts ultimately needs to be determined by the owner. Others can provide the necessary data to make an informed decision but the CEO decides.