sales development Archives

Posts

myoutdesk testimonials mihran berejikian president at Belami, inc belami ecommerce

From One to Ten Virtual Assistants: An E-Commerce Success Story

e-Commerce, MOD Virtual Assistants, Testimonials

Providing e-commerce virtual assistants has helped businesses THRIVE this year. From 1 to 10 virtual assistants in a matter of WEEKS, learn how Belami Ecommerce Solutions has scaled its operations with MyOutDesk Virtual Assistants!

MyOutDesk CEO Daniel Ramsey sits down with President of Belami, Inc. Mihran Berejikian.

Tell a little bit about how MyOutDesk fueled your e-commerce company with talent?

“It’s done so in a couple of ways. First, we were able to meet the unprecedented demand surge that we had due to the pandemic. Which of course has been terrible for the country and the world. But, has definitely been good for e-commerce home retailers. The demand surge created an environment where we needed to bring a lot of bodies in immediately and MyOutDesk provided that. We have great people who ramped incredibly quickly, actually, one of the great benefits that we didn’t expect to occur is—not only did they ramped up quickly…”

Virtual assistants were able to the job that the local people were able to do … AND they actually raised the bar!

“Because on average, at least for the jobs that we were hiring, they were more mature, more experienced, more grateful, and more committed to what they do. We can now expect to get the same from our other employees, and its given us a really good benchmark as to what we should be expecting from other employees. So now we’re able to meet the day-to-day demand for what we hired them for. Plus it gave us a great big benchmark to compare to and it raised the bar across the board.”

What positions do you think are appropriate for an eCommerce company to hire in the virtual assistant world?

“For us, it’s entry-level accounting, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc. Also some amount of reconciliation work that is repetitive but still requires some level of accounting skills. On the customer service side is chat management. So virtual assistants are answering chats from customers, fielding basic questions about availability, order status, as they mature we think we’ll actually be able to let them ask product-related questions. And then, Virtual Assistants are also doing order management. We live in a dropship world, so order management for us means we get the order from the customer, we transfer it to the manufacturer, and we have to work with the manufacture to make sure that they’re shipping it on time, and they’re notifying us.”

“So there’s a whole host of activities that occurs all the way across the funnel from when a customer places an order to when it arrives. For the percentage of times when it arrives and there are issues, there’s a whole other set of workflows that needs to occur to solve those issues.”

[Considering a Virtual Assistant?]

Back to top

One of the things that are unique about your eCommerce business, is that you went from 1 virtual assistant to 10 virtual assistants very quickly! What surprised you about the hiring process?

How easily the hiring process went.
How quick and smooth the interviewing went.
And, the overall success rate of the candidates was pretty darn close to 100%!

What would you tell an e-commerce leader in your space who has never considered using virtual assistants?

We shied away from it for many years due to fear of culture. Given the current environment with everyone working remotely, that concern is no longer there. So this is really the right time to try it, implement it, and think about blending it back with the culture.

What e-Commerce Virtual Assistants do for eCommerce Businesses:

Dropshipping & supplier coordination
Amazon seller services
Product research for Amazon
seller growth analytics
Amazon & eBay listing placement coordination
inventory placement
seller compliance
Amazon & eBay advertising
fba revenue calculations
liaison to dropshipping suppliers
handling inquiries from the resolution center
managing seller hub
Shopify administration
Google shopping coordination

Here’s how e-commerce virtual assistants support e-commerce merchants:

Listing Coordination & Documentation: product and inventory support, reports, and billing
CRM Management: Updating records, verification, claim submissions, billing, and much more.
Email & Phone Answering: Answering administrative phone calls, customer support, answering emails, managing your calendar.
Research & Administrative Support: Any type of research on the web, maintain spreadsheets & any other information or secretarial tasks, coordinating with other staff or getting any other work done or organized at your workplace.
Marketing Management: Coordinating your social media pages with updates, CPC & PPC coordination, news or article sharing, setting up email campaigns, creating marketing materials (flyers, brochures, etc).

MyOutDesk has been in the industry for over a decade, helping all types of businesses grow. We have providing e-commerce virtual assistant services for years, becoming one of the top virtual assistant providers available. After serving more than 7500 clients and employing over 4000 professionals, we have seen firsthand how this investment supports business growth. Because of this experience, MyOutDesk, currently caters to other industries as well such as professional services, mortgage, and insurance to name a few.

ENVISIONING OF A NEW REALITY FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Simply put, MyOutDesk equips entrepreneurs & business owners with tools, strategies, and virtual employees – and when combined, businesses have a competitive edge and find growth while efficient systems and processes are put in place. MyOutDesk proudly provides additional free business growth guides, books, and strategy calls. See what we are about, and schedule a free consultation with us. We’ll take the time to learn more about your business and offer solutions to foster top talent and lower operational costs for your company.

Experience The Difference
MyOutDesk can save you up to 70% on employment costs
Claim a free business strategy consultation & ‘Grow Virtual’ Guide

Did You Know? MyOutDesk’s origin story is set during the last global financial crisis of 2008. Yes, that’s right — our business started by scaling businesses with virtual assistants during a recession! Pioneers of virtual assistant services, our first client in 2008 went from five to seventeen VAs with a completely revamped organizational model in short order, and he told MyOutDesk, “Our virtual professionals have shaved $250,000 off our monthly overhead.”

July 5, 2022/by Jeremy

(Accelerate Business) How it works: Sales development, inside sales + prospecting

Administrative, Cannabis & Legal Marijuana, e-Commerce, Financial Planning, Franchise, Healthcare, Human Resources, Inside Sales, Insurance, Marketing, Marketing, MOD Virtual Assistants, Mortgage, Property Management, Real Estate, Recruitment, Technology

Inside sales and sales prospecting are essential parts of any business. These departments can be the key to your success if you know how to hire them from the right sources.

This article is specifically about what sales development, inside sales, and prospecting are. We’ve also included a few pointers on where these roles overlap with each other and some of the success stories of people who have excelled at them.

Sales Development
Inside Sales
Prospecting
How to grow your sales team
Virtual assistants for sales development

Sales development

Definition

The role of sales development is to find companies who may be interested in our product or service. This can be done by cold calling, emailing, sending a postcard, and even attending trade shows, conferences and meetings.

One might think that sales development is a simple job. But in reality, it’s not. Selling your product over the phone can sometimes be extremely difficult as most people don’t hold their calls very well on the phone, which makes this job tense and nerve-wracking; especially if the business you are calling is huge or something big that may affect your project in one way or another.

But what if the business you are calling is actually interested in your product? Well, then you would need to build a relationship with them. You would need to tell them more about your product and services, the value it offers, and what it can do for their company.

Once they are interested in your product, you would have to introduce them to someone who can actually close the deal on your end, such as a salesperson or a business development manager.

Famous sales development professionals:

Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within
Louis Grenier, Everyone Hates Marketers
Daniel Ramsey, MyOutDesk

[Considering a Virtual Assistant?]

Back to top

Inside Sales

Definition

The role of the inside sales is to book appointments with leads over the phone. This requires you to have a very friendly and optimistic voice that can directly influence the potential customer in a positive way. Inside sales usually require a lot of communication with various departments inside their companies.

The inside sales usually work from a customer relationship management platform or CRM. However, you can also find them in various different departments inside of their companies such as the technical support or even a marketing department.

Opportunities: Inside sales often talk and communicate with other departments inside of their companies which makes it easy for them to introduce customers to other departments inside of their company. They may also possess certain skills that would allow them to influence certain departments to make more sales for the company, such as finance and development.

Because they have access to more information than other people who work outside of their company, they can easily pitch products or services that are related to the department they are talking about over the phone.

Famous inside sales professionals:

Dave Ramsey, Ramsey Solutions
Dave Elkington, InsideSales.com

Prospecting

Definition

The role of a prospect is to find customers that may be interested in buying our product or service. This can be done by cold calling, emailing, sending a postcard, and even attending trade shows, conferences and meetings.

We’ve been taught from an early age that it’s best to stay away from strangers and to only talk to people you know rather than strangers. In a perfect world, this would be true. But in real life, we make mistakes and it’s important that business owners learn from our mistakes rather than learn from the mistakes of others.

This is why developing relationships with people before you approach them is of utmost importance for any type of sales job. People you go to school with can introduce new clients to you which may soon lead to new opportunities for your business not only through that relationship but also through that person’s friends and family members as well.

Communicating in writing is effective because you can show people how enthusiastic you are about your product or service while also setting expectations regarding what your product or service was made for and what their needs are.

Every sales job has a different degree of prospecting that needs to take place. Some jobs might require a lot of prospective calls or emails while others might require the customer to do it. Prospecting is an art all in itself and takes years to perfect.

[Considering a Virtual Assistant?]

Back to top

How to develop your sales team

#1: Set a process and stick to it.

Prospecting is a continuous process and the more you can stick to your plan, the better your results will be in the long run. As I mentioned above, an email is the most effective way to communicate for a sales job.

You just have to make sure that your prospecting process is set up properly and that you don’t get sucked into the trap of spending too much time on one person.

If you’re sending out hundreds of emails and only getting one response, then you must think about how you can improve your process so that more people respond.

#2: Have a clear target market for new prospects.

Think about who your ideal customer is and write it down on paper. Are you looking for older women, young girls, middle-aged professionals? Write down as much as you can about your target demographic. If you need some help with this check out this article here.

#3: Tie your dream into some larger ambition.

A lot of people who are starting a business have dreams of quitting their day job and using their business to retire early or travel more. When I started my first business I was single and living with my parents, but I knew that having an online business would allow me to build some financial independence for the future.

[Up to 70% off: Virtual Assistants]

How virtual assistants can help in sales development

Virtual assistants can manage day-to-day tasks that don’t require specialized knowledge or experience. This allows the sales team more time for their primary responsibilities. They can fill in the gaps of the team and help to make sure that all the details are covered.
MyOutDesk offers relentless talent matching for career-oriented virtual assistants — with proven track records & digital expertise — at up to 70% less than the cost of a traditional employee. Add a new hire to your team — without the headaches of payroll, taxes, insurance, retirement, office & equipment costs.

Calls:

Virtual assistants can conduct research for calls or appointments, making it easier to answer specific questions that prospects may have. They should have experience with customer service call Scripts and be able to create presentations for each call. Virtual assistants can schedule calls using online scheduling tools, such as Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. They should be able to handle appointments with prospects via email or phone. This includes reminding them of upcoming meetings, sending directions and parking information, and organizing files that need to be reviewed ahead of time. Virtual assistants can also help in organizing and managing documents that need to be reviewed or sent to prospects during the sales development process.

Presentations:

Virtual assistants can help with the organization of presentations. This includes scheduling, sending reminders, and helping with collecting information from the prospect via phone calls or e-mails. Virtual assistants can also maintain the database, or CRM, that will be used for reference during calls.

Other factors:

Companies that want to outsource their sales development team can save time and money by hiring a virtual assistant. Sales development professionals can focus on creating sales for the business while outsourcing the other details to this team member. Virtual assistants can create calls or appointments automatically, saving valuable time. They also have experience with researching useful information online. They would be able to provide research that would be relevant to the conversation during a call or appointment.

Persuasive
Persistent
Excellent communicator and listener
Good at reading/understanding people
Prospects on a regular basis

A virtual assistant working with SDRs will make calls and send emails to prospects. This can include sending emails to companies directly and making calls to decision-makers when necessary. This person should also be able to confirm appointments via phone or email and manage appointment schedules for follow-up purposes. It is also important for this person to be able to track contacts through a CRM system like Salesforce. So, they can provide updates on the current status of sales leads when needed.

So, you should be asking yourself if virtual assistants can help you grow your business & team.

[Considering a Virtual Assistant?]

Back to top

“Outsourcing makes the hustle better — because you’re not burdened with many/growing expenses that you’ll need to figure out how to cover and hit profit”

Focus on your growth & scale your operations

Envisioning of a New Reality for Your Marketing Business

Simply put, MyOutDesk equips entrepreneurs & marketing agencies owners with tools, strategies, and virtual employees – and when combined, businesses have a competitive edge and find growth while efficient systems and processes are put in place.

MyOutDesk proudly provides additional free business growth guides, books, and strategy calls.

See what we are about, and schedule a free consultation with us. We’ll take the time to learn more about your business and offer solutions to foster top talent and lower operational costs for your company.

Experience The Difference
MyOutDesk can save you up to 70% on the employment cost
Claim a free business strategy consultation & ‘Grow Virtual’ Guide

Did You Know? MyOutDesk’s origin story is set during the last global financial crisis of 2008. Yes, that’s right — our business started by scaling businesses with virtual assistants during a recession! Our first client in 2008 went from five to seventeen VAs with a completely revamped organizational model in short order, and he told MyOutDesk, “Our virtual professionals have shaved $250,000 off our monthly overhead.”

June 17, 2021/by Jeremy

man with a graph showing a graph of business development to success and growing growth concept

The Sales Guide: A deep look into Sales Development operating models

Inside Sales, MOD Virtual Assistants

Sales development is a broad term that covers many different tasks. The success of each initiative depends on the unique needs and goals of every company, so a good sales development representative must be able to adapt to the specific needs of his or her team.

The contents of this guide cover:

Sales Development Models & Goals
The Sales Development Cycle
Recommendations for Improving Sales Development Effectiveness
Examples of SDR (Sales Development Representative) Calls
Recruiting the right SDR to my team
Converting leads using the right angle (Motivations, Fit, Timeframe)

Sales Development Operating Models & Goals

There are several key operating models that sales teams use to reach their goals. The ultimate goal of sales development is to increase revenue. Of course, it’s not a simple task to achieve this goal even for seasoned salespeople–it takes a strong team.

In terms of operating models, some companies focus on growing their top line by acquiring new customers and keeping existing ones happy with good service. Other businesses concentrate on increasing customer lifetime value (CLV). Although there are countless ways for businesses to generate more leads, they all fall into one or more categories:

Introducing new products or services;
Cross-selling or existing clients;
Turning prospects into paying customers.

The job of a sales development team job is to do whatever it takes to achieve these objectives & goals. For example, they may need to conduct market research and analyze the results.

Back to top

The Sales Development Cycle

In some cases, a company might require its sales development reps to carry out lead generation campaigns. This relationship-building process is called the lead generation cycle and it consists of four steps:

Prospect Identification – This step involves finding potential clients or customers that are interested in a product or service from the company. The goal here is to build relationships with these organizations by contacting them directly through emails, phone calls, and even face-to-face meetings.

Lead Nurturing – In this step, sales executives try to get potential clients or customers engaged in a conversation about their product or service. The goal is to build enough trust and credibility so that they will open up about why they need the company’s services or products.

Lead Qualification – The sales executives use this step to qualify the potential clients or customers based on their need and desire for a product or service. They want to ensure that they will get a positive response if they offer them an opportunity.

Lead Closing – In this step, the sales executives try to convert potential clients or customers into actual buyers by providing them an opportunity for a product or service that they want.

After that, the sales development representative (SDR) works with members of their team to follow up on leads to allow sales reps to close actual buyers. The sales development cycle is a continuous ongoing process.

[Considering an SDR Virtual Assistant?]

Back to top

Recommendations for Improving Sales Development Effectiveness

Business models must change and adapt gradually overtime to stay afloat. Your business, as it exists now, will look different 10 years from now. Therefore, your current activities must be oriented toward what the future holds for your present company and others like it.

1. The first thing we recommend you do when considering sales development effectiveness is to define your goals.

You’ll need to focus on measurable and trackable outcomes. Business models must change and adapt gradually overtime to stay afloat. Your business, as it exists now, will look different 10 years from now. Therefore, your current activities must be oriented toward what the future holds for your present company and others like it.

2. The second step to ensure continual improvement to your operation is to hire the right people for your sales team. You should aim to recruit people for their talent, over their skills. Find those who are trustworthy, hard-working, and have a strong sense of responsibility.

For long-term success, the purpose of sales development personnel must be considered.

If employees are frantically running around trying to get as many leads as possible so that they can close as many deals as possible, there is no time for quality. The problem, of course, is that this approach is counterproductive. The harder you push to close deals and get leads the more resistance you encounter from potential customers. This in turn reduces your conversion rate, which means that salespeople are getting fewer leads per hour than they were before.

In order to increase your sales, you should not be trying to force leads and close deals. Your company needs to develop a new business model based on value creation for the customer rather than profit generation for yourself.

Virtual Assistants for Sales Development

Consider virtual assistants (up to 70% less than the cost of a traditional employee) as your Sales Development Representatives. You can save time and focus on closing deals, while the assistants help handle prospecting, nurturing, and service.

Sales Development Reps – The True Catalysts in Business

See also:
How to determine & hire talent – Link
Who do I hire? – Link

3. The last step is to prepare several call scripts angles to best serve leads and land the sale.

You can do this best by referring to our Lead Motivation, Fit, and Timeframe Framework, below.

Back to top

Understanding Your Leads’ Motivations, Fit, and Timeframe

We’ve garnered a lot of experience about how best to prepare virtual professionals for sales development roles—and we have created a concrete system to ensure that you have success with yours too.

When leading prospective buyers through your nurturing processes, consider the lead’s motivations, fit, and timeframe.

Motivations:

Ask: What’s the reason for your call?
Locate the urgency of what they need in the tone of their voice
Figure out whether they are ‘in pain’ or ‘in opportunity’ while considering your product and service as a remedy to the issue.
Usual ‘pain’ responses:
- “I’m not reaching my goals”
- “I’m dropping the ball in some way. I’m overwhelmed.”
- “I’m losing a lot of opportunities, Can’t keep up with our leads or paperwork.”
Usual ‘opportunity’ responses:
- “My business has grown. I’ve had this opportunity”
- “We’re super busy. No time”
- “Have looked into this before and now I and ready”
- “I would like to learn more about how you can help me”
Quantify the pain or sense of opportunity. Is it motivated by time? money? growth?

Questions to ask:

What exactly is being missed/dropped and what is that costing you?
How much business are you losing, are you able to put a dollar amount around it?
How many hours are you spending on non-productive activities?
What are you leaving on the table, and how are missing those opportunities costing you?
If you could fix this problem today, what would that be worth to you?

The Fit:

Consider their responses and identify how your product and service and best serve (or best ‘fit’ into) your lead’s background & experiences.

This is the right time to deliver more value to the lead. If you have a free giveaway or resource, now is the time to offer it: “I have a free resource, can I send it to you?”

Timeframe:

Look into seeing their timeframe to buy. When the lead expresses interest, this is the time to figure out if they are considering other competitors and the urgency of responding to them.

Typical motivated responses:

“I’m talking to other companies right now, but I like you.”
“How soon can we buy?”
“I don’t need more calls. I just want to sign up”
“I already know how this works, I just want to sign up”

Typical not motivated responses:

“Not ready”
“Not sure”
“Exploring options”
“I want to see what you guys do”
“I don’t know how you can help me”
“Send me an email of what you guys do, pricing, list of your services”
“Doing research for future reference”
“Who else do you work with? Specifically around [area]”

If you’re far into the call and still unsure about the lead’s motivations, ask this question:

“On a scale of 1-10 on [the value you provide, i.e. buying a home], how much do you move quickly on this?”

[Considering a Virtual Assistant?]

Back to top

The last important key factor to good sales development is: You know what the best sales development is? The one which has the best product.

You want to generate leads? Then you must have a great, well-tested product for your target market. If you have a great product, and if you can explain it brilliantly, then people will want it. When you make it really easy for people to find your product, and then lead traffic will come to you. [Considering a Marketing Specialist Virtual Assistant?]

Example SDR Calls, Scripts & Recruitment Tips

We’ve compiled all the tips and strategies you need to easily recruit & implement the perfect Sales Development Representative. Focus on talent acquisition, time savings, and lowering overhead.

View and download our SDR resources guides, here.

ENVISIONING OF A NEW REALITY FOR YOUR BUSINESS

MyOutDesk proudly provides additional free business growth guides, books, and strategy calls.

Experience The Difference
MyOutDesk can save you up to 70% on employment costs
Claim a free business strategy consultation & ‘Grow Virtual’ Guide

See Also:

Marketing Virtual Assistants for Your SEO: Link

Explained: What is a virtual assistant? Link

November 4, 2020/by Jeremy

a candle bar chart showing a downward trend due to covid 19

It’s already July – Less foot traffic? Don’t Sacrifice Your Lead Flow

Cannabis & Legal Marijuana, Financial Planning, Healthcare, Human Resources, Insurance, Marketing, MOD Virtual Assistants, Mortgage, Property Management, Real Estate, Technology, Vertical Markets

The virus scare still exists, and over half the year has passed. Just because foot traffic is still down, don’t sacrifice your lead flow. Virtual assistants are the missing gear.

It’s already July, yet new reports share how the number of new Covid-19 cases continues rising at record levels.

Continue to Drive Revenue during COVID-19

Businesses are experiencing personnel and capacity issues due to the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis. We get it.

Less foot traffic? Don’t Sacrifice Your Lead Flow

How to increase lead flow & online traffic with virtual assistants

Awarded Top 1% US financial advisor Marvin Mitchell built an innovative inbound marketing MACHINE with a lead flow earning him over $3M in revenue last year alone.

This is how — he hired 2 MyOutDesk Virtual Assistants to prospect, nurture leads, and set appointments for him and his team to close.

“Because of one 15-minute appointment set by a MOD Virtual Professional…that one, landed client just paid for both virtual assistants for the rest of the year.”

MyOutDesk can save you up to 70% on employment costs with experienced, career virtual assistant professionals. To book an interview with those in our talent pool, click here.

Free ‘Grow Virtual’ Guide + Strategy Consultation

From local mandates to international ones — we can’t predict when travel & tourism will rebound. While Europe appears to be through the worst of it — at least for now — it’s interesting how the EU has a travel ban on the US.

Many US businesses are still affected by the pandemic — we’ve all noticed how decreased foot & vehicle traffic has created ghost towns among all US cities. Meanwhile, the EU has recommended that its member states can now allow entry to 15 countries (but not the US): Algeria, Australia, Canada, China, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay. (Source)

By picturing this global impact, it’s important to understand how to virtualize your the core of your business and lead a stable, pandemic-proof operation. You are one call away from saving time & closing more deals than you ever had.

Don’t do this alone, but with the MOD Family.

Free ‘Grow Virtual’ Guide + Strategy Consultation

July 6, 2020/by Jeremy

a business owner working on a smartphone with virtual icons phone message and email

6 Stages to a 7 Figure Business, Part 2 – Outbound Prospecting

Inside Sales, MOD Virtual Assistants, Scale The Series

In Real Estate, Residential Services, Health & Wellness, and many other industries, Circle Prospecting entails making calls to people within a specific geographic area and asking them for an appointment for a consultation. It is one of the easiest methods of prospecting today. In addition, circle prospecting offers a unique niche market that you might not reach otherwise. Circle prospecting aims to grow your database and set appointments that you may later convert into revenue.

Do you need someone to focus on your circle prospecting and demographic building? A MyOutDesk Virtual Assistant can do that for you! Schedule your Double My Business Strategy Session Today to find out how.

Using the right-circle prospecting script is essential to getting those appointments set. In onboarding your ISA/Sales Development Representative (SDR), you should plan on 30-minute coaching and role-playing sessions each morning for the first 2 weeks. These sessions will enable your ISA/SDR to gain confidence in delivering the script and help with objection handling. ISA/SDRs typically are equipped with a script that enables you to target neighborhoods where you have had success, i.e., draw a circle around the area you just closed a deal.

Demographic Dialing works the same way as circle dialing, but you target using other attributes such as age, income, or gender.

For those looking to build an SDR team, virtual professionals integrated with multiple channels such as email, SMS, social media, and the phone are a winning strategy. Start with a repeatable cadence across multiple channels to nurture leads and give SDRs the actionable data they need to reach prospects in context. While your process can and should be optimized over time, a perfect sequence of automated emails will never replace real-time insights on buyer behavior that allow SDRs to create a meaningful relationship with their prospects.

An SDR’s secret weapon is its own time. As a result, an SDR can do what marketing automation can’t; namely, they can take the time to research prospects and then reach out with hyper-relevant messages.

An SDR also has the advantage of using channels that can’t be automated, such as phone calls and social media actions. However, we know it takes several touches to convert a lead, and strategies that use four or more channels are 300% more effective.

February 12, 2020/by Abby